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Speaker 1: What's up on Laura Creni and I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to ad Landia post Thanksgiving holiday. We had a

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Speaker 1: good Thanksgiving holiday. We hope you all had a good

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving holiday. Our producer had a very good Thanksgiving holiday.

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Speaker 1: Big congrats is now fianced? Is that how you say it? Fianced?

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Speaker 1: Congratulations Ryan, Big congrats to Ryan and Ann And joining

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Speaker 1: us for this episode is Bob Pittman in our virtual studio.

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Speaker 1: And I think this is a note taker and it's

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Speaker 1: something that you probably want to like rewind I did

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Speaker 1: at least because what Bob talks about through his career,

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Speaker 1: he's a hit maker. He is the hit maker MTV

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Speaker 1: six Flags, A O L. I Heart, etcetera, etcetera, goes

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Speaker 1: on and on on. Bob talks in really simple terms

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Speaker 1: about things that are not simplistic, and so it's a

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Speaker 1: really good episode to truly think about what he's saying

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Speaker 1: and think about how this person has taken, you know,

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Speaker 1: media companies from nothing to a O L. I think

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Speaker 1: he said when he left was of the internet market

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Speaker 1: in the United States and definitely for all of us

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Speaker 1: a household name. I think this episode was very grounding

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Speaker 1: in terms of the practice and what we do. It

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Speaker 1: very clearly brings it back to the reason I got

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Speaker 1: into marketing in the first place, and that's to find

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Speaker 1: ways to connect with people and deliver on a need

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Speaker 1: through the power of communication. The constant push poll I

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Speaker 1: I was having as we were going through this conversation

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Speaker 1: was we've gotten so hung up on the delivery mechanism

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Speaker 1: that in some regards, I think we forget what we're delivering.

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Speaker 1: And when Bob breaks down to your point, Alexa, the

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Speaker 1: simplicity of putting a clear message in front of consumers

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Speaker 1: that delivers on that need and doing it over and

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Speaker 1: over and over again, and then you'll hear he says,

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Speaker 1: the most effective tactic we have is word of mouth.

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Speaker 1: Nothing that relies on technology or a platform or a channel.

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Speaker 1: It's the companionship in the communication and the connection and

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Speaker 1: the interaction that people have that moves them to take action.

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Speaker 1: It's what products today are built on. It is peer

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Speaker 1: to peer. It is putting the product at the center

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Speaker 1: of a community. And I could not agree more. And

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Speaker 1: one of the things everything you said I agree with.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that I would punch out in

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Speaker 1: addition is that Bob wasn't saying, g RPS is the

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Speaker 1: way this is tried and true. He was actually saying,

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Speaker 1: question that break that that's breakable, But what you're talking

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Speaker 1: about that's unbreakable, and that I believe is what Bob

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Speaker 1: was talking about is solidified, almost re verified the work

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Speaker 1: that this industry and so many practitioners and listeners of

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Speaker 1: the show are doing. So before we give away the

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Speaker 1: whole interview, get out your notebooks. We're going to class

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Speaker 1: with Bob Pittman. But before we get to Bob, Laura,

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Speaker 1: we're joined here with our partners from Yield Come out

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Speaker 1: for part two of our four part series talking about

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Speaker 1: how to make attention actionable. We're here with Lisa Bradner,

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Speaker 1: GM of Analytics and Teddy Jotty, head of Product. So, Lisa, Teddy,

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Speaker 1: if making attention actionable is core to yield most value proposition,

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Speaker 1: how quickly are you acting on the signals that are

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Speaker 1: driving consumer attention? You'll know One of the ways that

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Speaker 1: we are able to make attention actionable is we are

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Speaker 1: sub fifteen minutes. So if we see somebody in a

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Speaker 1: session doing something, we can turn and act on that

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Speaker 1: in under fifteen minutes. We're continuing to work to push

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Speaker 1: that number down lower and lower. But I hear people

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Speaker 1: say real time, and what they mean is we're going

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Speaker 1: to batch process it and get back to you in

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours. That ain't real time, and that's often

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Speaker 1: not quick enough to really get the data year after.

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Speaker 1: So how are you competing in the marketplace in that

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Speaker 1: respect when we have so many different options, as you know,

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Speaker 1: media buyers to think about who we line up with

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Speaker 1: to target our audiences in the marketplace, how do you

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Speaker 1: think about the difference in coming to yield mo versus

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Speaker 1: potentially going to another data platform yield most points of difference?

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it really isn't our tagline about

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Speaker 1: making attention actionable. Uh. Number one, it's the breadth and

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Speaker 1: up of the data we collect. We're collecting over seventy signals,

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Speaker 1: a number of them proprietary to understand what's happening to

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Speaker 1: It's the real time tech that allows us to store

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Speaker 1: and process that data because a lot of people, even

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Speaker 1: if they could collect all that, they wouldn't be able

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Speaker 1: to process it in any kind of quick fashion. And

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Speaker 1: then three, it's the ability to optimize off of that right. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people talk about attention as

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Speaker 1: an index or kind of a you know you've got

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Speaker 1: more attention, yea, you've got less attention boo. We don't

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Speaker 1: look at it that way. We take that signals and say,

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Speaker 1: how do we optimize the media dollars you're spending right now?

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Speaker 1: We want to get you a bigger bang for your book.

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Speaker 1: We know that coming out of this year, cmos are

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Speaker 1: going to find their media budgets flat to cut and

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Speaker 1: their growth targets tend up. So they can't just anniversary

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Speaker 1: last year's media plan. We have a client say recently,

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Speaker 1: he said, how am I going to take my MM

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Speaker 1: them from two thousand and nineteen and apply it to

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Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty one when two and twenty happened

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Speaker 1: in between those rights. It's nonsensical. You can't go back

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Speaker 1: to that because we are in a very different world

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Speaker 1: and tell our listeners what m m M stands for

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Speaker 1: a Lisa market mixed modeling one of the classic old school.

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Speaker 1: So we'll look back six months and three years of

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Speaker 1: data and tell you that newspaper is the number one

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Speaker 1: channel to drive your business from here to attorney. It's

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Speaker 1: amazing that we're still talking about that it is it is.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense when you're saying that I can

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Speaker 1: actually turn a trigger signal to you in fifteen minutes,

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Speaker 1: when you think about fifteen minute turnaround time, I can't

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Speaker 1: help but think that puts yield Mo in the driver's

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Speaker 1: seat when it comes to not only making actionable decisions,

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Speaker 1: of course, but also finding opportunities or windows that present

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Speaker 1: contextual relevancy. We think about contextual all the time, and

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Speaker 1: for a couple of reasons, with the death of the

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Speaker 1: third party cookie, audiences are just going to be harder

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Speaker 1: to find and follow across the open web, really across everywhere.

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Speaker 1: But also we believe that we may be over analyzing

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Speaker 1: and overspending on all the audience layers to get to

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Speaker 1: what we're trying to get to. And so when we

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Speaker 1: think contextual, it's not just oh, you're on a car

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Speaker 1: site looking at and we're going to serve you a

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Speaker 1: car ad It's about all the signals we can read

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Speaker 1: in that moment to say, who is this person, what

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Speaker 1: are they looking for, what are they reading, what's on

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Speaker 1: the page? Where on the page is that everything that's

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Speaker 1: going on, and understanding what they're signaling attention to can

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Speaker 1: help you serve the next ad and the next and

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Speaker 1: the next add and really understand in that decision tree,

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Speaker 1: should I go left or should I go right? But

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Speaker 1: I think Laura, the notion of versus reach and frequency

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Speaker 1: is interesting, right, we still need reach. Right, If you

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Speaker 1: are a billion dollar brand and you have to add

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Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars to your top line sales this year,

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Speaker 1: I might find you the perfect group of people who really, really,

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Speaker 1: really really care about your product. But if they're only

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Speaker 1: five of them, there's only there's only so much they

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Speaker 1: can buy. And this is for me where audience strategies

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Speaker 1: start to break down because we're so maniacally focused on No. No,

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Speaker 1: this is our audience. These are the people buying our product.

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Speaker 1: We want to help our customers find additional audiences that

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Speaker 1: they may be overlooking, find places that their audience strategy

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Speaker 1: may be missing because of data degradation, or just unveil

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Speaker 1: new opportunities for audiences they haven't thought of. But it

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Speaker 1: turns out our great opportunities for their products. I totally agree.

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Speaker 1: One of the biggest mistakes I see today advertisers make

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Speaker 1: is they um kind of overly obsess on audience strategies.

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Speaker 1: They spend all their money on platforms that they can

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Speaker 1: track users, they can measure, and it makes sense, especially

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Speaker 1: coming from a world where mixed media modeling or you know,

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Speaker 1: doing these big buys and waiting six months later to

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Speaker 1: see if it works super frustrating. So having the ability

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Speaker 1: to track and see how your returns come out is

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Speaker 1: a huge innovation. But the world is changing and um,

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Speaker 1: things are becoming less trackable and they're becoming more expensive.

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Speaker 1: So you know, browsers are limiting this because of privacy

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Speaker 1: controls and that's a good thing. And places like Facebook

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Speaker 1: are becoming super expensive for brands because you know, it

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Speaker 1: is trackable. Um And so I think that smart marketers

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Speaker 1: are taking a step back and realizing there there are

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Speaker 1: other strategies to achieve that reach and to get my

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Speaker 1: message out. And these strategies like contextual that can allow

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Speaker 1: you to infer an audience based on the content. And

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Speaker 1: it just feels better too, you know, And it's not

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Speaker 1: like a stroll or following you around the internet on

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Speaker 1: a you know, a sports side. It just feels more

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Speaker 1: appropriate when you're that you're reading content and the ad

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Speaker 1: just looks like it should be there um and and

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Speaker 1: combine that with with AT tension analytics, the ability to

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Speaker 1: see in real time, does this add resonate with the user?

