While we're using search marketing to bring the advertiser to the interested query at ICMediaDirect.com our iconic locale, the Empire State Building, brings the outlandish to our doorstep. It wasn't a man in an ape suit that startled me at lunchtime two Fridays ago, but a
handful of Swack pack wannabes milling through the lobby screaming SBaba Booey! instead. It had been Howard Stern's final broadcast on Sterrestrial radio and there was a nearby parade, of sorts, to celebrate. The King Of All Media was calling it a day and marching off into an embarrassingly rich sunset. This KOAM is bein.compensated for his past Sterrestrial excellence in a new medium that doesn't need him well, not at half a billion dollars, anyway.
Howard Stern, a champion, a king even, of traditional radio, has fully inserted his show into a stratified channel of new media by signing with Sirius Satellite Radio. He's left the old ways behind. Sirius, the lesser of two players in the satellite radio arena, sells their own proprietary hardware and charges a monthly fee for its service. This new format offers an extensive selection of ad-free programming with nationwide reception. Like any other form of new media, satellite radio ultimately owes its existence to recent advances i.computer science.
We're fully immersed in new media at ICMediaDirect.com, a full service online advertising agency, and we're keenly aware of the benefits and limits of our chosen milieu. Take, for instance, our search division it enables advertisers to reach users who've indicated some relevant interest in a product or service. As a provider of search we'd certainly want more volume, but we are aware that the value of search is in the quality and not quantity of the business we conduct. ICMediaDirect.com will ensure that the purveyor of hand knit cardigans for pets will reach his eclectic customer base instead of trying to foist dog sweaters on the Internet at large. Thanks to advances in search, only those looking to dress their darling Fifi for the cold winter months will be shown these ads. New media allows added depth and subtlety in reaching customers.
Howard Stern, on the other hand, can sell Snapple or Vermont Teddy Bears to the nation, not an unimpressive skill by any means. Advertisers love his show. He's done such a good job, in fact, that he's been awarded a half-billion dollar contract to sell the Sirius brand. His value to Sirius is his name only, not the performance of his show. (His show, too, will supposedly continue to pitch products. And they said cable TV would be the end of televisio.commercials, right? Either way, those ads will not begin to recoup $500 million.) The only ones who will hear him are the ones already sold. Say what you will about the merits of satellite radio, but putting Stern behind closed doors for paid admission only isn't a long-term growth scenario. On Tuesday, December 27, 2005 Sirius announced three million subscribers. This is great news for Sirius, they've made real headway and their stock popped a bit. The King Of All Media should take his bow now because he's played a large role in the ramp-up. But Stern's punch is a finite one that cannot snowball his broadcasting genius will be hidden from everyone who isn't already a Sirius subscriber. So how will he reach everyone else, outrageous stunts? Yahoo video streams? Headlines? How does Sirius know that second hand reports of Stern's impending shenanigans won't annoy more than attract? Talk about your dicey propositions.
Consider this adage of marketing: SNever let the public know that they can live without your product. Millions of less dedicated Stern fans and the uninitiated and those who don't care for him to begin with will learn to live without Howard Stern and it will not be difficult. I know from personal experience. I used to listen to him all the time, but missed a long spell for work reasons and never regained interest in his show again. Sirius is not an
