My Weather App Curses at Me – Why I Love That and What It Means for You
When Dick Cheney died, I wondered what the weather was for the rest of the day. Those are two completely unrelated items. Until I share that I opened my Carrot Weather app, and it said:
Storm clouds have formed over Raleigh because Dick Cheney has died. There’s a great chance for thunderstorms because he’s trying to argue his way into heaven.
There are dozens of weather apps to choose from. The Weather Channel, Weather Underground, AccuWeather, WeatherBug, NOAA Weather, Wunderground, and on and on. Every single one of them alike. They’re utilities to us – we just want weather information – so it doesn’t matter which we’re loyal to.
But not my Carrot Weather. It has attitude and edge, and it almost always makes me laugh because it’s topical. And it curses at me. Where I’m blah on all the above, this app entertains me while I’m getting the weather information. As a result, I don’t shrug my shoulders at Carrot. Even its name is different from all the above. What do carrots have to do with the weather? Nothing! I’m loyal to it because of these differences, and gladly pay their $30 yearly fee because I (we?) need more laughter in our lives.
The world has gotten edgier. Most comedians, with some exceptions, have an attitude that lives on the fringes. Our politicians curse. The memes we see online that make us feel something have a harsher edge. And now my weather app is there.
Every choice in any brand category starts from the perceptual position of “they’re all the same”. In radio, we live in a “sea of sameness”. This was a point I made on a recent podcast done for RJ Curtis at CRS. Pamal Broadcasting’s Kevin Callahan, and the terrific consultants Fred Jacobs and Randy Lane, and I talked about talent and the responsibility we have to differentiate ourselves in this morass of “we’re all alike” to listeners.
I’m certainly not suggesting you get on the air and curse like my weather app. But I am asking what imaginative things did you do on your show today? If you answer, “we launched a phone topic in the 8:00 hour and got great calls” or “we themed the trivia in our daily benchmark,” I’d probably buzz you out of the game. Because to the audience, that reinforces we’re all the same.
Carrot Weather is imaginative. When I got the app, it wanted to know my political leanings and how comfortable I was with profanity (that got dialed up to 11). Now, when I want to know the temps today, I get attitude and profanity before it tells me, making me laugh or emote in some way so I remember it and become more loyal because it does something its competitors don’t.
One of the points we made on the podcast was that radio doesn’t have a listening problem, it has a top-of-mind-awareness problem. Our curiosity and imagination must be re-captured if we’re ever going to fix that. And it’s okay to have an edge (important: if you don’t have a personality that is edgy then don’t be that – be who you are – but that’s not to say you can’t find someone who has it and bring that into your show).
Innovation takes us there, which is why Carrot Weather, when I now open the app, tells me it’s become a musical. It’s something quirky and new. It’s opening number is called “What the Eff Is This?” I bet 1:50 in you’ll be giggling and then curious if it’ll rain today.
I’m not Steve to the app. I’m Meatbag. Carrot the Musical continues – here’s I Hate You, Fun to Make Fun Of, and Human. My weather app keeps entertaining me. I just have to open the app every day to unlock the songs (more usage/more occasions). Doing all of this helps them separate from all the other weather apps. Instructional for us in radio, too. How do you separate from all the other stations?
We just concluded our yearly state fair in Raleigh. To make an appropriate analogy, radio is too much bumper cars, and not enough KMG Tango, a ride that spins and flips you in three separate directions all at the same time.
This is the one thing I preach to every show. Innovate, ideate, be weird and quirky. Come at things noticeably different, and push back on the standard things every show everywhere does with the topics. Go be a little odd and edgy. Because doing same old, same old won’t work any longer.
Rise above it by surrounding yourself with people of like mind so it influences your show. Be big and bold, have some swagger, and know how you will be noticeably (and at times dramatically) different from everything else out there. That is our best way of reigniting listeners’ passion for what we do.
Now, as Carrot Weather wants me to remind you, there’s no chance of rain today so go be fucking epic.