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Speaker 1: That can be a very powerful strategy that's future proof

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Speaker 1: and works um potentially better and um and and more

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Speaker 1: scalable than than traditional audience buying. Lisa Bradner, Teddy Jwadi

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Speaker 1: from yield Mo, thank you for being our partners, Thank

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Speaker 1: you for coming on Atlantia, thank you for having us.

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Speaker 1: And we're back with chairman and CEO of I Heart Media.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Bob Pittman. Hi, Bob, thank you

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Speaker 1: glad to be here. Laura and I were looking through

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Speaker 1: your career and we were thinking through this and we're like,

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Speaker 1: how did he make the bets he made? You know?

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Speaker 1: I think careers and most of life is getting hit

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Speaker 1: on the head with meteors uh that things just sort

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Speaker 1: of pop up. And I think the difference that people

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Speaker 1: have is whether you say yes or know. And I'm

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Speaker 1: always up for a big adventure and so a lot

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Speaker 1: of the things I did at the time seem to

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Speaker 1: make no sense, but they all turned out fine. And

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Speaker 1: but I'm very careful. I will only go do something

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Speaker 1: that has something to do with a consumer because I

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Speaker 1: think my basic skill set is that I that I

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Speaker 1: focus on and understand consumers. When I was younger, I

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Speaker 1: I claimed I was a sociologist. And so you know,

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Speaker 1: whether I'm trying to sell them a house, or sell

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Speaker 1: them a pay TV service, or get them to listen

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Speaker 1: to watch MTV or by a O L, it's all

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Speaker 1: the same human being and the same laws of consumer

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Speaker 1: behavior are at work. And I think if you understand

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Speaker 1: those then it allows you a great flexibility of of

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Speaker 1: you know, jumping to a lot of different situations. Do

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Speaker 1: you think that marketers today need to be more sociologists

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Speaker 1: or less sociologists in the consumer space? Yeah, it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: I do a podcast called Math and Magic and it's

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Speaker 1: and I've always talked about programming and marketing as math

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Speaker 1: and magic the perfect blend of it. You have to

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Speaker 1: have the analytics, you have to understand what the table

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Speaker 1: looks like, you understand what the framework is. But you know,

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Speaker 1: if I tell you, oh, I know exactly who this

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Speaker 1: person is, I've found them all you Okay, Now what

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Speaker 1: are you gonna do? How are you going to motivate them?

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Speaker 1: Just because you found them doesn't mean you can motivate them.

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Speaker 1: That's the magic. And I think you need both, and

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Speaker 1: I've tried to be a practitioner of both. I never

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Speaker 1: graduated from college, but I did do three years of

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Speaker 1: it and my major with social methods of research. And

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Speaker 1: I started my career in radio, and I was one

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Speaker 1: of the first radio programmers to use research. Before that,

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Speaker 1: it was sort of golden gut or I looked at

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Speaker 1: sales or the record companies told me what was a

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Speaker 1: good song? Are we listening to the request line? And

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Speaker 1: I started doing what we call call out research, and

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Speaker 1: we still do all these years later, for fifty years later,

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Speaker 1: still doing a variation of that, in which we survey

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Speaker 1: the consumer about what songs they like and how they

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Speaker 1: like them. The old days, it was do you love

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Speaker 1: it the like it? Do you like it so much that?

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Speaker 1: Or do you not neutral? Do you dislike it? Do

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Speaker 1: you dislike it so much you'll change the channel? Or

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Speaker 1: do you like it but tired of hearing it so much?

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Speaker 1: And and you know, from that we would develop how

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Speaker 1: you balance your music and put it together on a

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Speaker 1: radio station. And I did that always when I was

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Speaker 1: at a O l uh and every place I've been,

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Speaker 1: I concept, test everything, and I test my liners and

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you recall, but there was a

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Speaker 1: time at a o L when we went to unlimited

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Speaker 1: pricing and it was dial up and people got nothing

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Speaker 1: but busy signals, and we sort of had our J

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Speaker 1: and J Thailand all moment. We had one chance to

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Speaker 1: get it right and uh so we tested what would

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Speaker 1: work with the consumers, what did they believe about us,

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Speaker 1: what were they looking for, so that when we had

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Speaker 1: that one chance to make a statement, we'd say the

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Speaker 1: right thing. And and also helps define For example, at

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Speaker 1: at a o L, we understood two things about consumers.

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Speaker 1: They tend to want to go where everybody goes. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you to a new talent, you very quickly find

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Speaker 1: yourself saying where does everybody go to get there? Whatever?

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Speaker 1: And we their safety and going to number one. But

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Speaker 1: if you just say you're number one, it sounds braggadocious.

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Speaker 1: The other thing we knew was that what was we

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Speaker 1: saw and it was quite different than everyone else. We

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Speaker 1: didn't think this was about a keyness. We thought about

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Speaker 1: ease of use and the future is gonna be easy

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Speaker 1: to use. People as a slur said oh hey, oh well,

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Speaker 1: that's the internet with training wheels. They didn't understand that

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Speaker 1: was what the consumer wanted to hear, that it was easy.

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Speaker 1: So our our line became so easy to use, no

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Speaker 1: wonder it's number one. We can find both of those thoughts.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's a combination of math and magic.

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Speaker 1: That we understood the math of what they were looking

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Speaker 1: for and how they were there, and from that craft

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Speaker 1: at an approach which was okay, we're going to use

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Speaker 1: the easy, We're going to use the number one, pull

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Speaker 1: them together, tied the two together, and you know, as

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Speaker 1: you know, by the time I left a O L,

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Speaker 1: we have fift of the traffic of the inner at

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Speaker 1: in the United States. Went through all this concept of

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Speaker 1: math and magic. You know, in an industry as ours

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Speaker 1: where seemingly everyone has doubled down on data and in

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Speaker 1: many cases it's become sort of a commodity in many

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Speaker 1: regards and many people are using the same data. Can

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Speaker 1: you talk to us about the magic element? Where do

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Speaker 1: you go, Bob for the magic time and time again,

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Speaker 1: whether it was figuring out why MTV why then in

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Speaker 1: that moment, and what it would be to pivoting. You know, however,

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Speaker 1: many years now into my heart and being a mover

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Speaker 1: and shaker within the podcast industry. So it's a really

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Speaker 1: good question, and I think it's it does start with

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Speaker 1: me with the math part. And the math part is

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Speaker 1: not exactly the math that everybody uses today is not

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Speaker 1: just clicks and numbers. It's math of understanding what verbatims

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Speaker 1: people say when they're talking about something. For example, years

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Speaker 1: and years ago on as a radio programmer, we said

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Speaker 1: we play less commercials because that's gradically correct, and I go, yes,

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Speaker 1: but that's what everyone says. And so I think the

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Speaker 1: important thing is understand the language, Understand the way the

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Speaker 1: consumer frames the issue and what they're looking at, and

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Speaker 1: talk about it from their point of view, not from

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Speaker 1: our point of view about how we built it or

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Speaker 1: what we think it is as a professional. Um. And

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Speaker 1: and I think on the on the magic front, it

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Speaker 1: is really opening your mind. Um. I read some you know,

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Speaker 1: a great student of of creativity and and and you

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Speaker 1: know you read a lot. And I believe this that

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Speaker 1: you don't come to a creative idea by stepping through

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Speaker 1: some business school kind of points of view. And then

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Speaker 1: here's the answer that the way the way you get

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Speaker 1: the creative idea is you load your head with all

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Speaker 1: the information, you mull it over you and then you

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Speaker 1: forget about it, and one morning, when you're in that

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Speaker 1: alpha zone, when you're sort of almost awake or sort

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Speaker 1: of in and out of sleep in a way. Or

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Speaker 1: for me, it's when I'm taking a fifteen minute hot

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Speaker 1: shower in the morning and I'm just zoning out, ideas

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Speaker 1: pop in my head and it's a joke in my

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Speaker 1: family forever. I've run out of the shower and quick,

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Speaker 1: give me the pen and just write it all down.

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Speaker 1: It just appears in my brain. And because I know

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Speaker 1: that's how it comes. When I work with agencies, I

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Speaker 1: don't want the big presentation. I said, you really, just

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Speaker 1: save all those account people. I don't need to see them. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this will be a more more profitable account for you.

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Speaker 1: I want you to get about three or four different

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Speaker 1: teams to look at exactly the same stuff. Do not

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Speaker 1: have them talk to each other. Do not have someone

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Speaker 1: review their work to figure out what you're going to

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Speaker 1: present to me and then come and present it. And

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Speaker 1: what I'm doing is I'm maximizing the odds that one

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Speaker 1: of those people had the epiphany. And it's those epiphanies

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Speaker 1: that make the difference. You know. The line H A

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Speaker 1: O L so easy to use, no wonders Number one

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Speaker 1: turned out not to be the line the agency was suggesting.

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Speaker 1: It happened to be in a briefing note they had

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Speaker 1: about the line they wanted to create, and and and

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Speaker 1: as soon as I see it, that's it. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's Matt. When you see magic, you know it.

