DIAL . LOG

Dialsmith Year One - a look back (and forward)

Hi,

It's been a year since we started Dialsmith and this seems like a good time to reflect, share some of what we've learned, and thank those who have helped make it happen.

After years of working in cubes and private offices we made the decision to have Dialsmith be an open office environment. It took some getting used to and finding the right space, but we think we did pretty well. This has allowed for a level of teamwork and collaboration we had never experienced before. Check it...

     

 

In addition to releasing the new Perception Analyzer Model V dial with response confirmation and tune-out buttons, we also launched the ISX - Instant Scoring eXperience system for scoring of sporting and reality events.

      


Some milestones in year one:

• We achieved our financial goals for the year (always a bit tense, especially first year)
• We sold our smallest ever Perception Analyzer system (only 2 dials) and did our largest ever consulting project (800 dials)
• We gratefully did business in eight countries outside the U.S. including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Mexico, Peru, and the U.K. That's in addition to the 30 or so other countries where the Perception Analyzer is also in use by clients and partners
• We got to work on some cool projects including Super Bowl ad testing, TV pilot testing, 3D TV testing, live televised political debate feedback, infomercial testing, new product development, marketing brainstorming sessions, mock trials, custom audience trivia games, large-scale audience feedback during live presentations, and other stuff that my team will surely remind me of later

Something that we'd be considering for years, well before the launch of Dialsmith, is the opening of a European office. This year we decided the time was right and we were fortunate to find the colleagues to make it happen. We are also fortunate to have retained our incredibly strong core team as well as add some new talent.

What have we learned?

• This is fun...and hard...and fun!
• Clients and partners remind us every day that what we do is important, worthwhile and relevant (can't even begin to express how appreciative and humbled we are by that)
• Some of those same clients and partners have been instrumental in helping us see where we need to go with our product and service offerings and without that we'd truly be flying blind

To everyone who has helped Dialsmith through its first successful year, I say thank you. Were it not for our team, clients, partners, friends, and family, we'd be nothing but bodies in an office and numbers in a spreadsheet. But thanks to all of those people (and it really is all about the people) we are a company that had a strong first year and is developing plans for even stronger years to come. Taking care of our team, serving our clients, and enjoying life are the reasons we why do this in the first place. By keeping those three over-arching goals in mind we enthuastically march forward and again, to all who have helped us, we say thank you.

- David

The Radio Zoo - Time for something new

The lions and tigers and that kind of stuff 

They have up here now are not quite good enough. 

You see things like these in just any old zoo.

They’re awfully old-fashioned. I want something new!

 

    pic moggierocket Flikr

Lions and Tigers and that kind of stuff.

As I was preparing for this post and contemplating the above thought from young Gerald McGrew I received an email from one of my sales and marketing mentors, Peter Weedfald discussing the future of radio. His email was a sharing of thoughts and research that shows that "although radio listening remains healthy as a percentage of media usage, a number of varying realized formats have muscled onto the scene over the past few years distracting and disrupting radio’s monetization opportunities: social networking, MP3 players, Internet radio, Podcasting and satellite radio (and let’s not forget downloaded apps and widgets abounding)." 

As I read Peter's email I realized that present day terresterial radio is not quite good enough, and it appears that we all want something new. So who leads the pack in this new radio zoo? According to Vision Critical Research Pandora is the something new that leads in this new radio zoo.

 

Radio is awfully old-fashioned

It just so happened that a few days after reading through Peter's email I receive an invite from none other then Tim Westergen, founder of  Pandora, to attend a town hall meeting. I am not one to look away when kismet, or syncronizcity like that falls upon me, so of course I attended the town hall. I walked in to the downtown Portland, OR, office of  Wieden + Kennedy for the town hall thinking about modern radio and the Dr. Seuss quote that was the guide for this blog. It didn't take long once Tim started speaking that I realized he was the Gerald McGrew of the new radio zoo. Tim epitomizes the not quite good enough I want something new success story. The passion of a musician with a vision for his fellow musicians. He realized that present day musicians were limited on modern radio and that was just not good enough. His desire for something new lead him across the country in a van, talking and listening to anybody who would in 1999 about his Music Genome Project. Who knew, that Tim was a true blue Gerald McGrew? A little over ten years in what Tim does is travel the country, now by plane, and talk and listen and continue to strive from an altruistic passion of realizing something was not quite good enough in his realm, and what he did was create somethign new in the terresterial radio zoo- Pandora.

I want something New!

It was fascinting to hear not only Tim but his many fans and listeners discuss meta data, the 400 points of musicology and the magic formula that creates the Music Genome Project. A project that has lead to Pandora being number one, for now. A service that has done zero paid advertising, (other then giving out free T-shirts at the town halls, made by American Apparel) and grown 100% through word of mouth, or more appropriately through viral sharing.

Tim talked about the thumbs up and down of Pandora, he was open to hearing about the things that needed to be done to make Pandora even better. One of the things that was brought up was that when using the thumbs down of Pandora it begins to limit your playlist - "you paint yourself into a corner" Tim explained - skipping is "neutral" and thumbs up brings in more music choices based on the more you use thumbs up of your music universe expands. For me that was an aha moment because this is what the technology age can be about zoo goers. In my opinion Tim explained it best, "if you simply skip what you don't like and thumbs up what you like and only thumb down what you really just don't ever want to hear ever again - you get a much better experience." I think young Tim Westergen expresses a great philosophy that goes far beyond Pandora - thumbs up.                                                            

pic clint koehler flikr

Dialsmith opens European office in London, UK

Dialsmith proudly welcomes Chris Boniface as Client Relations Manager, Europe, to head our new UK office. Chris will spearhead our efforts to better serve European clients with a base of operations in London. 

 

 

Dialsmith's office is in the area of Old Bailey in St. Paul's, a great hub for conducting business around London and throughout Europe.

Press release  About Chris Boniface

Contact info

ESPN releases results from 3D TV study

ESPN has released results from a study on consumer interest in, enjoyment of, and recall from 3D televison viewing. In conjunction with Dialsmith clients Duane Varan and Disney Research Lab in Austin, TX, various methodologies we used in this study, including the Perception Analyzer.

"The results from this comprehensive research project support what we have said time and time again – fans have a higher level of enjoyment when viewing 3D. Plus, for advertisers, this study provides good news on the level of fan engagement when viewing 3D ads,” said Artie Bulgrin, senior vice president of ESPN Research + Analytics. “This study will help us continue to develop ESPN 3D as an industry leader for event-based 3D viewing.”