A once obscure and meaningless reference in a movie sequel has spurred tee shirt sales, conspiracy theories, and a seize-the-moment marketing campaign by Pepsi.

How can you get people to willingly pay $20.15 for a bottle of pop?  Simply connect the mythical date Marty McFly arrived in the future to the mythical soda Pepsi Perfect.

This marketing campaign is fueled by a real psychological phenomena called Baader-Meinhof, which states that whatever you notice grows in importance.

“It’s caused by two psychological processes. The first, selective attention, kicks in when you’re struck by a new word, thing, or idea; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often.  The second process, confirmation bias, reassures you that each sighting is further proof of your impression that the thing has gained overnight omnipresence.”  Pacific Standard

You’re shopping for a red convertible with leopardskin seat covers and you begin to see them everywhere.   You want a tattoo of the Donald on your trump and you begin to notice tattoo parlors on every street corner on Palm Beach.

In my journeys I regularly overhear conversations at radio stations about things we deem important simply because we notice them.  We then invest attention and they become more important still.  I could list some of them here but you’d call me a liar and say rude things about me.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”  Albert Einstein

They could have just advertised the movie. The equivalent of “here’s what it’s about, give us your money, go to the theaters!” Our radio stations do that all the time!

Instead, gave us a way to put ourselves in the movie.

As we try to come up with ideas about how to get our listeners to do what we want them to do, perhaps we can learn a thing or two from this campaign. “Create a character” isn’t about the movie. It’s about YOU!

Roy Williams says, “We buy what we buy to remind ourselves – and tell the world around us – who we are… We’re attracted to reflections of ourselves.”

Thousands of these cartoons will be posted on line or sent to friends and not once was anyone asked to promote the movie. And yet they did.

“It’s not what a product does that matters to us so much, it’s how we socialize around it that matters.” Hugh MacLeod

I met a guy at the health club this afternoon and now he’s my best friend ever.  Just like that!

Silly, of course. We all know that relationships don’t happen instantly. I reckon’ some of the deepest relationships in your life are those you’ve had the longest.

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”  2 Corinthians 9:6 NIV

The ratings are down! What happened? The fundraiser was off! What’s wrong?

“People are drawn to black and white opinions because they are simple, not because they are true.  Truth demands serious effort and thought.”  Donald Miller

This weekend’s super moon lunar eclipse doesn’t just appear spontaneously.  There are numerous distinct phases; seasons, in a sense.  If we considered only the brief moment of the maximum eclipse at 10:48 pm (analogous to the snapshot of weekly ratings, perhaps?), we’d fail to notice that the partial eclipse began an hour and a half before.  Or more importantly, that the seemingly simple occurrence of the Earth’s shadow passing across the moon was a result of a much more amazing and miraculous trajectory.  God’s bigger plan, don’tchaknow!

Many radio stations operate as if there is no bigger plan, viewing their success (and worse, making their decisions) based only in terms of that singular 10:48pm moment in time fundraiser or ratings report card.

We ran this contest and didn’t see the results in the next weekly ratings!

We went all Christmas music and didn’t see an increase in listenership right away.

“There’s always a delay between planting and harvest. When you plant a seed in the ground, do you get an ear of corn the next day?  Of course not.  You plant in one season, and you harvest in another.”  Rick Warren

The success of your radio station will be determined by sowing the seeds of sound strategic principles and building relationships.  And relationships, counter to the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately navel gazing of weekly or monthly ratings, take time.

“A farmer has four sacks of seed in his barn and he looks at his empty field.  He doesn’t complain, ‘There’s no crop!  I wish there was a crop!’  He just goes out and starts planting seed.

When you have a need, plant a seed.” Rick Warren

I recently attended a church in another city that is very strategic about the things it does, the things it doesn’t do, and how it communicates.  As a result, more and more people are being drawn to that church resulting in additional services, building facilities, and three satellite campuses.

Most Christian radio stations aren’t growing their audiences at all. In fact, it is the format with more stations and fewer listeners than any other format, according to our buddies at Nielsen.