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Speaker 1: That I want my MTV came about because George Lois

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Speaker 1: and um and they open who is his partner, had

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Speaker 1: been promotions director at w NBC Radio with me who

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Speaker 1: I had given the account to to come up with

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Speaker 1: this idea of you know, how are we going to

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Speaker 1: advertise MTV? And we had this problem that the cable

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Speaker 1: operators didn't want to carry us and they wanted us

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Speaker 1: to pay the money. We didn't have it, so we

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Speaker 1: needed some way to use consumer pull to get the

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Speaker 1: consumer to to demand it. And they had originally this

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Speaker 1: this uh commercial of America's becoming a land of cable

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Speaker 1: brats and blah blah blah blah blah, and in there

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Speaker 1: it said call your cable company and say I want

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Speaker 1: my MTV. Well wait a minute, that's that's the line

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Speaker 1: I want my MTV let's read craft. So to me,

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Speaker 1: it's alla is this iterative process that you can edit,

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Speaker 1: you can play with, but it starts with that creative epiphany.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you look back over your career. Were you

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Speaker 1: doing these big, swinging innovations or was it more incremental

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Speaker 1: innovation building on itself. I never thought I was doing

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Speaker 1: anything big. People have said I was a disrupted I

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Speaker 1: never thought it was disrupting anything. I thought I was

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Speaker 1: simply solving a need. Okay, I can identify we need this,

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Speaker 1: let's go do that. We need this, let's go do that.

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Speaker 1: The consumer wants this, let's serve that. But I never thought, wow,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to disrupt everything. I just thought I was

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Speaker 1: following consumers, or I was looking for a solution to

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Speaker 1: a particular issue. I did a Math and Magic episode

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Speaker 1: with Fred Cybert, who did the on air look for MTV,

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Speaker 1: which at that moment in time, you guys are too

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Speaker 1: young to remember, was the what was this incredible breakthrough look?

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Speaker 1: But the reason we did the look, as Fred and

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Speaker 1: I explored, was because we didn't have the money to

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Speaker 1: do what everybody else was doing, which was looked like

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Speaker 1: Star wars logos, you know, coming from outer space, like

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Speaker 1: the intro to Star Wars. Um So Fred hit upon

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Speaker 1: the idea, said, you know, Bob, if we do our

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Speaker 1: version of that, we don't have much money, so ours

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Speaker 1: will look cheap. But if we do something entirely different

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Speaker 1: than no one's ever seen before, then it will just

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Speaker 1: look creative. And and he was right, And that's what

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Speaker 1: led us to do such a radically different look was

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Speaker 1: because we didn't want to look like anything else, so

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Speaker 1: we couldn't be compared. And people realize we were spending

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Speaker 1: ten of what our competitors were spending and creating that.

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Speaker 1: Do you think marketers today ask the simple question that

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Speaker 1: you just asked, what is the need? Because I you know,

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Speaker 1: I talked to marketers all the time, and we've overcomplicated,

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Speaker 1: and we've also and we've also naval geys to a

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Speaker 1: point where we don't we can't even ask the simple questions.

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Speaker 1: I have a pretty strong opinion on it. I'm a

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Speaker 1: research guy. I love data. Um, I think we've gone

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Speaker 1: way too far. And I talked to marketers and they're

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Speaker 1: I've got I want to target. I want to go

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Speaker 1: to the target. And you look at every bit of

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Speaker 1: the research and I pull this out for people to

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Speaker 1: see sometimes because you get a little lost I go.

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Speaker 1: You do realize, of course, that most of your buyers

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Speaker 1: are not in your target audience. If you think about

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Speaker 1: the target audience and about all the research supports, that

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Speaker 1: target audience means you have a high density of buyers

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Speaker 1: within this group, but most of your buying is done

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Speaker 1: outside the target. So when you super target to this

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Speaker 1: target that you've figured out, you've eliminated everybody else. If

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Speaker 1: you look at people, if you look at the results

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Speaker 1: of companies, and then let's go back to like two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eight, two thousand nine, ten years ago, and

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Speaker 1: they shifted their money tremendous amount of money to to

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Speaker 1: digital and social where they could absolutely target most of

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Speaker 1: those companies. Almost all those companies had stagnant sales, stagnant revenue,

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Speaker 1: no revenue growth. And how they're doing all this super

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Speaker 1: targeting and missing everybody else. I look at the example

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Speaker 1: of Mark Pritchard at PNG, which is I mean, guys,

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Speaker 1: she's such a smart guy, and he you know, they

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Speaker 1: cut out radio and outdoor almost disappeared from PNG. I think,

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Speaker 1: I think, you know, they weren't even in the top

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Speaker 1: two hundred three or four years ago in radio, and

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Speaker 1: suddenly Mark looks at he needs to cut back his

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Speaker 1: marketing spend. If you remember this moment in time, sales

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Speaker 1: have been somewhat stagnant, and so Mark, unlike most people,

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Speaker 1: say well, it's gonna cut everything. Ten Mark really looked

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Speaker 1: at everything any any any you know, if you mean

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Speaker 1: conversations with him, and he said it publicly to um,

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Speaker 1: you know, he'll said, well, let's see where where did

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Speaker 1: we take our money for before and how well did

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Speaker 1: that perform? And wait a minute, now that I really

408
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Speaker 1: look at it closely, a lot of those digital's not performing.

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Speaker 1: I think the number one he took two hundred million

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Speaker 1: out of digital put money back into radio and outdoor.

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Speaker 1: And I don't remember you know, you know remember this,

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Speaker 1: But as soon as he did that, his sales took off.

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Speaker 1: And I think they had something like five or six

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Speaker 1: record quarters of sales. And he moved from not even

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Speaker 1: being in the top two hundred radio advertisers. So I

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Speaker 1: think he was number one or number two last year.

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Speaker 1: And uh and and you know what if you find,

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Speaker 1: of course with radio, is that yes, it hit his target.

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Speaker 1: But and he only paid for the target, but he

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Speaker 1: actually got everybody else. And I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: companies forgot that in the broader reach media, that you

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Speaker 1: paid for the target, but you got this extra for free.

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Speaker 1: So people really did hear about it when we went

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Speaker 1: to digital. And by the way, I started all this

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Speaker 1: at a oh well, we convinced people to come to

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Speaker 1: digital advertising. But the problem with digital advertising, it's very

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Speaker 1: powerful in many ways, but the problem with it is

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Speaker 1: you only get the target and no one else. Here's

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Speaker 1: your message. You've gone dark with those other people. I

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Speaker 1: remember when around six Flags steam Parks. When I got

431
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 1: to the company, this company was stalled at about seventeen

432
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,480
Speaker 1: million in attendants, have been for twenty years. And as

433
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,359
Speaker 1: we began to look at it, we looked at the

434
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,440
Speaker 1: markets and they say, well, we really get a high

435
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 1: density of buyers from the market and what they called

436
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,760
Speaker 1: the outer market. They said, well, we don't advertise out

437
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: there because it's hard to reach those people. But I

438
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 1: looked at it and it was like that was all

439
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 1: the growth and the growth potential of the company. We're

440
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 1: already fully penetrated internally. So I figured out ways to

441
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 1: do cheaper advertising, some national advertising and things like that,

442
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: which reached this outer market which they said wasn't quote

443
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: unquote efficient, and we took the Now we did some

444
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,920
Speaker 1: other things too, but we took the attendance from seventeen

445
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: million to twenty five million, and and it was unlocking

446
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 1: these people that by mark geting rules that didn't work.

447
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,840
Speaker 1: I also did something there which I bought a ridiculous

448
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 1: weight level. I bought fifteen hundred grips a week, hundred

449
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: a week, almost impossible to get. We were the number

450
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 1: one advertiser in every market. And we did this for

451
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 1: about ten weeks in seven markets. And my agency said, Bob,

452
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: you're wasting your money. I go why? They said, your

453
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: twelve plus frequency is not increasing? And I go, what

454
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: about my twenty plus frequency? What about my thirty plus? Freaks?

455
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:32,879
Speaker 1: Who said twelves the magic number? And what I wanted

456
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: people to do with buying the silly frequency was we

457
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:41,680
Speaker 1: were a tarnished dead product. I wanted people to think

458
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,919
Speaker 1: everybody was talking about six flags. So how did I

459
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: how was I going to accomplish that? If I bought

460
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: enough frequency, I knew that the consumer would get confused

461
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: and they would think every time I turned around, I'm

462
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: hearing about six flags, they think people are talking about it,

463
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 1: so they began talking about it. Then I primed the

464
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: pomp of word of mouth. And to me, that's the

465
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 1: most effective advertising get a conversation going today in marketing.

466
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: Still today, I don't think we win unless we're in

467
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,120
Speaker 1: the conversation. And I think every product has to get

468
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: people to talk about the product. I gotta be at

469
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,080
Speaker 1: that dinner table conversation. I have to have someone telling somebody.

470
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,360
Speaker 1: And so the way I used that there was massive

471
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: a frequency. And again I think a lot of these

472
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: tricks get lost from people saying and I've got precisely

473
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 1: seven point three clicks, it's going to be the magic number.

474
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 1: And I go, you're kidding yourself. You are It is

475
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: not that precise, and you you human brain and no

476
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: computer can capture all the variables that are necessary for success.

477
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: And when we try and do it, it's I promise

478
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: you a full's game. Um. And and so for us,

479
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:53,960
Speaker 1: for me as a marketer, yes, I want to know

480
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: all that information, but I'm realistic about what it can

481
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: do what it can't do. One of the things you know,

482
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 1: you're just alluding to to scale, and we know my

483
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: Heart reaches nine and ten Americans. But what we're really

484
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 1: enamored with is the audience relationship with the platform, with

485
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: the hosts, with each other, and thinking about, Bob, how

486
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,880
Speaker 1: close you are at the community level locally fifty stations

487
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,199
Speaker 1: around the country talk to us about the magic in

488
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:30,200
Speaker 1: power of local radio at scale. Sure, let me let

489
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 1: me spend one second, because I think it's poorly understood,

490
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: although I think you guys understand it pretty well. That

491
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:40,160
Speaker 1: you know, radio is unlike any other media. Most media

492
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: is about a program, a piece of information, a piece

493
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: of quote unquote content. Radio is not. Radio is companionship.

