NEXT BATTER UP IN THE VIDEO BALLGAME . . . APPLE:  Well you knew this wouldn’t take long.  Now that the likes of Netflix and Facebook are getting serious about video content as a way to disrupt the TV industry, get ready for other techs to run the same play.  And now Apple is up to the plate.  According to the Wall Street Journal Apple is planning to invest $1B in custom video content over the next 12 months.  With that kind of bank Apple could launch its own production studio and fund about 10 new shows.  Obviously the shows will have to be strong to attract an audience.  As Netflix just proved with the Shondaland poach from ABC, the demand for high-end creative talent is soaring.  It’s worth noting that Apple doesn’t have a ton of experience in content production.  So far their organizational skill set has proven to have limits.  No doubt they’re the preeminent hardware creators in tech, but they’re not as good at monetizing media.  So video content will definitely require Apple to flex a new set of muscles.  Should be interesting to watch this one play out.

GOING DEEP ON AUTO DEALERSHIP DATA:  The NADA is out with a useful set of stats around auto dealerships’ revenues and correlated ad spending in the US.  There’s ton of data in the attached Inside Radio link, with most of the auto info in the front half of the article.  Here’s a quick summary of the most relevant points:

• US Domestic Dealerships Ad Spending is +1.5% YTD at an average of $244,835 annualized
• US Foreign Dealership Ad Sending is -1.2% YTD at an average of $325,043 annualized
• Domestic Dealers spend 8.2% of gross revenue on adverting, while Foreign Dealers spend 8.5% of their gross
• Luxury Brand Dealerships YTD Spending is -5.2%, while Mass-Market Dealers are +3.9% YoY
• 56% of Dealerships’ revenue comes from New Car Sales, and 31% comes from Used/Preowned

My take away on these stats – there’s so much doom and gloom going on with US Auto right now as sales hit a cyclical cool down after seven years of straight growth.  But if you get inside the numbers at the dealership level you can find pockets of growth and marketing opportunities.

POWERFUL ADVICE, REAL INSPIRATION:  Finally today, I’d like to leave you with one of the most inspirational commencement addresses ever.  This video is from Denzel Washington’s speech at the Dillard University graduation ceremony in May, 2015.  There are so many powerful themes in packed into this four minutes that it almost gives me goosebumps.  Fail big.  Problem solve outside the box.  A dream without goals is just a dream.  Hard work works.  Don’t confuse movement with progress.  When you achieve success reach back and pull someone else up.  Each one teach one.  And my favorite . . . don’t just make a living, aspire to make a difference.  It’s almost as if Denzel was playing a part in one of his movies, but this is a real speech to a live audience.  If you want a road map for going from good to great in your life this is as good a place as any to start.  Go full screen on this one and turn up the volume – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Have a great Thursday guys!

TOP DIGITAL STATS:   AdWeek hasn’t done a roundup of the top digital stats in a few weeks (summer vaca?), so yesterday’s list feels like sort of a catch up of the past few weeks.  Pandora made the list with Edison’s study of music consumption on Amazon Echo devices.  As if we needed any stats to prove ice cream’s consumption surge during the summer months, you’re covered in the Bonus Stat section.  And I’m not really sure what’s going on with the 8-yo boy drag queen video in #3, but 28M people have watched it.  Somebody must have a ton of time on their hands!  Enjoy this week’s list.

BRANDS COME BACK TO YOUTUBE:  After a six month boycott of YouTube Verizon is beginning to advertise on the platform again.  Remember how the initial issue came about – brands became aware of (and then outraged by) the fact that they had no control over video content their ads were running adjacent to.  So an innocent Verizon ad could run before a video from a hate group or even ISIS terrorist propaganda.  So brands pulled off YouTube immediately to do damage control and pressure Google (YT’s owner) to clean up its game.  Since then Google has implemented more stringent screening measures for what content makes it’s on their video platform, and more importantly allow 3^rd party tracking for the first time.  These moves were enough to convince Verizon (and others) to cautiously return.  In Verizon’s case they’ll be using IAS’s new Ad Analytics Tracker to keep YouTube honest.  Don’t be surprised if content verification for OLV becomes a standard ask of all publishers, even if they never had an issue with objectionable content.