Growing stations are ones that are purposeful about everything they do. Here’s a suggestion on how you can evaluate your station.

Understand who you’re trying to communicate with.  John Maxwell says, “People are not persuaded by what they hear. They are persuaded by what they understand.”

The pastor at that church would never consider giving a message to preschoolers the same way as he does to seniors.  Nor would he consider communicating in the same way to the college crowd as to those in elementary school.

To be an effective communicator or an effective radio station you must understand who you are talking to.

Most stations get the “target demo” thing, but I’m suggesting it is also important to understand the life cycle of how people listen to your radio station.

Let’s pretend that your station has three main types of listeners -new listeners, casual longer term listeners, and fans.

New listeners are like window shoppers.  They aren’t very familiar with the music and may have a vague sense of what your station is about.  They don’t get the secret handshake.

Casual listeners tune to your station from time to time, perhaps when they are in a particular mood, but for some reason haven’t yet bonded with your station.  They don’t get the secret handshake either.  (Detect a trend?)

Your fans love the music and are the ones most likely to give you their opinions and get involved with station events or concerts. Since these are the only people we ever hear from we tend to make our programming decisions, particularly when we react to complaints, assuming that everyone thinks this way.  (Not even these folks get the secret handshake! ‘Reckon that’s why it’s called ‘secret’).

If you think about the scope of things on your station, it is a relatively simple exercise to determine which programming elements would most appeal to which group of listeners.  If your radio station isn’t growing its audience it is likely because your station isn’t consistent with the programming elements and presentation style that would most appeal to new listeners.

“If you do something remarkable, something new and something important, not everyone will understand it (at first).  Your work is for someone, not everyone.

Unless you’re surrounded only by someones, you will almost certainly encounter everyone.  And when you do, they will jeer.

That’s how you’ll know you might be onto something.” Seth Godin

Batten the hatches! Here comes another complaint!

When we hear criticism about our station we often react in a way that is absolute. There is a complaint about song and we are tempted to pull it from the playlist. A criticism of an air talent results in a scolding e-mail to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. A general manager once told me me he had so over-reacted to every complaint that his station had little worth listening to anymore.

Consider this.

Rather than react in absolutes where SOMETHING MUST BE DONE RIGHT THIS MINUTE, consider the complaint as if a customer in a restaurant had just asked for more salt. They are simply telling you how they would like prefer their food; not anyone else’s food – THEIR food. They are not suggesting that the restaurant should go out of business.

If you consider every element of your programming as seasoning in the context of an entire meal then it is easier to understand why some people prefer Tabasco, some ask for no onions, and others want a baked potato with nothing on it. None are absolute condemnations of the restaurant but are instead a result of the reality that those in a group still have individual tastes.

If something is so distinct that people actually notice and react to it, it could be one of the most useful tools in building a unique brand.

“When people care about a brand or a cause or an idea, it’s likely that have other things in common. And the caring causes them to invest attention. Once they’ve done that, they can’t help but notice that others don’t see things the way they do. We ignore the great unwashed and reserve our disdain for those like us, that care like us, but don’t see things as we do.

The really good news is that the tribe cares. If you don’t have that, you’ve got nothing of value. In fact, the squabbling among people who care is the first sign you’re on to something.” Seth Godin

More salt, anyone?

On last week’s show I shared that there are two kinds of people in radio stations; those that fear change, and those that thrive on it.

But change is happening all the time whether we notice or not.   10,000,001 chromosomes fall off an average 49 year old man’s head every time he brushes his teeth.*

The old Yankee Stadium was opened in 1923 and was immediately nicknamed “The House That Ruth Built” because of the Babe’s popularity.  Yankee Stadium hosted 33 World Series and became an icon of sports arenas all over the world.

In 2009, the wrecking ball destroyed this beloved ballpark.  But a funny thing.   There were no protests, petitions or picket signs.  Few rants on social media about the passing of a legacy.

How could this be?

“The most ineffective way to begin a conversation about change is to talk about what needs to change.”

Few were upset because the Yankees immediately directed everyone’s attention to what was to be via a high tech 3-D website where fans could actually experience the beautiful new ballpark before it was even built.