494
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: If you think about, well, your music, I said, of

495
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: our stations don't play music, how do you explain that? Uh?

496
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 1: And they and they say, well, I'm you know, I'm

497
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 1: hearing all my favorite songs. I go, I sort to

498
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 1: hear my favorite songs. You know. The minute we put

499
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: a a tape recorder, Availa Bullet to Uh, we could,

500
00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 1: we didn't have to listen to commercials anymore. And my

501
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,440
Speaker 1: own mixtapes. Uh, why did radio do so well? Why

502
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 1: is it continue to be big? It turns out, of course,

503
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: what radio is his companionship. We're keeping people company. We're

504
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: writing to work with them every day. In that empty seat,

505
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 1: that's Ryan Seacrest there. He's a really interesting person. He

506
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: makes your drive to work pretty interesting. Is if you

507
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 1: had a great, uh, you know, a buddy writing to

508
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: work with you. And so our job is to talk

509
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: to the listener as if we're their best friend, and

510
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: they should think they know us. Ryan Seacrest has this

511
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: wonderful stories he tells about how he knows he's working.

512
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: He said, if he's out with some stars TV, movie

513
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 1: stars and the and a fan sees them, he said,

514
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: they rush up to the movie star and they go, Wow,

515
00:28:57,240 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: can I get my picture taken with you? And then

516
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 1: they turned to Ryan and say, hey, would you take

517
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: my picture? They treat Ryan as their friend and the

518
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: movie star as a star. And he said, the minute

519
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: that changes, I'm dead. He knows it. And I think

520
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: the wonderful thing about radio and what we do is

521
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,760
Speaker 1: that we are having a conversation constantly with the consumer.

522
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,440
Speaker 1: They listen to the radio broadcast radio on an average

523
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: of about seven times during the day. They're always checking

524
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: in to see what's going on like they would with

525
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: a pal, and they're looking to us to give them

526
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 1: that relevant information. And for us, advertising is the This

527
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: is probably the most native medium for advertising, because what

528
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: does advertising tell you to do when it's done well,

529
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 1: it tells you what's out there. Uh, you know, I

530
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: don't think we as a as a as a concept.

531
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: I don't think we ever sell anybody anything. I think

532
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: what we do is we try and connect people, connect

533
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: people to a product they may like by explaining the

534
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: product in a way that they understand. And if someone's

535
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: using radio advertising, their goal ot to be either through

536
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: the weight level, through the creative they use where they

537
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 1: use it. They want to get the consumer talking about

538
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: the product. And I don't care what the product is.

539
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: There's everything hasn't has a conversation about it. If you're

540
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: clever enough, you'll figure out how to activate it. Are

541
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: the local stations kind of this hidden jewel that I

542
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 1: heeart has Do you think about that, especially in today's

543
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: world where people have scattered from cities, gone out to

544
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 1: the suburbs, the local community is really key, Like are

545
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 1: you thinking about using those local stations in a different

546
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: way or how important they are to the kind of

547
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: overall asset of I heart. It's really fifty brands absolutely.

548
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:47,120
Speaker 1: We we treat them by the way we treat the

549
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: eight hundred fifty brands, like Pixar treats their movie brands.

550
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: And our Pixar brand is iHeart Radio. And if people

551
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,959
Speaker 1: know one of our radio stations at an iHeart Radio station,

552
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 1: the quality score goes up about twenty points, just like

553
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 1: I imagine animated film goes up about that if you

554
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: know it's a Pixar film. But I would say, as

555
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: opposed to being a hidden jewel, it's sort of hidden

556
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 1: to the advertising business because that's not what they talk

557
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: about all the time. But it's actually the foundation of

558
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: what we do. Um that everything is built on that

559
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: radio station has a relationship with a group of of

560
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 1: of consumers who are in the tribe of that radio station.

561
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 1: That radio station speaks to them. It's an organizing principle.

562
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 1: It's part of My favorite radio station is the one

563
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: my favorite radio station is you know is a Kiss FM.

564
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: My favorite radio station is whatever, And so it's part

565
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: of your life and it defines who you are to

566
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: a certain degree, and we take that responsibility very seriously.

567
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: We're actually regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, the federal government.

568
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: We have standards on what we can and cannot say,

569
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 1: and we will lose our license if we violate that.

570
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: So we are the safest media. We end and broadcast television,

571
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 1: which has the same restrictions, are probably the safest media

572
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: out there. Uh. In terms of that, we also take

573
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 1: the response, but we're actually licensed to serve the community

574
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 1: and we actually believe that. So when something like Hurricane

575
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 1: Sandy was barreling towards New York, See one, hundreds stopped

576
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: playing music and talked about evacuation. After the hurricane hit

577
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: Panama City, our stations down there were the only media

578
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,800
Speaker 1: on the air, and most of the cell coverage was down,

579
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: so we became critical to tell people where you go,

580
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 1: where you get your blankets, how you get help, where

581
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: the medical care is, where you can get temporary housing.

582
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: When the floods hit Houston, I was listening to our

583
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:48,760
Speaker 1: station on by our radio. I was on l A

584
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: and listening to it, and they would have people on

585
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: the air saying, well, I'm on top of my house here,

586
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: and they go to describe your house and where you are,

587
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: how many people are there? Now? Are there any disabled

588
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 1: people there? And they were saying, okay, who's got a vote?

589
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: Because if you remember, the government didn't have enough votes,

590
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 1: so they were enlisted private people with boats. They were

591
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: putting people together with people with boats so that they

592
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: could get people evacuated. And that became serving the community.

593
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: Now in good times, were playing music for having a

594
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: good time. We're doing whatever, but when they need us,

595
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 1: we're there. During COVID, we've done some very important work

596
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 1: with getting information out and helping people get through it.

597
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 1: And with the the unfortunate and tragic killing of George

598
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: Floyd Um. We had a last year we were looking

599
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: at our radio station or portfolio and saying, you know,

600
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: we got some stations we're not we're not doing enough

601
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: with We need to do something bigger, and we got

602
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 1: them all over the country. We get something really one

603
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: big national idea, and we're looking at opportunities and realize

604
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 1: that the black community had zero, zero, not one, not

605
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: even one news all news service, the talk services they

606
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: talked except no all news service. Where's the ten ten wins?

607
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 1: Where's my CBS news radio eight? Um? And so we

608
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: set about building one, and then COVID came along. Ad

609
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 1: sales go down, we cut costs, We put it on

610
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 1: the shelf. George Floyd killing happens, and Tony Coles, who

611
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 1: was the executive internally who was really developing this with

612
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,800
Speaker 1: a couple of other folks, reaches out and he said, Bob,

613
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: I know we've cut cost. I know we fur a

614
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: little people. I know every penny counts, but the country

615
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: needs this and they need it right now. So we go,

616
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: you know what, right, talk to the board of directors,

617
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 1: We all talk amongst ourselves and we say, no matter

618
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,439
Speaker 1: what it does economically, we're gonna launch this. We're gonna

619
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:45,880
Speaker 1: launch the Black Information Network. And we as part of it,

620
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: we said, you know the problem with news being ad

621
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,880
Speaker 1: supported is that they then will need to get a

622
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: rating because it's all costs per thousand. Right, And if

623
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: and I was I was sponsible for CNN part of

624
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 1: my portfolio when I was CEO of Time Warner when

625
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,240
Speaker 1: Fox came along, and we had lots of discussions about

626
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 1: whether we should also do sort of opinion news, take

627
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: a position, and at that moment we decided to know

628
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 1: we're gonna be really balanced news. And as you know,

629
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: Fox ran away with the ratings. So we know that

630
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 1: if you if you want a rating and news the

631
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,280
Speaker 1: way you do it is you basically do clickbait headlines,

632
00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: you do clickbait news. You you get people's blood pressure up.

633
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: You sort of sensationalized stuff. Don't tell them the whole thing,

634
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 1: So slap that story a little bit to get them

635
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: riled up because think it's a rating. And we wanted

636
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: to figure out a way not to do that. So

637
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,399
Speaker 1: we hit upon this idea and we reached out too.

638
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: Then we were limited to ten companies to come be

639
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:53,880
Speaker 1: founding partners with us. Let's develop this service as a authoritative,

640
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 1: fair and balanced news source that always covers the black

641
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: community the perspective. And so we came up with a

642
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: model of we found these bounding partners, fantastic companies that

643
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: shared our mission, and we together came together to go

644
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: to the Black Information Network and launch it. And oh,

645
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:17,799
Speaker 1: by the way, from the time Tony said let's do

646
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 1: it till the time was on the air, I think

647
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,319
Speaker 1: was four weeks. And you know, when I was talking,

648
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: some of these bounding partners said, yeah, I like that.

649
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 1: I don't know when are you talking about launchets in

650
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: two weeks? The two weeks Wait a minute, We we

651
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 1: never operated in two weeks and it was but we

652
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 1: all came together and moved at a speed we knew

653
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,280
Speaker 1: are normally moved. But to me, that's the power radio.

654
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: We can do things immediately. We can do it quickly.

655
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,759
Speaker 1: Hurricane Sandy's heading this way. We can drop the program

656
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: literally in a second and start talking about something new.

657
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: We don't have to get camera crews out there or

658
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 1: do anything else. We were connected. Yeah, I I well,

659
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,959
Speaker 1: I actually think, by the way, congratulations on that, because

660
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 1: I actually think it is a big deal. You know,

661
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: when I think of my heart and I heart audio,

662
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:03,319
Speaker 1: I also think of you as a talent network as well.

663
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,359
Speaker 1: You're almost a talent network. Have you and your kind

664
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,840
Speaker 1: of leadership team talked about what the future of talent

665
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 1: in audio sounds like, looks like, etcetera. Yeah, it is.

