The Tivo Effect is a Podcasting mashup of a white Paper (you can get a copy by going to our agency’s front page) that I did in the spring of 2004 and an article I recently read in the Wall Street Journal about New Balance, the athletic shoe company.

First Tivo. When I wrote the white paper I had recently bought a TIVO system. Like most advertising agencies we were starting to think about the effects of the digital video recorder on advertising – which we call the Tivo Effect.

The white paper, “The Tivo Effect”, discussed our thoughts on the effect of Tivo. But rather than worry about lost viewership we discussed the opportunities that come from video on demand television (VOD).

The second part of this Podcast is our assessment of the fantastic idea that New Balance is creating its very own cable TV show, “Exercisetv”, that will run on on-demand cable systems. Hey, when your budget is puny compared with Nike’s you have to be smarter. New Balance is doing just that.

Here is a bit from the press release:

PHILADELPHIA, PA – January 18, 2006 – Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the country’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services and Jake Steinfeld, of Body by Jake, today announced the launch of exercisetv – the first comprehensive on-demand network dedicated to fitness, sports instruction and motivational programming. Exercisetv offers consumers unprecedented access to the world’s leading fitness video/DVD producers 24 hours a day, seven days a week on video on demand. Developed by Comcast and founded by Jake Steinfeld, with New Balance and Time Warner Cable as additional equity partners, exercisetv now is available to Comcast and Time Warner customers with video on demand.

I love that New Balance is, yeah, just doing it.

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This show is my first of many interviews. I took a hard look at my list of friends, acquaintances and upcoming travels and I have over 100 people that I think both you and I would like to hear expound on various subjects including radio (today’s show), the future of Internet marketing, how major advertisers choose ad agencies, the happenings at a Podcasting conference and best practices in email marketing. Hopefully I will be able to control bloviation.

Today’s show is an interview with Keith Shipman, President and CEO of Horizon Broadcasting Group, which owns and operates five very successful radio stations in Oregon.

Prior to becoming a radio executive, Keith worked in Seattle TV and radio broadcasting for over 17 years. His credentials include 13 years at KCPQ (FOX) as the Sports and Public Affairs Director. Keith also worked at KOMO-AM and KIRO- AM, two of Seattle’s major AM radio stations.

During his career he was awarded three regional Emmy Awards and was selected Washington State’s Sportscaster of the Year on three occasions.

My interview with Keith covers the state of radio advertising today, the effect of Satellite radio (XM and Sirius) and how best to use radio as an advertising medium. At the end of the interview, we discussed radio’s ROI and Keith mentioned the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab’s “Radio’s ROI Advantage” research study. You can read the study by visiting the Lab’s site.

I hope that you enjoy this show. It is jam packed with lots of in-depth information on the current and future states of radio advertising.

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Steve Rubel of the great Blog Micro Pursuasion points to an eMarketer article that says:

The Podcasting report looks at a medium that has sprung up – with apologies to Steve Jobs – out of almost nowhere.

The audience for Podcasts has shown meteoric growth, particularly in the US. It is variously projected to reach between 20 million and 80 million by 2010.

While advertising on Podcasts is in its infancy, the nature of the audience and strong growth already have major brands investing in Podcast-based promotion. More advertising and sponsorship will inevitably follow.

I am asked all the time “What is the size of the Podcast universe?” Well, eMarketer is helping us to start to give relatively sane information to clients. I say relatively because – who really knows? My bet however is with eMarketer because we have yet to see the jet fuel that will come from smarter better produced shows as well as sponsorship dollars and Podcasts as stand alone marketing shows (Think of IBM’s current use of Podcasting.) This is all very much in its infancy and the best is still a ways out.

If you think Google’s herds of engineers are just banking their options head on over to Google Labs and play around.

Here are a couple of favorites:

Google SMS. Short messages for your phone. Answers to questions like: local movie listings, movie times, the weather, stock quotes.

Google Transit. The future of transit information…. Now in Portland only.

Google Ride Finder. Need a cab in Palo Alto or Tucson or New York?

Personalized Search. A bit Big Brotherish but it’s a search based on your past search experience.

Google Page Creator lets anyone regardless of smarts build an instant website using a WYSIWYG html interface. This site was so busy at launch Google had to shut it down.

And while your at it check out Google Video where they just put up the National Archives videos.

I’m in love and I need something special to send. But what?

How about something new and different? Organic flowers from Organic Bouquet? I love this company’s idea:

“Organic Bouquet offers the finest floral gifts sourced from growers that are committed to the highest social and environmental standards. Our flowers are grown and harvested using practices that aim to improve the quality of farm working conditions, minimize damage to ecosystems, conserve biodiversity, and enhance environmental quality for future generations. Each bouquet in our collection is hand selected and shipped fresh from the farm, ensuring optimal product quality upon delivery.”

With organic every thing growing like mad these guys hit a homerun. And, if you think that they are limited to just one idea…. Read about their promotion targeted at United Nations World Environment Day. Very fresh stuff.