MY CRAP-O-METER JUST WENT OFF:  Finally today, I need to unload on Inside Radio and their cohorts at Westwood One (both owned by broadcast radio operators), for publishing yet another BS hit piece about Pandora.  The main point of today’s article in Inside Radio is that Pandora’s “limited reach” means marketers will max out on who hears their message and then start to over saturate P’s audience with too much frequency.  Here are my two biggest problems with the article.  First, WW1 is comparing Radio’s reach and frequency to Pandora as if Radio is one entity.  But Radio’s stats are compiled from the aggregate of 11,341 commercial radio stations across the country.  No advertiser ever buys every station all at once, so to tout the collective reach as something brands can buy is misleading.  In fact, it would be interesting to see how individual stations’ reach/frequency stack up to P in any given market, instead of comparing it to the entire Radio universe.  And second, WW1’s assertion that “Radio’s grows frequency gradually”, even as brands spend up to 250 GRPs per week is nonsense.  Are any brands besides iHeart running 250 GRPs in a week anymore?  Of course not – so don’t try to prove your point with hyperbole.  Even if a brand did buy a heavy radio schedule in a given market, stations can’t de-duplicate the number of times the same ad is being heard across the different stations.  So without that data point WWI has to average the frequency between each station in the market, instead of aggregating what listeners are actually hearing.  As you can tell, I could go on for days about the kaka in this piece.  I just hope brands don’t get sucked in to Radio’s fallacy of reach, and have full transparency on what they’re running on individual stations.

Have a great Wednesday guys!

NETFLIX FLIPS THE SCRIPT ON THE MOUSE:  It’s officially war between Netflix and Disney.  You may recall last week Disney announced it was pulling all of its content from Netflix in 2019 to start its own OTT service.  Now in a counterpunch move Netflix has poached Shonda Rhimes and her entire production company Shondaland away from ABC.  Rhimes and team have been the creative content machine for ABC over the past decade with shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” to their credit.  By hiring Ms. Rhimes Netflix is acknowledging the fact that content is king (which is the same muscle Disney flexed last week), but then flipped the script by literally stealing the content engine right out from one of the big networks.  It’s a brilliant pivot by Netflix to outflank Disney by using it’s very own leverage.  This announcement will cause reverberations across the TV industry, because now streamers like Netflix are now competing as a distribution channel and also as a platform for original network-caliber content.

SHAREABLES:  Yesterday I participated as a speaker at a Tech Media Digital Conference in Minneapolis.  One of the collateral pieces to come out of this event came from a blogger called Toprank Marketing.  For the event they produced an eBook of quotes to “Supercharge Your Digital Marketing”.  If you go into the attached Toprank link and then click into each speaker (including yours truly), you’ll see a digital marketing tip within each presenters’ respective field of expertise.  Taken as a whole it’s a useful collection of snippets which could assist brands and agencies in organizing their future digital strategies.  Thought it was worth the share!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  And finally today, I’ve seen the image below exploding on LinkedIn over the past few days.  It’s such a cool and simple analogy.  Not sure if this is a true story or not, but it speaks volumes about what employers should really be looking for during the interview process.  Relatable experience, a job-specific skill set, and relationships are key ingredients in the right hire.  But I liken those assets to putting your name on a test – anyone being interviewed should bring these elements.  The true difference maker an employee brings is often in their drive to succeed.  Show me exceptional drive, effort and will power, and you’ll always have a place on my team!

Have a great Tuesday guys!

ALEXA . . . PLAY PANDORA:  We’re starting to see a growing body of research around what’s being consumed through voice-enabled digital assistants like Amazon Echo.  The latest research comes from Edison who followed the behaviors of 444 Echo owners as they gave over 15,000 commands to Alexa.  So what are we using these devices for?  In a nut shell, we’re listening to music . . . and a lot of it!  During the study 58% of respondents used their Echoes to listen to music for an astounding 4:34 of average listening time per week.  And this in-home audio consumption is typically a shared experience, with 77% of study participants listening to music with family and friends.  AdWeek provides a full summary of Edison’s findings in the attached link.  While today’s data is great news for audio streamers like Pandora, I’m guessing we’re just in the top of the first inning of connected device listening with so much more growth to come.

FACEBOOK TWISTS THE KNIFE:  It’s fairly common knowledge that Facebook’s Instagram is taking Snapchat to the woodshed with its copy-cat Stories feature, which it launched a year ago.  But what we didn’t realize is just how early FB knew it was hurting Snap.  Over the weekend news broke that FB has been using it’s Onavo VPN (Virtual Private Network) to collect and analyze data on user interaction with Snapchat.  In other words, if your company uses Onavo as its VPN FB can watch how you’re using Snapchat in order to set its Instagram strategy.  Apparently this is perfectly legal under Onavo’s user privacy agreement, but it seems scary powerful.  Talk about a competitive advantage FB was able to leverage to squash an upstart competitor!

