Blog.

05
Apr
12

RAM Truck and CBS Radio Partner for ACM Awards Weekend

Michael Kraft | Director, Strategic Sales

Category: Auto, Entertainment, Music

Taylor Swift was voted Entertainer of the Year by fans

Country music’s biggest stars descended upon the Las Vegas strip for the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards this past weekend.

Packed with performances and delicious BBQ, the weekend was extra special as the ACM and RAM Truck also honored this year’s National RAM Hero, Army Pfc. Brandon Sapp.

Top honors of the evening went to Taylor Swift who won Entertainer of the Year, Miranda Lambert who was named Female Vocalist of the Year and Blake Shelton, the new Male Vocalist of the Year.

Aired by CBS, the night was hosted by Shelton and Reba McEntyre and featured performances by Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith and Keith Urban. Non-country personalities like Carrot Top and Ashton Kucther also appeared in the packed house at the MGM Grand Garden.

Country fans made a weekend out of it by enjoying the three-day ACM Experience that featured RAM Ride and Drive, an incredible outdoor test drive experience, a BBQ Throwdown featuring the finest grillers across the country, and of course, the “Salute to the Military” Concert.

CBS Radio stations across the country asked people to nominate their military heros for a chance to win a VIP trip to Las Vegas and attend the ACM Awards. After being nominated by his father, Army Pfc. Brandon Sapp, a machine gunner assigned to the 1st Calvary Division from Fort Hood Texas was honored as the National RAM Hero on Saturday evening. Brandon was posthumously awarded The Purple Heart, The Bronze Star and Good Conduct Medal.

Country music singer-songwriter and U.S. Army Veteran Craig Morgan was this year’s face of the RAM National Military Hero contest. “I think it’s so wonderful that a company like Ram Trucks who is such a great brand and so recognizable; for them to get behind something, that to me is more important than anything, and that’s to get behind the men and women that serve in our Armed Forces.”

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03
Apr
12

CBS Radio’s Dan Mason Stresses Personalities As Key to Success

Sue McNamara | Senior Vice President, Sales

Category: Marketing, Radio

“Everybody plays the hits or at least they should, but what differentiates radio stations are what the personalities bring to the table.”

This is just one of the insightful observations from our very own Dan Mason, President and CEO of CBS Radio, when he sat down (virtually) with Mark Ramsey, blogger and radio consultant, to discuss the changing landscape of radio.

gives us a behind-the-scenes look at CBS Radio’s strategy, explaining how strong local content across both traditional and digital platforms engages the audience like never before. Yet, the line between the two platforms is a fine one to walk.

“The lesson we have learned is that we are not so much interested in taking our radio stations and shifting listeners to a different platform through digital tools,” Mason explained. “But what we are interested in is taking the digital tools to engage our listeners more.”

Mason is hoping to do just that with two new digital applications,  Audio Roadshow and YourDay.

Audio Roadshow, used on Mike Francesa’s afternoon sports talk show on WFAN, supplements the show’s content and allows listeners to interact with the show beyond the simple call-in model: ”It’s about building apps to get engagement and longer time spent listening out of the existing product.”

Meanwhile, YourDay brings the best of local content of 24 major markets to people’s fingertips. ”This [iPad app] is all about local commerce. It brings together advertisers; it brings together listeners with trusted brands that they know. It’s just a fabulous collection of digital assets right there,” Mason said.

Though CBS Radio and Mason are leading the exploration into the digital world, they are also acutely aware that without great personalities on the air, their digital tools aren’t worth the iPhones they live on.

“It’s about encouraging our people to be great disc jockeys,” Mason concluded.  And then building delightful, engaging digital tools, of course.

Or

Watch the video here

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30
Mar
12

American Express Enlists the Help of Comedic Aziz Ansari

Michael Hermalyn | Vice President, Strategic Sales

Category: Entertainment, Marketing, Social Media

As I posted a few weeks ago, American Express recently launched the groundbreaking Sync program which allows AmEx cardholders to get discounts when they participate in targeted calls-to-action on social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare.