666
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:25,399
Speaker 1: It looks like the entire community because we reach Americans,

667
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: and our view is if we reach ninety percent of Americans,

668
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: we ought to be that that diversity ought to be

669
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 1: represented with us on air. And uh so we look

670
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 1: for people from all walks of life. And and not

671
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:45,600
Speaker 1: only am I talking gender race, I'm also talking liberal conservative,

672
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:52,640
Speaker 1: I'm talking progressive. I'm talking about young old um suburban,

673
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: rural urban that we need to cover it all. And

674
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 1: when we make decisions, when we talk to the community,

675
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,839
Speaker 1: we need to sound like the community. And if you're

676
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 1: gonna be authentic, you have to be real. It has

677
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,800
Speaker 1: to be up the community. And so that's a really

678
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,920
Speaker 1: important thing for us, and we continue to strive and

679
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 1: work on that. And we also work on developing talent um.

680
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:20,319
Speaker 1: We have talent coaches that help sort of people reach

681
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,960
Speaker 1: their potential. We have so many radio stations that we

682
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 1: can use and such a career path that it's hard

683
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 1: to imagine somebody wants a career on the air, you know,

684
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 1: being someone's friend, being uh, this kind of personality that

685
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: could say, oh, I'd rather be anywhere else, that this

686
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,880
Speaker 1: is the place to be. We take it seriously, uh.

687
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: And we also know that no matter who we have

688
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 1: on the air, we need to be building the next

689
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,239
Speaker 1: generation and we need to be listening to them. You Know,

690
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:52,440
Speaker 1: the biggest advantage I have and the biggest drawback is

691
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 1: I've been around a long time. I started MTV when

692
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 1: I was twenty seven. I'd already had a great career

693
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 1: at at NBC Radio, starting at age twenty programming their

694
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 1: stations out in Chicago, and then went to w NBC

695
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 1: and New York program them and but so I have

696
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 1: a lot of pattern recognition, a lot of experience to bear,

697
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: but I also understand that I'm not at the moment,

698
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,440
Speaker 1: and since I'm not at the moment, I need to

699
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:20,759
Speaker 1: listen to the equivalent of Bob Pittman. At I worked

700
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: for a man named Steve Ross, who is this great

701
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: entrepreneur who built Warner Communications and the time Warner and

702
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,360
Speaker 1: I was the young guy that beating him sort of

703
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: fresh ideas, and I somebody I forgot who it was

704
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,640
Speaker 1: talking about the Mentor program where they actually do the

705
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: reverse thing. They have young people mentor their senior executives

706
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:43,760
Speaker 1: um as opposed to the senior executives mentoring the young people,

707
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: and they mentor them so they know what's really going on,

708
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 1: what the world really looks like today, not yesterday. And

709
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,359
Speaker 1: I think that's so critical to the work you do,

710
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: the work we do, and all of us that are

711
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 1: in media communications advertising where we're trying to reached the

712
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 1: public and have a dialogue with them and have a conversation.

713
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: What you said about pattern recognition is so interesting, and

714
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:13,240
Speaker 1: I love we love to talk about audio in general,

715
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:20,040
Speaker 1: going from radio to podcasting. What has the podcasting space

716
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,879
Speaker 1: allowed you to do potentially that that radio has limitations

717
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: in but also areas of where it can bring the

718
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: future of audio. Sure, it's a great question. Let me

719
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:32,920
Speaker 1: before I go there, I'm just gonna do one thing,

720
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,320
Speaker 1: because we keep talking audio. They're really two pieces of audio,

721
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: and they actually are radically different. They're they're mirror images

722
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 1: of each other. One is the music, just my music,

723
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,840
Speaker 1: my music collection that used to be a box of

724
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,160
Speaker 1: CDs or LPs or forty five um and today it

725
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:57,760
Speaker 1: is your streaming service Apple Music or Spotify probably And uh,

726
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,120
Speaker 1: but when I listen to my music, I'm escaped in

727
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: the world. I'm putting myself in a one to one

728
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 1: relationship with my music. I'm putting putting a cone of

729
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 1: silence out. I don't know what. I want to know

730
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: what's going on the outside world. I don't want information.

731
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: I don't want to joke, I don't want whether, I

732
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:14,880
Speaker 1: don't want the time. I just want to go and

733
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 1: it makes me feel a certain way. Radio is the

734
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 1: opposite of that is companionship. It's when you want to

735
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: know what's going on in the world. And so I

736
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 1: think you think about those two is very different pieces.

737
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 1: And and by the way, every time we get close

738
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:31,840
Speaker 1: to trying to do something in the music collection, we

739
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 1: tried to do on demand music on the I Heart

740
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: Radio app and he was like, that's not yea, what

741
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: what is that? You know that I'm looking for radio

742
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: here and uh, I'm looking for that companionship. And so

743
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:46,840
Speaker 1: when we look at podcasting and why we've been watching

744
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:50,040
Speaker 1: it for years start trying to understand how big it

745
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: could be and what how it could grow. Is I

746
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: think podcasting is sort of Netflix. Uh, and what do

747
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:00,080
Speaker 1: I mean by that? I think Netflix is t be

748
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:03,799
Speaker 1: on demand. Uh. That really the TV networks probably should

749
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 1: have started it because initially it was built on just

750
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: a replay of stuff you would see on TV, except

751
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 1: I can have it on demand. I could get it

752
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 1: when I wanted it, and uh. And then that is

753
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 1: really when I look at radio, like TV had a

754
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,160
Speaker 1: limitation of how much they could put out there because

755
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: it was linear. I've only got twenty four hours in

756
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: a day, seven days a week, So I do the math.

757
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: I can only have so much programming on the air.

758
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:30,359
Speaker 1: But there's programming like that that could be on that

759
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,320
Speaker 1: network if I had time for it. That was Netflix.

760
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 1: I think in our case, I think a podcasting is

761
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 1: still an extensive companionship. And what we know about podcast

762
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: is podcasting is completely host driven. It is you don't

763
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 1: have a great host, I don't care what your content is,

764
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,919
Speaker 1: You're not gonna have hit podcast. And so for us,

765
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 1: it was the same radio experience, except it was on demand.

766
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,800
Speaker 1: It was not necessarily in real time. But every show

767
00:42:56,880 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: that's a podcast could really be on the radio. Uh,

768
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,360
Speaker 1: and sometimes some of our podcast actually are the radio

769
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 1: shows delivered on demand, and uh, we have uh just

770
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 1: said okay, that's our that's an important part of our future. Yes,

771
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:13,760
Speaker 1: we want to keep radio going. But there's a whole

772
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: new on demand feature. Let's don't let Netflix happen somewhere

773
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: else has happened with the broadcast networks will be a problem. Rather,

774
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,120
Speaker 1: let's do it the broadcast network should have them, which

775
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: is basically started their streaming services themselves with all this

776
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: other content. And that's what we did. And today we're

777
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,799
Speaker 1: the number one podcaster. We've been the number one commercial podcaster,

778
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:38,239
Speaker 1: and we have a lead of about two to one

779
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 1: over the next largest commercial podcaster. I think podcasting continues

780
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:47,359
Speaker 1: to grow. This has grown much faster than streaming music did.

781
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: So I think we're looking at something the consumer wanted.

782
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,920
Speaker 1: We're looking at a service that's that you know, we

783
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:57,719
Speaker 1: build the infrastructure to deliver um and I think it

784
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:01,160
Speaker 1: continues to grow and be an increasing part of the

785
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:03,879
Speaker 1: important part of the media landscape. And by the way,

786
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:08,000
Speaker 1: what you do in terms of engagement with a advertiser

787
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: and podcasting you couldn't do anywhere else, you know. But

788
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here going like, what business is Bob Pittman

789
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,800
Speaker 1: in right, Because I'm sitting here thinking about the fact

790
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: that you're a town hall, your local community center, You're

791
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 1: an IP generator, you're a creative discovery engine. Like, there's

792
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 1: all these businesses and it just so happens that you know,

793
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: a broadcast, radio station or streaming platform. Is how you

794
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: put that work out in the world, or put those

795
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: conversations out in the world. It's really interesting to think

796
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: about them. I'm sitting here imagining, you know, your sales

797
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 1: team's pitch deck, and I'm saying, like, is it an

798
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,440
Speaker 1: audio company? Because when you start to really pull apart

799
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,480
Speaker 1: the businesses that you're in, it's really not audio or

800
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:57,759
Speaker 1: talk radio or music or it's really about the community

801
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,040
Speaker 1: and the creators at the heart of it. And that

802
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 1: really unlocked all of these different businesses. Um to me

803
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: that I heart media then becomes we will also tie

804
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:09,280
Speaker 1: it together. I mean, you bring up a very good point,

805
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 1: because I guess we really don't even think of it

806
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,279
Speaker 1: as audio. We think of it as companionship. The best

807
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: way we do it is having audio conversations. But when

808
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 1: the we did all these big events and then the

809
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 1: lockdown happens, and we realized the consumer is feeling very isolated.

810
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: So we work with Fox and say, you know what,

811
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: we think we can get these big stars to do

812
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: this living room concert one night, shoot their stuff on

813
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 1: iPhones and first of your iPhones, so it's gonna watch

814
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:42,239
Speaker 1: iPhones on TV. And we we get Elton John the

815
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: host it. You know, Alicia Keys kicked it off. We

816
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,760
Speaker 1: had all these great performers in that in that one show,

817
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 1: and we did it instead of doing the award show,

818
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 1: which got canceled because we obviously couldn't put people into

819
00:45:54,239 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 1: a theater and do an award show. And we used

820
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 1: that slot with UH with Fox to do it. And

821
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:02,799
Speaker 1: we really didn't know what we were going to do,

822
00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 1: but we knew companionship is very powerful and I Heart

823
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,760
Speaker 1: knows how to do it. So the the I Heart

824
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 1: UH Radio living Room Concert with Fox and it's interesting.

