Cars have long been an important locus of media consumption in the U.S. In fact, automobile transportation and mass media developed in tandem — commuting behavior birthed drive-time radio, and interstate highways fueled the growth of the billboard industry. The ways in which mass mediareach people while in cars is iconographic and integral to the automotive experience.After Chevrolet installed the first car radio in the early 1920s, it took over a decade for the device to become standard in new vehicles. Similarly, today’s in-car environment has remained relatively insulated from the …

My contention is that brands have a major opportunity to become the driving force of positive change in the world, and to add value and purpose to people's lives. The opportunity is most profound for the brands and organizations with truly global influence. For those companies that get it right, the mistrust of the "No Logo" generation will be replaced by a genuine embrace from a population seeking a different relationship with brands -- one based on trust and mutual benefit.

Roughly a year after joining Discovery Communications, JB Perrette wants to talk about the future -- - not just next season, or even five years from now. He's ready to dish about how this company is growing beyond its cable-programming roots to become a "next-generation knowledge company."

Programmers race to add content and promote sharing across multiple smart devices Earlier this year, TBS took a big jump into the next frontier with a tablet app for Conan O’Brien’s late-night show. It’s already received a pretty good landing in the form of an Emmy nomination. Conan’s initiative, and similar ones by other networks, are a harbinger of where much of TV viewing is headed among the younger set. “Second-screen experiences” are starting to boom as the reach of iPads and other tablets widens.

Can the digital world get in front of the silver tsunami? Baby Boomers have always influenced media. Born between 1946 and 1964, they grew up with the television industry. As they innovated, the world gained email, and satellite TV, and the Internet, and … a whole new way for Boomers to consume content.Of course, it’s hard to think of 78 million Americans as a “niche.” Baby Boomers control roughly $230 billion in consumer packaged-goods sales, possess nearly 70 percent of the nation’s wealth and have $2.3 billion in disposable income. If that’s a niche, then it’s a powerful …

Two Forrester researchers explain the power of putting customers at the center of your world Over our past 14 years of research on customer experience, we’ve asked hundreds of executives at some of the world’s top companies about their organizational barriers and how best to overcome them. They assert that culture has the single biggest potential to drive customer-experience transformations.Companies need to socialize the importance of customer-centricity through storytelling, rituals, and training.Some Best Buy stores give [job] applicants a New York Times …

Lost in the Olympic hubbub this summer was some interesting news from a small creative advertising and media agency in Nashville called Redpepper, which is testing an innovative new marketing platform in Nashville combining social media, digital out-of-home, brick-and-mortar retail venues, and facial recognition.

By choosing the Silicon Prairie as base camp for its Google Fiber rollout, the company makes a statement about its pioneering status. And yes, everything is up to date in Kansas City. O pioneers!As Kansas Citians in both Missouri and Kansas race to pre-register their neighborhoods for the first Google Fiber connections, on neighborhood has thus far been overlooked. It’s the neighborhood Google calls home. In July, Google opened “Fiber Space,” a sleek showroom and event space in two small brick buildings on Westport …

Don’t be embarrassed. Considering the giant leap in personal technology we’ve experienced in our lifetime — raise your hand if you remember buying an extra-long cord so you could talk on the phone in the other room — we’re pretty hyped about the state of things. That phone in your pocket? The one that set you back a day’s pay? That thing has more computing power than nasa did in 1969, the year man landed on the moon. It has more editing and filming capability …

For a company that had just rolled out what was touted as a dramatic new plan, there seems to be a dearth of activity at the mothership. But Foursquare has always been the duck of the digital start-up world - kicking furiously beneath the water while co-founder Dennis Crowley maintains an air of millennial nu-slacker tranquility.