With the help of comedian Aziz Ansari of “Parks and Recreation,” the credit card company is now taking Sync to the masses.

As reported in Wednesday’s article in AdAge.com, the new commercial, which aired Wednesday night during “The Daily Show,” ingeniously showcases Ansari’s ham-fisted attempts to make a good impression on a first date.

Check out the spot here. And be sure to bring your kayak.

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29
Mar
12

The Big Dance: March Madness and Marketing

John Principale |

Category: Entertainment, Interactive, Marketing

This week, much of the country is consumed by March Madness fever as four iconic basketball programs — Ohio St., Kentucky, Louisville, and Kansas — head to the Final Four in New Orleans.

You’ll undoubtedly hear a lot of sports talk in the next few days. And interestingly, you’ll hear a lot of the same expressions in corporate board rooms. Expect to hear: “He hit it out of the park!” “The ball is in their court now.” And of course, the new classic, “The Big Dance.”

These metaphors help to bring the language of sports to the world of business. Marketers would be wise to take more than just phrases out of sports’ play books. They should also study how sports teams engage their audiences across multiple platforms in creative, entertaining ways. Social media is a natural outlet for teams with vocal fanatics, but successful marketing for the teams goes much further than Facebook and Twitter.

More and more, sports leagues and teams are demonstrating how to build successful brands through 360 marketing. Sports teams have an inherent advantage over most businesses in that they already have loyal fans and regularly scheduled physical events. They are also able to easily align with various digital and broadcast platforms, engaging the audiences before, during and after the games.

Unlike a baseball team, most businesses dont have 162 physical events to engage their audiences, and thus this it is even more important to have a thorough, well-rounded game plan to effectively engage audiences.

Marketers have to try a lot harder to build their brands than sports teams. But this shouldn’t stop them from trying.

Check out this great interview on sports marketing and how sports marketing concepts can translate to the business world.

Click here for the full article.

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23
Mar
12

CBS Local’s Ezra Kucharz Receives 2012 Award of Merit

Richard Lobel | Executive Vice President

Category: Interactive, Marketing, Mobile, Radio, TV

Ezra Kucharz

We’re happy to report that Ezra Kucharz, the President of CBS Local, was awarded a prestigious industry award this week.

Check out some of the stuff people are saying about Ezra!

“Score one for legacy media: Ezra Kucharz,
CBS Local Digital Media president, today was awarded Borrell Associates’ 2012 Award
of Merit.”
netnewscheck.com

“What he’s been able to do with the full support of CBS have been remarkable and should become a model for other media going forward.”
allaccess.com

“During the last two years under Kucharz, CBS has revamped local media sites, extended content across online and mobile platforms and pushed to integrate digital sales specialists with traditional TV and radio sales teams within its 30 markets.”
mediapost.com

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22
Mar
12

CBS Local launches YourDay iPad Application

James Ingrassia | Director, Strategic Sales

Category: Entertainment, Mobile, Radio, TV

CBS Local has once again upped the digital ante by launching a new local iPad app, YourDay.

This new app allows users in 24 major markets to access all the latest local news, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle content with the swipe of their finger.

Once the city is selected or identified through the built-in geolocator, hyper-local content greets users on a customizable home screen with a self refreshing browser. In addition to local daily deals with “Local Offers,” users will be able to watch video from CBS stations and stream local CBS radio stations.

YourDay app is yet another digital initiative by CBS Local to customize local content in an accessible, fun manner. Revamped local media outlets across many platforms allows CBS Local to reach consumers in innovative and powerful ways, and YourDay is another example
of how the media giant is redefining local media content.

Download the app here, and start enjoying your city like you never have before.

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16
Mar
12

Great Marketing Drives March Madness All The Way To The Hoop

Eric Lemieux | Director, Strategic Marketing

Category: Entertainment, Marketing, Sports

Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University once again leads his Blue Devils into the Tournament as a 2nd seed.