ADS ARE GETTING REALLY PERSONAL:  Do you remember the 2002 Tom Cruise movie Minority Report?  I saw it in an actual movie theater (yes, I’m old).  Of all the Hollywood future tech featured in that movie the thing I remember the most is the scene with the OOH advertising which could recognize you by your retina and then deliver customized ads as you passed the interactive billboards.  So could this kind of dynamic advertising actually happen?  The retailer Cost Plus World Market is taking a baby step in that direction with its current shopper-customized print campaign.  The creative is customized down to the name, location, type of home, and lifestyle of each consumer receiving the ads.  So how is Cost Plus doing this?  According to AdWeek the solution is old school simple – they’re just asking customers to enter personal information about themselves into a website.  Then they turn that data is into amazingly personalized (not to mention contextually relevant) ads.  Granted, this approach may not be as automated as the instant retina recognition in Minority Report, but it plays to the same theory that advertising customized to individual consumers is the way of the future.

BONUS HIT:  Here’s a quick follow from Friday’s article about SoundCloud’s last ditch funding effort.  According to RAIN SoundCloud took the money – $170M for majority ownership of the company.  Included in the deal are a new CEO and CFO.  So has SoundCloud bought enough time to turn things around?  I think you could read in to founder Alexander Ljung’s statement two ways when we says “As I said, we’re not going anywhere.”  Only time will tell.

Have a great Monday guys!

MORE EARNINGS CALL PAIN FOR SNAP:  Yesterday Snap, Inc. reported a pretty big miss on all key metrics in its Q2 Earnings Call.  Digiday has a concise summary of their results in the attached link.  While they’re technically still in “growth mode”, Snapchat’s Daily Active Users growth is flattening to just +7% over Q1.  Since inventory is created through user interaction, if usage drops so do the number of ad units needed to drive topline revenue growth.  As expected Wall Street reacted negatively to the news with the stock dropping 12% after hours.  Once you get past all the minutia of the Street’s forecast vs. results, Snap’s issue really comes down to one thing . . . they have not found a way to counterpunch against Facebook’s Instagram Stories, which was a direct clone attack against Snapchat’s most popular product feature.  Snap’s problems can best be explained in the following Tweet.  Until they figure this one out I’d expect the pain to continue.

FACEBOOK GOES ALL IN ON VIDEO:  Speaking of Facebook, up until now video on has been ancillary on the platform, with product features like a Video Tab and Facebook Live getting relatively little traction.  But that’s about the change when FB launches its new Watch platform.  Watch will include long form episodic videos, original content from over 30 producers, and even some live MLB games.  By upping the ante on hubbed video content FB is hoping to better compete with Google’s YouTube and even try to outflank OTTs like Netlfix and Amazon.  When you combine this development with Wednesday’s announcement from Disney that it’s pulling content from Netlfix in 2019, you get the impressions that a video battle royale is about to break out among the tech giants.  Makes you wonder what shape NBC, CBS, ABC  and Fox are going to be in after this all shakes out. My guess is they’ll have much lower ratings thanks to many new tech buddies in their video sandbox.

SOUNDCLOUD’S JUDGEMENT DAY:  Finally this week, we may be nearing the conclusion of the long, sad saga of SoundCloud.  According to RAIN a pair of investment groups from Singapore is offering SoundCloud a cash lifeline of $170M in return for majority ownership in the streamer.  SoundClound CEO Alexander Ljung has reportedly told investors that if this deal isn’t accepted by today they may not be able ”to continue as a going concern.”  This sets up a Sword of Damocles moment for investors who much choose between giving up over half of their equity for a relatively small amount of cash, or reject the offer and face probable bankruptcy.  I’m just wondering what SoundCloud would do with a fresh $170M to turn their business around?  Obviously they’re bleeding money no matter what.  So if they agree to this latest cash infusion are they just pushing off their inevitable demise?

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!

