Radio is very much the follower when it comes to trends. Mark Adams at CBS in Houston is pretty enlightened and observant and is generally 3-6 months ahead of the rest of radio when it comes to stuff. He told me about youtube about a full year before I ever heard about it from anyone else. Ditto with Instagram. Twitter. His radar is always up and pinging.
Mark said something to the effect of “We’re so desperate to be liked that we’ll glom on to something like Facebook like we invented it, and will look like idiots because by the time we stumble on it, it’s a fundamental in the lives of probably a third of our audience.”
Swag is kind of that way. Going out to a beach and giving someone a drink cup with the accordion straw thingy circa 1990 is going to make you look a little dated. Drink bottles are great but they’ve evolved a little since the first Bush presidency.