825
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,360
Speaker 1: We raised I think the total was sixteen million dollars

826
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:20,920
Speaker 1: in that night, and it's important just to demonstrate the

827
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 1: power of it at that time. And I think it

828
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:27,719
Speaker 1: still maybe the highest rated Sunday night entertainment show on

829
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 1: TV for the year. Who we produced that it's TV,

830
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 1: but we didn't say think it's TV versus radio. We

831
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 1: thought it's companionship. It's us connecting with this audience and

832
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: this community and UH and you're right, it so happens

833
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: were audio, but the essence of what we're doing is

834
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:50,840
Speaker 1: something that's probably more refined than audio. Where do you

835
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,720
Speaker 1: take this because we're not out of COVID, I think

836
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 1: we all think, right, it's going to take a long

837
00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: period of recovery. Live sports is is in question. Moments

838
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: where community has rallied in mass is in question in

839
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:11,080
Speaker 1: general physically on broadcast, etcetera. How are you thinking about

840
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:15,320
Speaker 1: taking companionship or are you thinking about taking the idea

841
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:19,959
Speaker 1: of companionship even further, even further than what you're describing. Yeah,

842
00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:24,920
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it is about, um, how

843
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 1: we use it and what they gotta go back to,

844
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: what's the need right now? Uh. When the protest came

845
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 1: up over social justice, racial equality, uh, you know, following

846
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:39,239
Speaker 1: the killing of George Floyd, we brought instead of you know,

847
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: say okay, it's hard to get out there and do

848
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,080
Speaker 1: what we would normally do, we did these virtual town halls. Uh.

849
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 1: There was even a moment in which the Breakfast Club

850
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:52,359
Speaker 1: chatted with Rush Limbaugh. Um, you know, Charlemagne the god

851
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:54,839
Speaker 1: in the Breakfast Club and Rush Limbaugh talking about this

852
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:58,160
Speaker 1: that there was a moment, you know, in which the

853
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: country needed a conversation, and so we had to rally

854
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 1: to provide the conversation. And we did them in local markets,

855
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:08,279
Speaker 1: we did some national ones, uh, and we did them

856
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:11,480
Speaker 1: in sort of all flavors. And I think that's what

857
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 1: we have to do, is is just listen for the moment.

858
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 1: And I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. There

859
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:19,680
Speaker 1: may be something tomorrow which we need to change whatever

860
00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: we're doing, and we will and we can. And I

861
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,719
Speaker 1: think having that attitude if we will and we can,

862
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:29,439
Speaker 1: is really what makes the company great and which makes

863
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:33,279
Speaker 1: us invaluable to the consumer. And over time, I think

864
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 1: a consumer values us because of the cumulative impact of

865
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 1: what we've done. And I think that's what's exciting about

866
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:44,919
Speaker 1: the company. And that's exciting about the work we do.

867
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,800
Speaker 1: And by the way, when we deal with our advertising partners,

868
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: you know, yes, we'll sell you some spots, but that's

869
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 1: the least interesting thing we can do. What we can

870
00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:58,240
Speaker 1: really can do is talk about what are you trying

871
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 1: to do and how do we come buying your smarts

872
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:03,799
Speaker 1: and our smarts, what you know and what we know,

873
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 1: and your assets and our assets, and figure out how

874
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: to make this thing work? And uh, and I like

875
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 1: it one because of the service we do. I also

876
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,800
Speaker 1: like it just because I'm a very curious person and

877
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: I like making things. And there's nothing more interesting than

878
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: me than getting involved with one of our clients who's

879
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 1: got a particular need and brainstorming and coming up with

880
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,360
Speaker 1: these ideas. Because I think all of us in this business,

881
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 1: probably everyone listening and certainly you folks are. We're turned

882
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:37,880
Speaker 1: on by creating, and uh, it just gives us satisfaction.

883
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:40,360
Speaker 1: It's like that's what I wake up in the morning

884
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,520
Speaker 1: to do. And I think we have this bed with

885
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:46,720
Speaker 1: this huge reach, all these markets, all these product lines

886
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: where we sort of don't run out of territory. We

887
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:52,800
Speaker 1: can There's a lot we can create and if someone

888
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:54,880
Speaker 1: comes to us with a brilliant idea, we can just

889
00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:57,439
Speaker 1: say sure, we can do it. Well, we'll say yes

890
00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:59,319
Speaker 1: and then figure out how to do it later. Does

891
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:03,400
Speaker 1: the industry sometimes gets held back in what you just

892
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:08,239
Speaker 1: described getting turned on by making things that people need?

893
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:14,320
Speaker 1: Isn't that our jobs people need? Like it's that freaking

894
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 1: simple and it's explained stuff to people. You know, what's

895
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 1: the biggest problem with all the products that we're all

896
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,359
Speaker 1: involved with. They don't know enough about it. We know

897
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 1: so much about it because we make the product, we

898
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:28,319
Speaker 1: failed to comprehend that the consumer doesn't know anything about it.

899
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:30,319
Speaker 1: In the in the old days when I was a

900
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:34,440
Speaker 1: radio programmer, and one of the first things I observed

901
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,040
Speaker 1: was at the time a disc jockey was saying, I'm

902
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: sick of playing this record. Is about the time the

903
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:44,800
Speaker 1: consumer goes, what's the new song you're playing? Yeah? Yeah,

904
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 1: we are way ahead of the consumer, and we have

905
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: a body of knowledge the consumer doesn't have, and we

906
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,239
Speaker 1: as creative people. The job we have is how do

907
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 1: we I go back to how do we connect to people?

908
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 1: With the music industry, we see our job it's connect

909
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,840
Speaker 1: the music to the fans, the people that will like it.

910
00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 1: With an advertiser, our job is to connect that message

911
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:09,240
Speaker 1: to a consumer who will be responsive to that message

912
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 1: and explain in a way that gets them excited about

913
00:51:12,400 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 1: it as opposed to turned off to it. Bob, we

914
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:19,160
Speaker 1: know that you're in the subscription business, and throughout this conversation,

915
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:23,839
Speaker 1: just thinking about the word companionship and the emphasis on

916
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 1: the relationships that you have around your I P. Do

917
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 1: you see a world where my heart continues to move

918
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 1: into subscription and starts to look at different options and

919
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:38,719
Speaker 1: going direct to consumer, not as a as a replacement

920
00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,520
Speaker 1: of ad supported, but potentially finding new ways UM to

921
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:50,040
Speaker 1: give consumers experiences directly UM, experiences so unique UM that

922
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:52,640
Speaker 1: they would want to pay for them because they want

923
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,719
Speaker 1: to stay engaged in that conversation with that community, with

924
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,719
Speaker 1: that talent. For example. Yeah, you know what's interesting I

925
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:01,240
Speaker 1: did at a O well we want the great success

926
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:04,920
Speaker 1: stories and subscription UM and we had when I left

927
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 1: about thirty five million subscriptions stay Oh well, and uh

928
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,719
Speaker 1: we we, unlike anybody else in the internet, wade money

929
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 1: on our our subscription revenue. Um, I do. But I

930
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:18,520
Speaker 1: think it's we got to be careful with subscription. People

931
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 1: jump to the conclusion of I'll do subscription and everybody

932
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 1: will want it. Actually, they only want subscription if it

933
00:52:24,160 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 1: makes sense. And when when I say it makes sense,

934
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:29,480
Speaker 1: is is it cheaper? Is it more efficient? Is it

935
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: more effective than what I was doing? You know, Netflix

936
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 1: was a huge hit with a subscription because it was

937
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:36,800
Speaker 1: so much cheaper to pay that one price for a

938
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:39,920
Speaker 1: subscription that it was to buy all the product a

939
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 1: la carte. Um. But I've seen people in the podcast

940
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:46,239
Speaker 1: business gone, I'm gonna start charging before podcasts. I remind them,

941
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:49,960
Speaker 1: I go, podcasts are free today. Like what business can

942
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 1: you tell me where something was free and people start

943
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:54,080
Speaker 1: charging for it and the consumer goes great, that's a

944
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 1: great idea. Uh none, um. And so I think, you know,

945
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:01,879
Speaker 1: if we could find a sub scription business where we

946
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:05,279
Speaker 1: were doing a service to someone by providing a subscription,

947
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 1: not providing a subscription because to be good for us,

948
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 1: By the way, who wouldn't want a recurring revenue stream

949
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 1: every month, hitting a credit card the time and time again.

950
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 1: But I think you have to be realistic about it,

951
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:19,279
Speaker 1: that a business need is not a substitute for a

952
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:22,840
Speaker 1: consumer need. And if I could find something where I

953
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:26,560
Speaker 1: was serving the consumer by giving them a subscription, I

954
00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:29,800
Speaker 1: jump in a second. But I think too many people

955
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:33,320
Speaker 1: today as I look out there are trying to cram

956
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 1: a subscription down the consumer's throat and they are to

957
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,759
Speaker 1: be a surprise that the consumer doesn't buy it. So

958
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:41,440
Speaker 1: I think the really successful on is I mean, I

959
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: I think Netflix had a great model. Well, I think

960
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 1: Disney Plus is great. Who doesn't know those brands, who

961
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:49,440
Speaker 1: doesn't know what Star Wars is or what Marvel is

962
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:52,200
Speaker 1: or what Pixar is and putting it out all the

963
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:54,320
Speaker 1: gay I go, I got it? And what I don't

964
00:53:54,200 --> 00:53:56,520
Speaker 1: want to pay each individual one? And they're all there,

965
00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 1: sign me up. It's a service to the consumer. And

966
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:02,640
Speaker 1: I think we have to be respectful of consumers and say,

967
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,400
Speaker 1: if it's not a service, don't kid yourself. I'm just

968
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,759
Speaker 1: thinking about all of your festivals and how unique those are.