GOOGLE NAMES NAMES:  A few months ago Google announced it would begin screening and eventually blocking 3^rd party publisher ads on Chrome which they deem as unsuitable or annoying.  This raised some eyebrows since Google is effectively appointing itself judge and jury to determine the acceptability of ads.  Now Google is out with a preliminary evaluation of 10,000 sites which run ads through their Chrome browser.  Yesterday Digiday reported the first round of ratings from Google’s Ad Experience Report.  700 publishers were deemed as “failing”, including several big name newspaper websites.  Hundreds of other sites received warnings, meaning they weren’t total fails but needed to improve.  The most common reasons for getting on Google’s naughty list was full-page interstitials and pop-up ads – obviously these are the most intrusive ads and are most disruptive to visitors’ experiences.  This report is just an early warning of what’s the come.  Google has told publishers it will begin blocking failing ads in 2018, with the hope that the at-risk publishers will clean up their platforms before then.  Should be interesting to watch when this standard goes live in Q1.

THE MOUSE IS GOING IT ALONE:  In the media industry there’s been an age-old power struggle between the actual content and the distribution channels.  Using cable as an example, does Comcast have the power in the relationship or does ESPN?  We’re about to see another chapter in this debate unfold after yesterday’s announcement from Disney that it will be pulling content from Netflix in 2019, in order to start it’s own Disney-exclusive OTT service.  Disney is one of the few media conglomerates out there with enough content to go it alone.  But there are others too, including Viacom, NBCUniversal, etc..  Could you imagine what would happen if all these guys started to pull themselves off Netflix too?  Speaking of, Netflix will need to put its own production studio into overdrive to self-generate enough content to make up for losing The Mouse.  So maybe the content provider does have more power in the relationship after all?

“VOICE IS THE NEW TOUCH”, PERFECTLY SUMMARIZED:  Interest in audio advertising is starting to heat up as the purchases of voice-activated digital assistants begins to surge.  The logic trail is simple – as more connected devices become voice-enabled there will be less of a need for screens and keyboards, which means Voice will eventually supplant Touch as the primary way humans interact with technology.  And in this Age of Voice audio will become an even more important tool for marketers who can’t just rely on visual platforms like display and video to reach consumers.  This scenario is perfectly summarized in the attached Brand Channel link.  There’s a ton in here, so give it a good read. I especially like the three questions 360i President Jared Belsky poses to brands . . . “(1) What should I do to prepare for when Voice is the driver of ecommerce? (2) What content do I have to think about to increase my chances to be the preferred answer with these devices? (3) Will all my search budget one day migrate onto these devices?”  I agree that these are important questions for all marketers to answer as we drive towards the Age of Voice.

Have a great Thursday guys!

GUESS WHO RADIO’S TOP ADVERTISER IS?:  Yesterday you may have seen my rant about AM/FM Radio accusing Pandora of increasing its ad load, which is an unbelievable hypocrisy given Radio’s own bloated stop sets.  Then I came across the attached RadioInk article which perfectly summed up my argument and made me feel better.  During the past week iHeart Radio displaced Home Depot as the “top radio advertiser” by running 42,418 house ads in a seven day period.  Think about that for a minute – iHeart exposed it’s listeners to 2,545 hours of unnecessary commercials in one week to promote itself.  I just have two questions on this . . . Why is iHeart’s sales team leaving so much unsold inventory on the table?  And second, if the Radio industry is so concerned about ad clutter why wouldn’t they just stop running house ads and play more music?  I’m guessing iHeart’s audience would rather hear songs instead of ads for their streaming service, music fests, etc., but that’s just my humble opinion.

THE DEATH OF THE FAT FINGER:  Everyone who’s ever seen a digital ad knows the “fat finger” problem – you try to X out of an ad but inadvertently click into the site being advertised, and then have to quickly back track to return to where you wanted to be in the first place.  It’s annoying for users and even worse for brands who end up paying for fat finger clicks.  In an effort to clean up this problem publishers like Facebook are trying to tighten the guidelines on what’s counted as a click.  FB’s solution is to require users to stay on a site for two seconds after the click before it’s registered as valid.  Right now this new standard is only being applied to the Facebook Ad Network (FAN), which is currently home to many click bait ads served by 3^rd party networks.  It’ll be interesting to see if this new standard takes hold, and if other publishers follow FB’s lead.  Anything to reduce or even eliminate fat fingering would be a step in the right direction for all of us.

