So what’s in store for the auto dashboard of tomorrow?

It may not be whatever’s on the drawing board in Detroit (or in the picture above).

It may really be whatever’s in your pocket.

So says venture capitalist John Backus:

In-car electronics, standalone GPS, satellite radio, seatback DVD players and HD radio will quickly disappear, replaced only by the smartphone powering a dumb screen on the dashboard.

In other words, argues Backus, YOU are the new dashboard.

And when he says all these technologies will “quickly disappear,” he’s talking about them as unique and distinct technologies.  He’s not talking about their content or their value propositions.

For example, all of these elements are potential “apps” that can be powered from your pocket.  Satellite radio will not necessarily disappear, but we will not need the satellite to hear it.  We will watch seatback videos, but from our mobile devices.  And HD radio…well, let’s just say the Internet provides a multitude of audio content possibilities.

May the best content win.  May MY content win.

Backus is not alone in this prognostication.  I hear much the same thing from Slacker and DAR.fm’s Michael Robertson, with whom I had a very surprising chat that I’ll share with you in a few days.

The one thing this perspective misses is that automakers are using in-dash technology to sell cars, and providing a “dumb screen” may give the consumer what she wants, but it will not differentiate one car from the next or contribute to incremental sales in a world where everyone’s in-dash screen is “dumb.”

Thus I expect some hybrid future where a “somewhat dumb screen” will have enough embedded intelligence to set apart one make or model from another. Especially as the dash (something which has largely been a commodity over the years) becomes a prime selling point for new cars.

That’s despite what will be a rising chorus of complaints from consumers that “my car ships with crapware” (a great rant from Scott Hanselman):

The Toyota Prius V that we just bought comes with a system called Entune. This is a little computer in the dash itself that includes Applications (yes, applications) like Bing Search, Pandora, Traffic and others. I’ve got a dual-core internet connected super-computer in my pocket and you can get one yourself for $99 at AT&T but my new car includes an underpowered, low-resolution, low-memory tiny computer of its own. It would have made far too much sense for them to spend the money on an awesome 6″ or 7″ screen that mirrored the phone.

It is an absolutely inexorable trend, this steady drift towards customization and consumer control.

And the best way for broadcasters to be on the right side of this trend is to embed aspects of customization and consumer control across our product platforms. After all, what is a simple in-car “button punch” but a display of customization and consumer control?  Fight this trend at your peril.

Note that nowhere here have I commented on the long-term fate of the good old-fashioned “radio dial” – the ability to receive all your local radio stations on that quasi-dumb screen.

That’s because I don’t see the local radio options going anywhere anytime soon.  The lure of familiarity and habit will be too great – for those generations who have the familiarity and habit, that is.

Will in-car audiences drift to all the attractive baubles that their mobile devices can power on those “dumb screens”?  You bet they will. But this will be a loss of radio listening time, not a rejection of radio altogether.

How will radio make up that loss?

Not with its same few brands repurposed on apps on a virtual store shelf thousands of entertainment options larger, that’s for sure.

You can’t make up that loss of listening.  You can only make up any losses of revenue by deepening your relationships with consumers and advertisers in the markets your brands uniquely serve.  Make up that revenue and grow it. More value, more choice, more customization, more control, more ways for consumers to get more “into” your brands and more brands for them to get “into.”

One radio station begat a “cluster” of stations.  Now you will have a “cluster” of assets which together constitute your brand portfolio.

You’re not in the radio business.  You’re in the relationship business.

Get used to it.

Recently I was the guest of honor on a call for digital players in the Christian radio space hosted by Chris Laney of Digital Frontiers Media.

Among the questions:

• Most major research companies state that by 2015, more then 80% of first time traffic to a website will be via mobile. How do you think radio is doing with developing strategic action plans regarding mobile and in particular Christian radio?
• I am sure you hear this as much as I do that stations feel like they “need” a mobile app? Have you found that the mobile app market is becoming saturated and what stations or things have you seen made things stick out above others?
• One of the biggest issues regarding Christian radio when developing a strategic digital strategy is finances. Many are listener supported and don’t think they have the money to invest in the digital realm. Do you believe we are well past thinking about it and it should be a must and how do we convince some of these old school radio people that think its a waste of money?
• How great is the potential for digital advertising if done right? Success stories?
• If there was one thing you think that Christian radio is lacking behind Mainstream radio, what is it?