969
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 1: Is there an I Heeart festival subscription that I want

970
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:14,399
Speaker 1: to pay for five concerts? We can brainstorm. But yeah,

971
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:18,800
Speaker 1: just thinking about the service the service note like really absolutely,

972
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:20,960
Speaker 1: and I think those are the kinds of service. If

973
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: I go, I'm gonna go to every one of them.

974
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:24,280
Speaker 1: I can't keep track of them, and it cost me exit.

975
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 1: You give me a good deal and I subscribe and

976
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 1: I'm a member of the whole thing. That's a service.

977
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 1: And I think you're exactly right. But I think any

978
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: But you know, we're just in a world right now.

979
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:37,759
Speaker 1: We were talking about people sort of over analyzing analysis,

980
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:42,040
Speaker 1: you know, paralysis, analysis, paralysis, and now we're getting into

981
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:46,760
Speaker 1: you know, sort of subscriptions. Everything not for everybody, most cases,

982
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 1: is not. You're exactly right. You have to find the

983
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 1: opportunity where people go. Yeah, that's great. Please thank you

984
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,080
Speaker 1: for doing that for me. What would people be surprised

985
00:54:56,080 --> 00:54:58,400
Speaker 1: to know about Bob Pittman that they don't currently know?

986
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:03,680
Speaker 1: But look, I'm from Mrs Sippy, Uh, preacher's son, Um,

987
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: not a college graduate. I'm not one of those fancy

988
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 1: educated people. Um, it's uh. I used to ride motorcycles

989
00:55:11,160 --> 00:55:14,080
Speaker 1: a lot. I got to into my sixties and I

990
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:18,400
Speaker 1: decided I'd ride motorcycles a little too recklessly. And my

991
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 1: reflexes aren't quite what they were, so time to give

992
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:24,920
Speaker 1: that out. I'm still flying fly helicopters and airplanes. Um,

993
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,640
Speaker 1: have been flying for fifty years. I actually got in

994
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 1: the in the media business because I was a plane

995
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:34,040
Speaker 1: nut as a kid and I needed money to pay

996
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:36,800
Speaker 1: for flying lessons because I could solo when I was sixteen,

997
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 1: and the only job I could find in a small

998
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:42,640
Speaker 1: rural Mississippi town was as a radio announcer in w

999
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:46,360
Speaker 1: c h J in Brookhaven, Mississippi. So so those are it.

1000
00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: I go to burning Man every year. Uh, and except

1001
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 1: for this year sadly. Um and Uh. I love to

1002
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 1: travel and uh that's probably it. Other than that I'm

1003
00:55:57,080 --> 00:56:02,000
Speaker 1: a boring guy. I think we doubt that we want

1004
00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:05,480
Speaker 1: to do a quick speed round. Question. Uh, what's your

1005
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 1: best learning from burning Man community? Um? Open your mind? Um?

1006
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: And Uh, freethink is is an improvement over life? How

1007
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:20,799
Speaker 1: do you freethink with your teams like in a corporate setting? Yeah?

1008
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:22,960
Speaker 1: I think the pretty think is there no bad ideas.

1009
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 1: You may we we may not do them, and we

1010
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:29,520
Speaker 1: may eliminate them eventually. But every time you start thinking,

1011
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:32,120
Speaker 1: you start the wheels going. When I was at MTV.

1012
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:34,480
Speaker 1: We did these great promotions. I don't know if you

1013
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 1: remember them, of the Lost Weekend with Van Halen, for

1014
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: the John Cougar, Mellencamp, Pak Your House paink, the House

1015
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:46,239
Speaker 1: Pink promotion, the one night stands. Every one of them

1016
00:56:46,239 --> 00:56:49,760
Speaker 1: began as a joke like let's get let's buy a house.

1017
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:51,680
Speaker 1: You go, wait a minute, we could buy a house

1018
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:54,400
Speaker 1: that could be fun. Or we were talking about the

1019
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,680
Speaker 1: Lost Weekend and we were joking about some of our

1020
00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 1: employees that would have their lost weekends and that joke

1021
00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 1: turned into the Laws Weekend with Van Halen. And so

1022
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:07,800
Speaker 1: I think when you I remember that because every idea,

1023
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:12,359
Speaker 1: once you to start ideating, stupid crazy ideas can turn

1024
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:16,960
Speaker 1: into very important ideas. And uh and I think sometimes

1025
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:20,840
Speaker 1: we try and start with an important idea as opposed

1026
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 1: to just start the ideation, just start talking. There is

1027
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 1: no bad idea. And Burning Man is this incredible acceptance

1028
00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 1: of everyone is you can be anybody you want to

1029
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:34,920
Speaker 1: be a Burning Man accept at asshole and uh and

1030
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 1: and you're accepted and nobody's nobody's judging, nobody's putting you down.

1031
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: You have this freedom to be. And I think that

1032
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:47,520
Speaker 1: freedom to be is important in the creative community because

1033
00:57:47,880 --> 00:57:50,919
Speaker 1: I think when you start in a box, you're never

1034
00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:54,240
Speaker 1: gonna leave that box. Uh. If you can sort of

1035
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: see the world broadly and and just understand that around

1036
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:00,600
Speaker 1: every turn is going to be something to a wow,

1037
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:03,400
Speaker 1: where did that come from? That's gonna be a whole effect,

1038
00:58:03,440 --> 00:58:05,920
Speaker 1: and you open your mind to it and don't judge it.

1039
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:08,520
Speaker 1: I think you won. Your life's a lot better. But

1040
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: I also think your business ideas get a lot better too. Bob,

1041
00:58:11,720 --> 00:58:15,200
Speaker 1: what's the next bet you're placing? Gosh, I have no idea.

1042
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:18,760
Speaker 1: I'll know it when I make it. I'm one of

1043
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:21,840
Speaker 1: those people in my personal life in business life that

1044
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:23,760
Speaker 1: if I hear something, Greg, go ahead, I'll take it.

1045
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: I'm not much of a a you know, uh thinker

1046
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:31,600
Speaker 1: about it and you know, let's spret about it and

1047
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:35,680
Speaker 1: worry about it. I think that we intuitively know the

1048
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:38,680
Speaker 1: right ideas when they hit us, and we should see

1049
00:58:38,680 --> 00:58:40,560
Speaker 1: some and move as quickly as we can on. What

1050
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 1: are you most excited about in media right now? Podcast?

1051
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:50,880
Speaker 1: Fair answer? Okay, I have to ask this question. What

1052
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:54,560
Speaker 1: would MTV have been like if social media had existed

1053
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 1: when it had just started? That's a great question. MTV

1054
00:58:59,600 --> 00:59:04,880
Speaker 1: was drew even so much by the conversation and about

1055
00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:08,200
Speaker 1: the camaraderie of the listeners that sort of brought into

1056
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,320
Speaker 1: the MTV culture that I think it would have been

1057
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:14,200
Speaker 1: able to start its own social network, which would have

1058
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:17,240
Speaker 1: been massive. Uh. And if it didn't have its own

1059
00:59:17,240 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 1: social network, it was certainly would have been the number

1060
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:22,960
Speaker 1: one topic on social and it would have been the companion.

1061
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 1: And if you look at social today, even it's replaced

1062
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:30,400
Speaker 1: the phone. Uh. Years ago, people would watch a football

1063
00:59:30,480 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 1: game together and they'd be on the phone saying, what

1064
00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 1: did they do? Look at that? That's crazy. Now they're

1065
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: on social doing the same thing. We're sharing our comments.

1066
00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 1: And for the radio, in the old days, the personality

1067
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:45,160
Speaker 1: would be doing stuff on the air and people would

1068
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:47,440
Speaker 1: call the phone the request line to talk to them.

1069
00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 1: Today they call him on social and it provides a

1070
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 1: feedback loop. And I will say, in our case and radio,

1071
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 1: it's gotten better as a result of social. I think

1072
00:59:56,320 --> 00:59:58,400
Speaker 1: MTV would have gotten better as a result of social

1073
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 1: to have that instantaneous feedback to whatever you're doing. So, Bob,

1074
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:05,040
Speaker 1: we do a little game at the end of every

1075
01:00:05,080 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 1: episode called kill by d I Y what would you

1076
01:00:08,360 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: kill in the world? What would you get rid of?

1077
01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:13,760
Speaker 1: I'm more of an enabler, believe it or not. I

1078
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,680
Speaker 1: love to listen to other people. I was always a

1079
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:19,760
Speaker 1: people watcher. I still am, and I'm an idea watcher,

1080
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:22,480
Speaker 1: and I love just watching what other people are doing

1081
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:25,080
Speaker 1: and then figure out how I can join the bandwagon

1082
01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:28,200
Speaker 1: and help them along, whether it is uh, you know,

1083
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 1: had an idea for a sipping tequila, something so smooth

1084
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:34,960
Speaker 1: you could sip it and uh, And I found Bert too, Gonzalez,

1085
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:39,880
Speaker 1: and my great love has been watching Bert make this thing,

1086
01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:43,680
Speaker 1: this huge hit, and enabling her and helping her build it,

1087
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: but freeing her to go do it and reach her potential.