INTERESTING TECH, BUT CAN THEY PULL IT OFF?:  Here’s sort of a novel idea from NextRadio.  (For a refresher, NextRadio is the Radio industry’s app which aggregates all participating station streams into one platform.  It’s sort of a noble effort spearheaded by Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan to drag terrestrial radio kicking and screaming into the digital age.)  While NextRadio’s scale isn’t significant yet, they’re working on some connected car tech which is worth being aware of.  According to the attached MediaPost interview article, NextRadio’s engineering team is working on functionality which will allow listeners to press a button on their steering wheels to save an audio ad as they hear it for playback later when they’re not driving.  This could solve the age-old dilemma of Call To Actions (like “call this number” or “click this website”) during an active driving environment.  Realistically speaking, this seems like a very difficult hardware solution to implement.  Can you imagine getting 25ish OEMs to add steering wheel buttons to hundreds of car models any time soon?  But maybe it could be a touchscreen button on a in-dash app instead.  Regardless, it’s an interesting concept to ponder.

Have a great Wednesday guys!

THE IRONY OF RADIO’S CLUTTER ARGUMENT AGAINST PANDORA:  In this morning’s Inside Radio there’s an article bashing Pandora about a supposed 67% increase in ad load – from 3.3 units per hour to 5.3.  I have no idea if these stats are correct, but for the sake of argument let’s assume they are.  Does anyone else find it ironic that AM/FM Radio would be deriding Pandora for ad clutter?  5.3 ads per hour comes to about 2 minutes of commercials, since Pandora plays a blend of :15s and :30s.  By comparison typical FM stations play 12-13 minutes of commercials per hour, and AM stations are north of that at around 15-16 minutes.  And to make these mega-spot loads even worse, Radio stop sets are like a petting zoo of all different ad types – including :60s, :30, :15s, bookends, blinks, live reads, traffic sponsorships, and station promos.  If you think I’m exaggerating put on a commercial radio station now, sit through an entire commercial break, and actually concentrate on what you’re hearing.  It’s unlistenable!  While the rest of the article is actually pretty Pandora-positive, the headline about 5.3 units per hour being a bad thing is laughable.  What’s that saying about people living in glass houses and stone throwing?

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM:  Last week the Fox network announced to would run six-second TV ads for the first time during its Teen Choice Awards on August 13^th.  It’s an interesting copy-cat move for a traditional TV network which is trying to become more digital-ish.  On digital video platforms like Hulu and YouTube short form OLV ads were born out of necessity, because they had to keep ads brief in order to avoid losing eyeballs as viewers waited for content.  Over time these became an effective norm on the digital side.  So now, in order to compete in an increasingly digital video market (graph below), Fox is trying the same play as the digital publishers.  This is just an experiment initially, running during a teen show which presumably has viewers who are most used to short form video ads.  The units are very inexpensive by network standards, starting at just $75K.  It’ll be interesting to see how much market demand there is for the units, and if short-form video becomes more prevalent on the network side.

GOING “LESS IS MORE” WITH BRAND NAMES:  Here’s a fun thought to leave you with today.  As you may have heard Dunkin’ Donuts is considering shortening its name to just “Dunkin”.  The change would allow Dunkin to offer more diverse menu items because they’re not landlocked into a breakfast/donut-based brand.  The move also hearkens to the “less is more” school of branding where a single word, logo, or even sound can stand for an entire image which is much more than the literal definition of the word(s) themselves.  It’s why “The Facebook” became “Facebook, because at some point it was no longer just a book of the faces of fellow coeds at Harvard.  For a funny take on what this trend could mean for the rest of the QSR industry, check out the AdFreak article (and logo artwork) in the attached AdWeek link.  Would you eat a burger from a place just called “Guys”, or does it need to have the “Five” in there too?  And if Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. do eventually merge into one brand do you think it’s a good idea to go with “Hard Carl”, or god forbid “Carl’s Hard”?  (sorry, that was terrible)

Have a great Tuesday guys!

NEXT TECH IS COMING:  To get the week started I’d like to introduce the concept of Next Tech to you.  This emerging field is focused on how technology will transform all aspects of our lives, and not just applications confined to today’s smart phones and laptops.  Over the next month AdWeek will be highlighting various Next Tech innovations.  To kick things off check out the attached link, which features some of the most interesting emerging Next Tech ideas.  You’ve heard of some of these products already – like Facebook’s Occulus AR headset, Google’s Glass Enterprise wearables, and Amazon’s Echo voice-enabled assistant.  But that’s not the fun stuff.  Instead consider Microsoft’s HoloLens which will deliver a “mixed reality” platform by overlaying VR holograms on to what you see in the real world.  Or how about Alphabet’s (aka Google’s) Waymo autonomous driving tech which can retrofitted on to normal cars we all drive.  This is heavy stuff to be sure.  And it’s also an early sign of how transformative the practical applications of Next Tech will be on our lives over the next 10-20 years.

