iPhone Apps A No Brainer for Radio Stations
March 10, 2010 at 8:00 am Jennifer Lane 1 comment
Paul and Fred Jacobs are research and marketing gurus and owners of Jacobs Media. Recently, in addition to making names for themselves as consultants to public radio and rock radio stations, they’ve become experts in iPhones and custom apps for smartphones.
The two businesses are all about marketing. It’s still about about the audience, according to Paul Jacobs. Apps are more than a way to connect to a station’s stream, they create an engagement point with listeners. Apps are really a strategic marketing tool that enables a station to open up its brand to a mobile audience.
JacAPPS created the recently launched app for WEEI in Boston, and according to Jacobs, it’s the most robust and complex app that they have built, featuring content, scores and headlines, blogs, podcasts, and of course, a streaming player.
The jacAPPS radio app features artist and title information, one click stream access and an alarm clock function along with background/foreground play, station controls, and a rotating background panel that stations can easily control to create sponsorship opportunities. They’ve built about 140 apps for radio stations so far — for companies like Greater Media, Lincoln Financial, Entercom, Cox, NPR and EMF. They’re also working with some international companies.
In these days of little revenue growth, the app business has taken off for the Jacobs guys. Mobile strategy, more listeners, new revenue stream — and an average jacAPP costs $2k to $5k. Which makes me wonder what anyone is waiting for…
Entry filed under: advertising, Internet radio, mobile, streaming. Tags: cox, emf, Entercom, greater media, Internet radio, iphone, jacapps, jacobs media, lincoln financial, NPR, smartphone, streaming, wbos, WEEI.
1. Jack Taddeo | March 10, 2010 at 1:15 pm
“an average jacAPP costs $2k to $5k. Which makes me wonder what anyone is waiting for…”
That’s why radio isn’t falling all over it. The 2k to 5k cash investment simply isn’t in many budgets these days. What Jacobs has done is fantastic in terms of the heavy lifting and research behind it. But radio manangers need to be spoon-fed in ways to liquidate the expense before they will agree to lay out the cash.