IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN FOR RADIO ATTRIBUTION:  If you work in digital media you know attribution is becoming table stakes if you want to earn your way on to anything more than a test campaign.  Tracking purchase performance by those exposed to an ad vs. the non-exposed base is key to proving efficacy.  This only works when you know who’s seeing/hearing the ad, as digital publishers with logged-in users do.  So how do radio broadcasters, who can’t track individual listeners, demonstrate attribution?  Right now the solutions are very primitive – like your parents dropping you off on the first day of kindergarten primitive.  The attached Inside Radio article explains two new approaches.  CBS is working with a third party tracking firm to match specific times commercials run with in-store purchases.  Does this mean listeners are waiting in the parking lot to hear the ad and then running into the store to make a purchase?  Or even worse, iHeart’s approach to track and report individual impression delivery to show advertisers where/when the ad ran and what creative was heard.  What?  Isn’t this just providing proof of performance for ad delivery?  I think Broadcasters will be in for a rude awakening when they take one of these solutions in to a digital savvy client or agency.

FACEBOOK MAKES A PLAY FOR TV CONTENT DISTRIBUTION:  There’s a fascinating game of cat and mouse happening around digital distribution of TV content between FB and the networks right now, and you can’t really tell who is the cat and who’s the mouse.  On one side you have FB, whose video ambitions include distributing and monetizing Network TV content on their own platform and proprietary ad server.  On the other side you have the TV Networks who would love to open up a new distribution/revenue channel, but are wary about giving FB too much power in their industry.  The Networks know if they all aggregate on FB it could eventually become just as much of a “must have” as your typical cable provider, so they’re trying to test and learn without fully committing.  Right now the A&E Networks are the first ones in the pool.  Should be interesting to see who else joins them.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO ELON MUSK:  Last Friday Elon Musk participated in a Q&A-style TED talk.  The result was a glimpse into the future we’re about to live in.  The first topic (boring car-carrying tunnels underneath LA), is actually so staggering that the host doesn’t even know what questions to ask.  Then Mr. Musk proceeds to walk through a half dozen technological game changers which are in motion right now.  Self-driving electric cars, a completely autonomous long-haul trucking industry, and full-house solar roofs will all happen within the next 10 years.  It’s a long interview at 41 minutes, but stick with it if you can.  And if you only watch one thing go to 30:45 where they show video of a reusable Space-X rocket coming back in from orbit and landing on a floating down platform.  It’s actually humbling to think that mankind (much less a private company) could create something like this.  I know this isn’t really a media-specific piece, but if you plan being alive 10-20 years it’s totally worth watching.

Have a great Tuesday guys.