RETAILERS SHOULD WORRY LOSS ABOUT RENT AND MORE ABOUT PAYROLL COSTS:  If you’re a regular reader of this blog you know I often touch on eCommerce trends which are disrupting traditional Retail, and about how automation is impacting the US workforce.  Over the weekend I came across the following image in a WSJ research piece which perfectly encapsulates both trends into one example.  The image compares the P&L of selling a single pair of jeans in a B&M store vs. online.  The biggest variance between the two cost models is the labor needed to run the stores.  In this example labor costs $27 for every $150 pair of jeans sold.  By comparison eCommerce warehouse fulfillment only costs $5 per pair – so that’s a $22 difference.  That amount is almost exactly the $21 delta in profit between the two models.  Bottom line . . . labor cost is the single biggest reason why eCommerce is more profitable than B&M.  So is it any wonder that traditional retailers are racing to automate their in-store operations in order to better compete with their online brethren?

“IT’S A BOLD STRATEGY, COTTON”:  Yes, the day is finally here.  At the stroke of midnight tonight on 8/8 . . . wait for it . . . ESPN will flip the format of its ESPNU station to ESPN8 “The Ocho”.  If you’ve ever watched the movie Dodeball you’ve probably dreamed of the day Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks would actually be calling play-by-play for “seldom-seen sports from around the globe”.  Yes, this is actually a real thing.  Maybe it’s also a PR-stunt for a ratings challenged network, but it’s a creative way to get some attention.  Starting at midnight ESPN8 will air the following slate of programming.  I’m not sure what Kabaddi is, but since it’s the World Cup Final I’ll be sure to tune in.  And don’t miss the Moxie Games which ESPN describes as “an uncanny, new and amazing event which combines a variety of sports into one, such as dodgeball and juggling, martial arts and volleyball, and table tennis and soccer”.  Enjoy tomorrow, Ocho-nation!

Happy Monday guys!

WTF WAS ERIC SCHMIDT THINKING?!?:  Need to be honest here . . . I just about crapped my M&A pants after reading the attached TechCrunch article.  Rumors surfaced yesterday that Snap, Inc. has repeatedly rejected offers from Google for a $30B buyout (yes, that’s B for billion).  I don’t know what’s crazier to believe – that Google would offer a price which is twice Snap’s current market valuation, or that Snap would decline it?  There are so many sides to this story it’s hard to know what’s fact and what’s fiction.  On one hand, I get the interest in Snap’s technology side – imagine what Google’s nerd herd could do with that tech.  And I know Google would love to outflank Facebook in Social with a first mover like Snapchat.  But in the “hindsight is 20/20” department, the fact that FB has effectively cloned/killed Snapchat with Instagram Stories, this may go down as the best purchase Google never made. 

iHEART’S Q2 EARNINGS SHENNANIGANS:  During yesterday’s Q2 Earnings Call iHeart hailed another quarter of topline revenue growth – going +1.9% YoY.  For me most entertaining aspect of that number is Trade/Barter is now included in the revenue calculation – so they’re trading unsold inventory for trade credits which are counted as “revenue”.  It’s also worth noting the small matter of iHeart’s debt, which is still standing tall at $20.3B.  In the first six months of 2017 iHeart has paid $876M in interest payments alone – none of this went to paying down the principle.  A stat they didn’t highlight is that just over half of iHeart’s topline rev has gone to paying interest this year – so they’re basically in business to feed their creditors, instead of investing in their business or providing returns to their shareholders.  So if this is a good quarter for iHeart, what does a bad one look like?

WEEKEND INSPIRATION:  Finally this week, I’d like to leave you with an uplifting thought for the weekend.  If you know me professionally you’ve probably heard me espouse the virtue of Servant Leadership.  It’s the philosophy that true leaders flip the traditional org pyramid upside down.  So instead of managing down on their employees from above, leaders support their whole team from the bottom up.  I’ve believed this philosophy for my entire management career, and as it turns out someone else shares my beliefs.  Check out this quote from a person you may have heard of.  I couldn’t have said it any better, Abe!  (Editor’s Note:  I HATE when the words “man” or “men’s” is used in a generic form to represent all people, because I feel like it excludes women from the point being made.  Since Abraham Lincoln’s quote was from the mid-1800s I’ll give him a pass for not including women in his leadership reference.  If he were here to deliver this line today I believe he’d be a little more gender-inclusive.)

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!