Intelligence Briefs

During the 2020 Christmas season, a well-known brand of TexMex-style food products integrated some of its offerings into a Lifetime yuletide yarn. The products also found their way into one of Food Network’s top cooking programs.  Did those product placements translate to a bump in sales?

Hybrid shopping, localized travel, a focus on health and wellness, the rise of challenger brands and an increase in e-commerce in areas of higher infection, are some of the buying behaviors in the U.S. that remain in a post-pandemic era. Here's what this may mean for your advertising trends in 2022, courtesy of Ascential-owned research firm WARC.

Smart speakers are the biggest boon to radio in the home since, well, the Reagan era. But, is there one key ingredient needed to lure consumers to a radio station's audio stream, instead of another Pandora-powered audio stream or Spotify playlist of choice? Yes, says Clark Smidt. Voices carry, especially good ones.

Stay-at-home ordinances and remote work mandates eliminated the daily commute. As a result, Spanish-language in-car radio listening and ad revenue "plummeted" during the early months of the global COVID-19 2020 shutdown.  Now, dollars are surging, says Entravision's Angie Balderas.

Video communication engages two senses of our five: sight and sound.  But how can we stimulate the other three with the existing digital technology?  Longtime public relations pro Rosemary Ravinal says it can be done through the memory of how things taste, feel and smell. "Video calls favor what we see over what we hear by a ratio of 90 to 10%," she says. 

What you wear during a virtual meeting can bring your confidence and executive presence to another level, veteran PR professional and "Zoom expert" Rosemary Ravinal notes in this column. "Large numbers of office workers continue to work remotely with video conferencing at the heart of the workday," she says. "So, the image you project can be critical to your success."

Why are you not you using a green screen when you Zoom? Public relations veteran Rosemary Ravinal recently conducted an informal poll on LinkedIn. What did she learn? More than 80% of respondents do not use a green screen with a virtual background. "That was disappointing, but not surprising," she says in this column.

Although global car sales were heavily impacted in 2019 and 2020, long-term market growth is expected, with car ownership growing strongly in emerging markets as developed market demand recovers. What does this mean for automotive audio trends? Software is evolving as e-vehicles, including autonomous cars, are on the rise.

With four months remaining of 2021, it is abundantly clear that the “normal” workplace pre-pandemic is a thing of the past. For PR veteran and "Zoom expert" Rosemary Ravinal, this means video conferencing will become a fixture of workplace culture to varying degrees. "Your professional future may depend on how well you navigate the virtual environment." It’s time to get serious, folks.

At a company gathering on Sunday, RBR+TVBR saw for the first time a portable HD Radio. Who even knew it existed? The bigger, perhaps more depressing question, is this: Who cares? There's a reason why we ask, and it is one the radio industry's leadership may wish to read at their leisure today.

Organizations often launch diversity and inclusion initiatives as strategic imperatives to create more equitable and inclusive work environments. While it’s the right thing to do, it’s often assumed that there’s immediate buy-in across the board. That’s not always the case, however, culturally integrated market research agency ThinkNow says.

"Those who utilize these technologies and end-resulting capabilities can more fluidly understand their audiences, how those audiences are reacting to creative content and ultimately drive attribution models resulting in real-time, data enhanced and directional outcomes." That's the conclusion of AdImpact VP John Link, who offers an exclusive thought piece for RBR+TVBR.

Public speaking on Zoom is not a panacea for nervous speakers. On the contrary, it poses its own set of challenges that can be overcome with practice, focused exercises, and good coaching. In this column, Ravinal provides a variety of exercises and techniques to counter glossophobia, the scientific term for performance anxiety or stage fright.

As the competition for consumer attention heats up with traditional, big-tent broadcasters continuing to launch their own streaming services — i.e. Peacock, Paramount+, and Discovery+ — one big question arises. How can local TV broadcast networks stay competitive with streaming apps of their own?

Nielsen has some happy news for those who own or manage radio stations. Listening levels are at their highest point since April 2020.  That said, were radio listening levels acceptable prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? Here's a RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION you won't want to miss ... and will want to respond to.