Although this conversation is focused on Christian radio it is relevant for any format.  Check it out.

And especially enjoy the part where I point out that every household already has an average of two radio mobile apps – both in their driveway.

Sharable version:

Alternate version:

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What’s the best way to develop new talent?

Is it to steal from the switchboard and upgrade to sidekick?

Is it to place a blind ad in an industry trade?

Is it to hire or voice-track a good-enough talent from another market where that talent’s awareness in this market is zero?

You could steal somebody from across the street.

Or you could do what Phil Becker did.

Phil went to the Internet.

But he didn’t recruit just anybody.  He went for the locally-based YouTube talent who already has an audience and a following – over 250,000 YouTube subscribers and more ethan 100,000 Twitter followers to be exact.

And she’s 16 years old.

Phil is GM/Director of Content for Oasis Radio Group and his new talent, Andrea Russett, is the newest star at Oasis’s HOT 107.9 in Fort Wayne, IN.

Watch this chat with Phil about what his team did and just how well it’s working:

Prefer audio?  Try this:

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(You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else.  You can also get advance notice of this content if you “like” MRM on Facebook or follow me on Twitter).

I am amazed that more broadcasters have not already done this.  Internet celebrities live in every market in the country and few would reject a decent radio gig.

The talent gets more exposure – especially more local exposure – and a new audience.  The station gets more exposure, too – and offers something worth talking about for every current and potential listener who thinks that they, too, could one day become famous.

Well done, Phil.

(An aside:  If you pay close attention you will notice something important: Andrea doesn’t have a “website.”  She has multiple digital platforms unified by the “brand” which is Andrea herself.  Broadcasters could learn a lot from this 16-year-old).

“A display ad on Facebook is a lifeless emotionless waste of marketing dollars.”

That’s how one radio industry analyst colorfully put it.

Although one might ask exactly where isn’t a simple “display ad” a “lifeless emotionless waste of marketing dollars”?  And just how emotion-packed and full of life is a Google ad?  Yet that would hardly be called a “waste.”

The debate over the wisdom or foolishness of advertising on Facebook is wrong-headed and self-serving and replete with too much premature chest-thumping and grave-dancing.

So GM drops a chump-change investment in Facebook advertising in favor of a much larger investment in the brand and customer management power of Facebook.  Granted, Facebook makes money from the former, not the latter, but that’s Facebook’s problem and Facebook’s fault.  Facebook didn’t do a good job servicing the needs of this client, and so they got “fired.”  That says less about the “effectiveness” of Facebook overall than about the dynamics of this particular relationship.  Haven’t you ever lost a client?  Does it mean your brand doesn’t work for advertisers?

I would bet all the money I have that GM will be back advertising on Facebook. In a different way, at a different time, and quite probably under the direction of a different agency.  But they’ll be back.  And what should radio conclude then?

We need to stop dismissing popular competitors for advertiser attention and start learning from them.

This morning on MSNBC Joe Scarborough was chuckling about how nobody clicks on Facebook ads.  Well nobody clicks on Morning Joe ads either – nor on your TV spots, but that isn’t so funny, is it, Joe?

The larger puzzle is not whether Facebook ads work, it’s whether or not brands want to spend their money in advertising or in marketing. Confuse the two at your peril.

The marketing dollars invested in Facebook by GM are growing even as the ad dollars are shrinking.  That tells us marketing dollars on Facebook are working for GM even if the company momentarily concludes that ad dollars aren’t.

Today, brands can be their own media platforms, and in that audience playground mediated by platforms like Facebook, the best ad dollar spent may be the one tagged “marketing.”

Are you helping your clients market or helping them advertise?

Value to clients is about more than running ads.  And value to consumers is about more than simply playing music.

That’s the new world of radio today.

No longer is there a “sales side” or a “programming side.”  Nowadays there’s only one “side” and it’s the “value side.”

Value to clients and consumers at the very same time – mediated by your brand.

In the digital space, its all about value – not about interruptive ads stuck in the middle of valued content. In many ways, the client’s content IS the valued content. Watch this brief overview of the “value side” and why it’s the only side any of us should be on.

The video is part of a live Q&A with Federated Media managers hosted by Federated’s James Derby (thanks to Federated and to James for a great conversation).

Watch:

Prefer audio?  Try this:

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(You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else.  You can also get advance notice of this content if you “like” MRM on Facebook or follow me on Twitter).