1088
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:49,760
Speaker 1: And so I think, rather than me making stuff, I

1089
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:51,919
Speaker 1: really am one of those people that love to help

1090
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,360
Speaker 1: other people make their ideas. When I was a young person,

1091
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:56,840
Speaker 1: I made my ideas. As an old person, I help

1092
01:00:56,880 --> 01:01:00,000
Speaker 1: other people make their ideas. And what would you buy?

1093
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 1: What would I buy? Gosh, I don't know what I

1094
01:01:02,880 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 1: would buy out there. I'm at that age and you'll

1095
01:01:06,280 --> 01:01:08,680
Speaker 1: you'll hit this age one day where you're trying to

1096
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:11,400
Speaker 1: get rid of stuff. So when it comes to gift

1097
01:01:11,440 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 1: giving time and say Please don't give me anything. I'm

1098
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:16,439
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of stuff. Take something, but the gift.

1099
01:01:16,520 --> 01:01:18,560
Speaker 1: Just take some of my stuff. So I think I'm

1100
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:21,400
Speaker 1: sort of past to buy stuff. I'm I'm I'm in

1101
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:24,040
Speaker 1: that mode of let's slim down and what would you

1102
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:26,760
Speaker 1: do yourself? What's the thing that you would love to

1103
01:01:26,760 --> 01:01:32,400
Speaker 1: to make ice cream? All right? What flavor? Vanilla? What?

1104
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:39,320
Speaker 1: I don't believe that it's simple? I like it. Thank

1105
01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 1: you for spending so much time with us and giving

1106
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:45,000
Speaker 1: us inspiration and companionship. Thank you so much. And by

1107
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:46,680
Speaker 1: the way, thank you for all you're doing too, and

1108
01:01:46,720 --> 01:01:54,320
Speaker 1: thank you for this podcast. So I took a ton

1109
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:57,800
Speaker 1: of notes during that episode. One of the biggest takeaways

1110
01:01:57,840 --> 01:02:00,600
Speaker 1: for me is something that I think a lot of

1111
01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:07,440
Speaker 1: marketers overlook. We are simply filling or solving a need.

1112
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 1: And that was one of the best and most important

1113
01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: things that Bob said to me. Well, he talks about

1114
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:16,360
Speaker 1: following the consumer, right Like he when we asked how

1115
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:19,000
Speaker 1: do you place your next bet? It was very simply

1116
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:22,640
Speaker 1: and very directly, you have to follow the consumer, follow

1117
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:24,520
Speaker 1: the consumer, and you have to fill a need. I'm

1118
01:02:24,560 --> 01:02:28,240
Speaker 1: solving a problem. He talked about being a sociologist, and

1119
01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:31,920
Speaker 1: I really think, you know, maybe more marketers actually need

1120
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 1: to think of themselves as sociologists. So it's following the consumer,

1121
01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 1: but it's also being ahead of them and understanding what

1122
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:43,400
Speaker 1: is that need? What are those simple needs? And then

1123
01:02:43,480 --> 01:02:47,080
Speaker 1: how do we get to them? And Bob, you know,

1124
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:52,160
Speaker 1: Bob goes against kind of what I'll say is modern marketing,

1125
01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:56,800
Speaker 1: modern marketing, kind of Shun's reach in frequency, Shun's TV,

1126
01:02:57,640 --> 01:03:02,600
Speaker 1: Shun's g RPS radio, Shun's radio, Shun's outdoor shuns, all

1127
01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:06,400
Speaker 1: of these different types of media that actually are extremely

1128
01:03:06,440 --> 01:03:10,439
Speaker 1: effective when you are filling a need, when you are

1129
01:03:10,520 --> 01:03:13,960
Speaker 1: talking to a specific audience. And I think that Bob,

1130
01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:18,000
Speaker 1: you know, laid that out really really clearly, and then

1131
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 1: talked about how he used word of mouth and how

1132
01:03:20,800 --> 01:03:25,400
Speaker 1: he created or at least entered into a community. All

1133
01:03:25,400 --> 01:03:28,160
Speaker 1: of those things are things that we talk about. But

1134
01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:30,200
Speaker 1: when you sit down and you look at a at

1135
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:34,680
Speaker 1: a media flow chart, usually you're going with whatever your

1136
01:03:34,720 --> 01:03:37,320
Speaker 1: media buyer tells you. When I loved that he was

1137
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:40,840
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, his g RP cap and he

1138
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:44,080
Speaker 1: was like, who said, who said that's the cap? Why?

1139
01:03:44,240 --> 01:03:46,600
Speaker 1: Who said twelve was the magic? Number who said twelve

1140
01:03:46,680 --> 01:03:50,000
Speaker 1: was the magic number exactly, and I think that more often,

1141
01:03:50,920 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 1: you know, taking it from Bob's advice, we have to

1142
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:58,920
Speaker 1: question those things and really use media. And Laura, this

1143
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,360
Speaker 1: is something that I think you and I have tried

1144
01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:06,200
Speaker 1: to do in our work together, is use media to

1145
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:09,520
Speaker 1: not just be a vehicle to tell a message, but

1146
01:04:09,640 --> 01:04:13,600
Speaker 1: be a vehicle to really create a swirl and a

1147
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 1: presence and punch out a brand in a way that

1148
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:21,040
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of brands are just you know,

1149
01:04:21,360 --> 01:04:25,480
Speaker 1: doing their points. There are two g rps a week

1150
01:04:25,840 --> 01:04:28,760
Speaker 1: because they're playing on the same field, but you're not.

1151
01:04:29,320 --> 01:04:32,320
Speaker 1: We're in a different game, folks. So I think there's

1152
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 1: huge opportunity with everything that Bob was saying, even though

1153
01:04:35,560 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 1: in some ways it sounded really traditional, but it's not.

1154
01:04:38,960 --> 01:04:42,760
Speaker 1: I love what you just said and thinking about swirl

1155
01:04:43,320 --> 01:04:46,000
Speaker 1: as a KPI. I don't know where I heard it.

1156
01:04:46,040 --> 01:04:47,640
Speaker 1: I don't know when I heard it. I don't know

1157
01:04:47,680 --> 01:04:49,400
Speaker 1: why I heard it. I don't know how I heard it,

1158
01:04:49,440 --> 01:04:51,760
Speaker 1: but I heard it. My friends are talking about it

1159
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:56,920
Speaker 1: everywhere I'm looking, listening, engaging, It's being talked about, and

1160
01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:00,160
Speaker 1: so as a byproduct, I start talking about it. This

1161
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,560
Speaker 1: idea of creating a swirl. I think is a really

1162
01:05:02,680 --> 01:05:06,520
Speaker 1: interesting point in that you can't create a swirl in

1163
01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:10,120
Speaker 1: a spreadsheet. You know, It's a really interesting concept when

1164
01:05:10,160 --> 01:05:13,680
Speaker 1: you think about impact in that capacity and the idea

1165
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 1: not just being a part of the conversation, but the

1166
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:19,000
Speaker 1: idea of being the conversation. And I think Bob has

1167
01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:22,360
Speaker 1: been able to leverage the power of brand to drive

1168
01:05:22,360 --> 01:05:26,680
Speaker 1: different outcomes. I totally agree. And the debate, because there

1169
01:05:26,760 --> 01:05:29,480
Speaker 1: is a debate are you investing in brand? I mean,

1170
01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:33,280
Speaker 1: I'm as part of this group and the bunch of cmos,

1171
01:05:33,320 --> 01:05:36,120
Speaker 1: we're talking about how much are you investing in brand

1172
01:05:36,560 --> 01:05:38,440
Speaker 1: of your budget? How much of your budget are you

1173
01:05:38,520 --> 01:05:43,840
Speaker 1: investing in brand? People came back huge advertisers twenty on this,

1174
01:05:44,480 --> 01:05:46,840
Speaker 1: some people thirty on this. We'll tend because worth this

1175
01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:50,840
Speaker 1: and that brand isn't a line item investment. And I

1176
01:05:50,880 --> 01:05:55,960
Speaker 1: think this debate about brand having our o I and

1177
01:05:56,120 --> 01:06:01,720
Speaker 1: brand having effectiveness to your business top line growth or

1178
01:06:01,800 --> 01:06:06,880
Speaker 1: bottom line numbers has got to stop. Bob proves brand

1179
01:06:07,000 --> 01:06:10,760
Speaker 1: pulls through. It pulls all the way through the bottom line.

1180
01:06:11,120 --> 01:06:14,560
Speaker 1: So it's not a percentage of your messaging or your

1181
01:06:14,640 --> 01:06:19,480
Speaker 1: creative or your media mix, it's not a percentage. Brand

1182
01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:23,760
Speaker 1: is all the way through that relationship and in fact,

1183
01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:28,800
Speaker 1: to your point, is the thing that is the most recognizable.

1184
01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:32,720
Speaker 1: And with that, thank you Bob Pittman. Yeah, thank you

1185
01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:35,840
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman for dropping by and giving us a masterclass

1186
01:06:35,840 --> 01:06:38,720
Speaker 1: and marketing. And for more from Bob Pittman, be sure

1187
01:06:38,760 --> 01:06:42,040
Speaker 1: to check out his podcast Math and Magic, available wherever

1188
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:45,080
Speaker 1: you listen to your podcasts. Laura hit it with a

1189
01:06:45,160 --> 01:06:46,800
Speaker 1: list of all of our friends and family at my

1190
01:06:46,880 --> 01:06:49,080
Speaker 1: Heart who have been so good to us and helped

1191
01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:53,880
Speaker 1: us get back on air. Big thank you to Bob, Conal, Carter, Andy, Eric,

1192
01:06:53,960 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 1: gayle Val, Michael jen. We appreciate you. Thank you so

1193
01:06:57,280 --> 01:06:59,880
Speaker 1: much for this opportunity. We'll see you in two weeks.

1194
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:00,280
Speaker 1: Gay