Brackets, office pools, midday “lunch” breaks to catch the final 3 minutes of a game, last second buzzer beaters and Cinderella stories.

March is ubiquitous with college basketball as, all of sudden, people turn their energy and TVs to the 67 seven games over three weeks.

March Madness is once again upon us.

It’s no accident that theses student athletes hold the nation’s attention for three weeks. The NCAA has invested heavily to make the tournament the second most watched sports showcase in the country, only behind the NFL playoffs. They have built this very successful brand through catchy alliterations (Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four), broad media coverage across four TV channels, many radio stations and live streaming, and social media.

It’s not easy to make little known colleges relevant to the masses, but through all the games and brackets surrounding the Tournament, the NCAA has made this college sport extremely accessible to all and has pronounce March as their month.

For a deeper look at the secrets behind their marketing brilliance, take a look here.

And in the meantime, enjoy watching the games with your brackets in hand. Follow all the latest action at cbssports.com and listen to insightful analysis at Sports Radio WFAN.

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14
Mar
12

CBS Local Content Hubs Earn Top Rankings from comScore

Don Murray | Manager, Strategic Marketing

Category: Entertainment, Interactive, Marketing, Radio, Technology

The best local websites have to offer uniquely local content and voices. In less than two years, CBS Local is reaping the rewards, and site traffic, of doing just that.

In 2010, CBS Local launched content hubs across the country in 30 major markets, aggregating some of the most powerful local brands anywhere. In January, comScore, a leading marketing research and data analytics firm, affirmed that the strategy is working, ranking CBS Local’s portals as some of the top local websites online.

Sites like CBSNewYork.com and CBSChicago.com combine the best of everything local by harnessing the power of CBS Radio, TV, Sports, and News properties into a single concentrated destination.

In the past year, traffic to these sites has increased by 43% and partners have found significant traction leveraging CBS Local’s streaming audio, video, custom rich media, mobile, e-commerce, daily deals and online directories.

Learning from our success, we are now taking the same approach to our Music site properties. Beyond a unified design, the sites will feature social media integration, video, richer sponsorship opportunities and a deeper connection to Last.fm, Local Offers and Metro Lyrics. All in one place. All about Local.

CBS Local’s strength is in its ability to activate and engage local audiences across markets using custom touch points. New York is not LA, and Boston is not Dallas. We understand that, and our authentic, trusted voices REALLY understand it.  We are CBS and local lives here.

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07
Mar
12

Twitter’s Innovative Arrangement With American Express

Michael Hermalyn | Vice President, Strategic Sales

Category: Interactive, Marketing, Mobile

American Express recently announced a very compelling new program that ties social media promotion to consumer spending.

Now, when you sync your American Express Card with Twitter, you can get exclusive offers loaded directly to your Card.

It’s remarkably easy to tweet your way to savings at your favorite stores, retailers, restaurants, and more.

Check it out.

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06
Mar
12

Different Demographics, Different Marketing Techniques

ALTITUDE | Redefining Radio

Category: Entertainment, Marketing, Social Media

In the next two posts, we’ll look at two different demographic segments and the approach that successful campaigns take to creatively and effectively reach their audiences. First, the Millennials. There are about 80 million of them and they’re taking over from the baby boomers.

These folks have famously short attention spans. We’ve all been there. We watch TV, while looking at our phones, eating a cheeseburger, and “sincerely” conversing with our friends.

Short attention spans are now the norm, which poses a problem for traditional marketing techniques. To reach the younger consumers– those born in the 80′s and early 90′s, known as the Millennials– marketing campaigns need to be
more clever, faster, and to the point.

Along with being very creative, original content has to engage the audience in an innovative way, through innovative channels, in order to attract the Millennials.

Luckily, our multi platform assets here at Altitude provide us with the tools to reach this elusive yet pivotal demographic.

This recent study reaffirms what we already know: Millennials dont roll over for the same advertising schtick their parents did.

But we are up to the challenge.

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