I Hope Radio Never Leaves

While recently reading up on the demise of RadioShack, I was reminded about how this outlet for batteries, robotics, fuses and everything in between originated: as a source for equipment to the budding radio industry and hobbyists back in 1921. This realization sent me down a rabbit trail of memories about how radio has impacted my life.

My grandfather operated an appliance store that sold and serviced radios back during a time when families gathered around large radio cabinets in their living rooms for their evening entertainment. My father took over the store as more and more families transitioned to televisions and VCRs. But like his father, Dad isn't fond of throwing things away. Many of my grandfather's replacement tubes and other radio parts remain in storage. I invite any radio enthusiasts that happen to be reading to contact me for some great deals!

Early my career, my duties allowed me to become very familiar with radio advertising. I made a lot of contacts at stations in small markets and I'm still appreciative of their guidance. One particular gentleman that I worked with arranged for me to be a frequent studio guest at his station and the play-by-play announcer for the local high school's football games that they covered. Thankfully, no copies of those broadcasts exist … but it would be fun to listen to them again in all their cringe-worthiness.

These days, I work with Birmingham radio stations when the budget allows. I’m very excited about what will be a new venture for me: internet radio. I just kicked off a campaign with Pandora that incorporates audio and visual ads. The incredible targeting provided by this service estimates a huge amount of impressions and I'm anxious to dive into the wealth of analytics as the campaign proceeds.

Radio has a lot competition in today's world but I think it will fare better than RadioShack. Satellite radio is great but these days I find myself tuning my car's radio to local stations more than ever. The devices we enjoy today are used on such a personal, isolated level that I don't think we'll ever go back to gathering around a radio cabinet in groups. Radio has actually had a big impact on me. I hope it never leaves.

Birmingham Food Truck Marketing

My church arranged for a fleet of local food trucks to serve our congregation a fun lunch after a recent Sunday service. I’ve only had the opportunity to enjoy a meal from a food truck once before so I was really looking forward to this experience.

I wanted to be fully prepared for this lunch so once I learned which trucks would be on site, I scouted the web for their menus. I was able to find the information I was seeking as all four food trucks have a website. That each truck has a website is impressive but I was intrigued by the way some of the trucks utilized their site. I’ve listed some of my observations below:

OFF THE HOOK - www.ryouhooked.com

I appreciate the fact that Off the Hook posts their hours of operation right off the bat. Their menu page leaves a lot to the imagination without any photos but boy was their food good! I noticed that they rely on Facebook and Twitter to communicate their whereabouts to hungry patrons. I would bet lunch that Twitter serves them much better in this regard.

SPOONFED GRILL - www.spoonfedgrill.com

This site is little jumbled but all of the info you need is there. Twitter seems to be the social media platform of choice for Spoonfed but I was really impressed that they also rely on Flickr, Friendfeed and StumbleUpon, in addition to Facebook. If you can’t find the Spoonfed truck, it’s your own fault!

MELT - www.meltbham.com

Melt does a lot for their SEO by proclaiming to be a “grilled cheese food truck in Birmingham, Alabama” on their homepage. I like that. This site isn’t very busy and provides quick access to Melt’s Facebook and Twitter pages and they step up the social media game big-time by encouraging visitors to use the hashtag #meltbham. Not a bad site at all.

CANTINA ON WHEELS - www.cantinaonwheels.com

Big, colorful photos of Cantina’s truck and dishes great you as soon as you hit their page. And I love the weekly calendar that shows when and where they’ll be each day. Facebook and Twitter seem to be as important to Cantina as the other trucks as far as informing customers of their location but the Cantina site also encourages visitors to sign up for weekly emails. I think this is what you would want out of your food truck website.

THE RESULTS

These four trucks use a nice combination of websites and social media to communicate their locations to customers. To keep their customers coming back, they need to provide tasty food.

So how did they do at my church? I sampled everything from shrimp tacos to Buffalo chicken sandwiches and I’m here to tell you that they all passed the test! They were all awesome!

UPDATE: A few months after writing this post, I came across this 2013 article in B-Metro. It provides some great insight into the Birmingham Food Truck Boom.

Octocopter Videos

Marketers are always looking for the next head-turner. The use of octocopters - - from spelunking to package delivery and everything in between - - is way up and golf marketing is always on my radar. That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see a local golf course incorporate the use of a 'copter (or are they drones?) in its latest marketing efforts.

Despite being a challenging course, Eagle Point Golf Club in Birmingham probably isn't as highly regarded as other heavily marketed courses in the area. But Eagle Point has separated itself from the pack when it comes to innovative marketing techniques. I recently came across these videos on Eagle Point's YouTube channel:


They filmed a video for each hole on the course, which takes the act of describing the hole to another level.


If other Birmingham golf courses are using octocopters in their marketing videos, I haven't seen them. But you better believe that other courses will be getting in on this trend very soon. After all, showcasing a bird's eye view of your course's layout in a video looks so much better than any ground level photograph ever did.

Kudos to Eagle Point Golf Club for breaking new ground. I believe we'll start seeing more of this from the big golf equipment manufacturers soon. Callaway Golf, which has a super sharp marketing team, has already begun working octocopters into some of their videos.



UPDATE: Eagle Point Golf Club closed for good in 2016. Unfortunately, their forward-thinking marketing wasn't enough to fend off hungry real estate developers.