Fans could go online and see the upper deck frieze replicated from the old stadium, the monuments in center field, and the view of the subway trains beyond the right field bleachers.

In other words, fans could experience the good things from the old ballparks, but with comfier seats, roomier concourses, concession stands with more (and more expensive) goodies, and, eeh gad!, toilets that actually flushed!   They could also rent one of 33 new luxury suites at more than $100,000 per season, thank you mighty much!

“You should never begin a conversation about change by addressing where you are now.  You should ways begin with where you want to be.  When you begin a conversation about change by discussing what needs to change you generally begin with something that someone is emotionally invest in.  That’s a recipe for failure.” Andy Stanley

“There is an inexorable link between an organization’s vision and it’s appetite for improvement.” Andy Stanley

What vision of the future are you casting to your team?

* Darn spell checker.  Please substitute ‘follicles’ and ‘hair’.

This Frost Advisory is the first of two parts. Just trying to change things up.

There are two kinds of people in radio stations. Those that fear change, and those that thrive on it.

In my 40+ years in radio, no one has ever invited me in and said, “…but don’t change anything.” No air talent has ever been hired and told, “but don’t change anything the previous jock did.” Not changing is never the goal. But it’s often the outcome.

Those that fear change don’t realize a truth – that things are changing all the time, regardless of our efforts to not change.

My cousin Dan once told me, “If you want a white post to remain white, you have to paint it white again and again.” My cousin Dan says nifty stuff like that all the time, don’tcha know.

To keep your hair the same length you have to cut it.

To keep your kitchen the same, you have to wash the dishes and put them away.

To keep a calendar current, you have to tear off pages.

Every day the sun rises. Every evening the sun sets. And where I live on the globe that’s about four minutes different from the day before.

Lack of change is an illusion. Once you understand that even to stay the same you have to change, change changes from a threat to an opportunity.

On next week’s show I’ll delve into why change can seem so daunting and what we can do about it. And if you’ve already guessed that it has something to do with “National Cat Hair Day”, you may be right.

“You saved my life,” she said. I moved a little closer to hear.

I was eavesdropping on a conversation between my friend Tyler and a listener (hereafter referred to as a P1) who had heard Tyler share on the air about getting a mammogram. The listener, er-P1, was prompted to do likewise and discovered the early stage of breast cancer. Tyler had, in fact, played a role in saving her life.

That listener, er- P1, could have told Tyler that she really loved “This Day in History” at 7:35 every morning (“National Belly Button Lent Day”, dontcha know), or that she enjoyed the no-repeat workday marathon with no talk, or that she really enjoyed the talk over bed on the new weather jingle. But what this listener, er-P1, was reacting to was not some programming tactic (although there is nothing wrong with that to quote the great philosopher Seinfeld), but rather to Tyler sharing something meaningful and relevant to that listener’s life.

In our PPM navel-gazing we allow ourselves to be lured into assuming our listeners’ life choices are driven almost exclusively by what we do in our tiny 12 x 12 studio. We lose our perspective of listeners as real people, their humanness diminished to nothing more than a statistic. They become a P1; nothing more. Which reminds me of a recent grocery store run where I saw the stock boy so focused on loading shelves that he didn’t notice he was blocking people’s way. In other words, he was so busy with the task at hand that he lost perspective of why the customers were there in the first place.

How’s this for a humbling statistic?

Nielsen data indicates heavy radio listeners, er-P1s, only spend 6% of their waking time with their favorite station. Six percent, gulp. And those are the heavy listeners.

It is impossible to finagle your way into that 6% of waking hours by becoming less meaningful. The hand-wringing effort we make to strip down our radio stations in an effort to imprint one additional data point can only result in becoming what my friend Mark Ramsey refers to as “no one’s favorite I-Pod”.

Play lots of music? Of course! Be efficient with talk? Certainly! Discipline is imperative.

But consider this:

The impact of our format could be transformed if we paid more attention to being a part of saving lives than saving quarter hours.

I’ve met people who know how to do both!