As Chief Marketing Officer at the Katz Media Group, Stacey Schulman is responsible for elevating the perception and currency of local broadcasting and radio, and driving overall growth for Katz Media Group’s station clients, of which there are many. The last time we interviewed Schulman, she was Executive Vice President of Strategy, Analytics and Research at Katz. She was promoted to CMO this past May, and has been with Katz since 2014. And, of course Schulman is one of Radio Ink‘s Most Influential Women in Radio. Over the next several weeks we’ll be posting extended interviews with several 2018 MIWs before the entire list is released to subscribers on June 18.
Stacey Schulman was the first research executive to ever be inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement, and was honored as the Gold Medal recipient in the Innovation category at the ARF’s Great Mind Awards. Stacey actively speaks at industry events including keynotes, moderating and panels, and is a go-to source for the press. Throughout her career she has been named the most quoted executive in the industry by Advertising Age’s Media Talk survey; a “Media All Star” in the research category by Mediaweek; honored as a “Media Maven” by Advertising Age; and profiled in Crain’s “40 Under 40 – New York’s Rising Stars” feature.
Stacey Schulman joined Katz from TVB, the television station marketing association, where she served as Chief Research Officer and was responsible for driving insights on the value of local broadcast television. Prior to TVB, Schulman served as Senior Vice President at Turner Broadcasting where she oversaw sales and marketing research across Turner’s entertainment and sports brands and their digital extensions. Schulman joined Turner from The Interpublic Group, where she was the President of the holding company’s Consumer Experience Practice. Prior to Interpublic, Schulman served as Executive Vice President, Director of Global Research Integration for Initiative, a media agency within the Interpublic family. Schulman began her career at Katz Communications conducting programming and local market research before moving on to spend several years at CBS.
Schulman’s team conducts primary research and custom client studies to unearth new insights about consumer behavior, evaluate successful national spot media campaigns, and promote the broadcast medium — benefiting Katz partners, advertisers and agencies. For example, she created and launched OurMedia, a new insights panel comprised of radio fans which works with multiple station partners to bring new research, analytics and insights to the industry, further proving radio’s effectiveness and value in the media mix.
Schulman earned a Master’s degree in Media Ecology from New York University and has a Bachelor’s degree in Radio/Television/Film from Northwestern University. She also taught at MIT as an adjunct faculty member in their Comparative Media Studies program.
When Schulman was promoted, Katz Media Group CEO Mark Gray said, “Stacey is a well-respected, thought-leader that brings an incredible amount of enthusiasm, vision, and insights to our industry. She has her pulse on the ever-changing media landscape and is always ahead of the game when it comes to consumer and media trends.”
Here is our extended interview with Stacey Schulman.
Radio Ink: Why do you believe you are successful? Give our readers an idea of how they can also reach the highest levels of success in our industry.
Stacey Schulman: They say that success has many fathers and failure makes many orphans, but that is exactly the kind of thinking that keeps executives from truly innovating. My entire career has been about trying new approaches and bringing new thinking to any problem, and I have been blessed with leadership that has both invited experimentation and tolerated failure. If you’re afraid to fail you will struggle with reaching the heights of the corporate world. You have to be bold, confident, and accountable with your contributions.
NOTE: Our MIW list will not be released online. It will only be available to paid subscribers. Subscribe to Radio Ink in time to receive our popular Most Influential Women in Radio issue. GO HERE
Radio Ink: What do you do to stay sharp?
Stacey Schulman: It is extremely hard today to stay current, let alone get ahead of the curve. There is a constant flow of “news” from any number of sources and the stress involved in just remaining knowledgeable is palpable. Staying curious is fundamental, but finding the time to learn and absorb it is the hard part. I make a ritual of learning and set aside time in my calendar to catch up and explore. Most of all, you have to TAKE BREAKS! Even if it’s just to walk around the block, everyone needs time to process information and make sense of it. In today’s world, there is an always-on spicket of information traveling at you with high velocity. Keeping up is not enough. You also need time to process and play with the implications of what you’ve learned.
Radio Ink: What are you doing to make the radio industry stronger, and why do you believe it’s important to help the industry grow?
Stacey Schulman: The great thing about radio is that it’s an amazingly vibrant product that works! We are working hard at advocating for radio in the lexicon of the new advertising age. That means using the vernacular of digital natives to explain the potency of radio as a social, attributable, and targetable medium.
Radio Ink: If we were able to put you on speaker phone and every radio manager was on the other end listening, what would you say to them?
Stacey Schulman: I’d probably tell them to spend some time gathering their best case studies about how their station enables real, tangible, community connections. Think about how to literally bring those stories to life. We are about to turn a corner in the marketing world away from the “me” narratives and toward the “we” narratives. As AI (artificial intelligence) permeates more and more aspects of our daily lives, “humanity” will be what consumers begin to rally around — and no one delivers the human side of life better than radio.
Radio Ink: What one goal has eluded you so far?
Stacey Schulman: I think it’s worthwhile to step back and acknowledge that it’s a challenge to be a working parent. I keep thinking I can crack the code and “do it all” but that goal continues to elude me.
Radio Ink: What do you want to see radio do better?
Stacey Schulman: I’d like to see radio — as an industry — get bolder about its ability to drive cultural currency. It’s amazing to me that radio is such a force among the culture industries, but no longer seems to get its fair share on the ad buy. We literally have the ability to set trends and drive behavior at massive scale. Let’s go for it!
Subscribe to Radio Ink in time to receive our popular Most Influential Women in Radio issue. GO HERE
