Feast On Our Cume

For the most part when buyers look at radio they lean on the average persons and rating point numbers.  The main currency revolves around 'how many people will hear the commercial.' But, no one goes into a marketing program on radio buying just one commercial.  You wouldn't walk into a casino and take the $2,000 dollars you were going to spend and put it all on one number.

Radio has sold itself in the advertising world by often leaving our best player on the bench for the whole game.  That player is our CUME.  The total sum of the audience that listens to the station sometime over the rating period.   Back in the diary days we'd see a Cume number that was made up of an average of the audience we collected over an average week during the survey period.   Usually it was a pretty big number showing a couple of stations maybe reaching 25% of their total market population.

Of course that number came from people remembering to write down the stations they listened to and how long they listened.  Now that we have the people meter in the field we can see how wrong the 'recalled numbers' from the audience are compared to their real behavior.   It the world of Cume it looks like the diary method caught around 55-65% of the actual Cume numbers for most stations.  If you look at a market leading station like WDVE in Pittsburgh in the Diary days it was usually around 450,000 for the cume - reaching a little under 25% of the market which is just over 2 million.  In a PPM world WDVE is often 200,000 higher in the Cume numbers with over 600,000 listeners.   In fact we usually see 3-4 stations that are above 600,000 in cume in this market each of them reaching around 30-33% of the market.  If you segment the market to Women or Men or Younger and Older you can easily reach 50-60% of the market for that demo just by picking the leading station.  

When you look at all the marketing options for a product today there are really very few options where you can really 'reach the market' with a vehicle.  Yes you have TV as a big reach contender but when you have only 4-6 local channels and they compete on the same cable box with 400 other channels and a DVR the reach of the media falls back.  Radio's reach is also very consistent with over 90% of the market using the media every week for decades upon decades of data.

For years we've put Cume in the backseat.  But we still sell radio and any other media with the goal of reaching the biggest share of the market possible.  When we look at a You Tube video campaign - the first number that matters is the 'total views'.   The fact that Jeff Gordon's Pepsi Test Drive video spoof is over 38 million views is the number that really counts and the one that the Pepsi guys are toasting over.

The problem is that we've really never had a reliable Cume number to sell with.  The averages that often made up our Cume in the diary books are now proven to be way under estimating the real Cume.  And since most campaigns run more than just on 'average' week any average week cume number is also way underestimating the real cume audience that the 2-3 week campaign could have reached.  It's also like guessing how many stars in the sky tonight - it depends on how many you can see, and our vision is limited.

In marketing a product the goal is to buy a campaign to reach as much of the market and the target as possible with your resources. The more people you get your message to the more people in the store, the more product moved off the shelves, the more car shoppers in the lot, the more people sitting down to dinner, the more people clicking on the buy button and the more people following you on social media and becoming 'fans' of your brand.   To accomplish any of the goals we just listed you have to reach a big Cume with your message.  Just putting out a steady stream of messages to your 300 fans on Facebook is a not much of a marketing plan to increase your revenue.  You need to reach a much bigger number to have an impact and that's CUME.

Radio has that CUME.   Perhaps our problem is that instead of putting that CUME in the game we've left it on the bench - just pinch hitting here and there in our game.  Could it play every day?  Could it win games?  Well coach, maybe it's time to find out.  

Maybe what we really need is a better understanding of the Cume number and a better measurement of it in EVERY market.  If the buyers of media really understood Cume and if the clients we sell to really understood how to use the Cume to build their brands, ring their cash registers, build their fan base and learn to use radio to take full advantage of our huge Cume audience we would be seeing our revenue shares making some meaningful gains.

Your Community

Nearly every conversation on terrestrial radio's assets lists being 'local' at, or near, the top.  Great stations are the ones that DO embrace their community and most station teams work very hard to stage events, raise funds, as well as helping organizations and individuals.

It's an unprofitable investment when you look at it on a spread sheet at budget time.   All the man hours spent setting up events, attending meeting after meeting on the Blues Festival in the park, and bringing in extra people as we broadcast from the local fair for the weekend.  While many staffers 'donate' their time and work extra just to help you still need people and people cost money to have around.  You can see some stations are fading away in interacting with the community.   They have paired down their staffs with air talent on multiple stations, fewer bodies in the building to do all the work it takes to get into all the events and community needs.

You can also visualize the minute by minute Media Monitors PPM rating graphs sinking as you spend another break helping the local hospital raise funds for a children's wing.  We've all done huge festivals and participated in events with great local media coverage and opened up the rating book to see 'nothing' in return.  Sometimes we seem to do it mostly for 'logo exposure.'   Get the banners up, park the van and set up the tent - we're there.  Other times we just hope to get a mention on the local TV news - only to be known as 'a local radio station.'

Community IS very important and when you see how stations jump in and really make community events shine that is when you get real value.  This is when you build images that really stand out with the audience and make lasting impressions that may not translate into instant ratings or revenue, but they build a long term bond with the audience.   We can all think of great local events that became legendary because a radio station united the community around them.  We also know that you can't just do one fireworks show or one concert fest a year and expect the audience to be convinced that you are a great neighbor.  It would be like just running two great commercials and expecting to fill your store as a client.   You need to keep the effort and focus on being involved every month in your community in a visible way.

A couple of tips:

• Use your Air Time Wisely - How many times do we approach an event by just cranking out a liner and telling the air staff to 'yak it up.'  The liner is a laundry list of thank you and sponsor plugs and a rambling jock, trying to make this break turn into something.   How about setting up a quick theme and building a system of sponsor mentions that doesn't let this turn into a rambling exercise.  Also don't put all the promotion eggs in the liner/air staff basket.  

• Integrate it - Cover it in the news.  Even if you only do a few casts in Mornings cover the event on a regular basis.  This IS something going on in the community and part of the news in your community - why not cover it and get that extra mention in Mornings?   Also look at covering it in the weather - ahead on the Big Fest Weekend - partly cloudy and in the low 80s - just a slight chance of a shower.
   
• Set up the Imaging to help:  A quick statement at the end of the 'music sweepers' to quickly mention a big event helps, so do doing some advance work when you have artists on the phone, hanging backstage or doing an interview - have them plug the bigger events.  With a few minutes with the editor you can tweak the imaging and get those extra mentions in the hour without stretching out the breaks.

• Involve sales - How about a package where you get to be a community sponsor for an event.  What the client gets is a tag on the end of their commercial this month for the event.  Maybe a bonus or maybe a way to tag on a few extra dollars for the association.    

• Use Social Media:  Tons of opportunities here to build up the event, spread the word and keep it active without taking up tons of air time.   The key is building a social media campaign.  You can't just keep running the same 'hey come out and be there' posts 3 times a day.   Get creative with pics, video, and build up the special angles available.   

• Need volunteers to help: Invite the audience.  I bet you'd be surprised at the response as you tapped into the girls basketball team or just brought in some 'volunteers' to be 'roadies for a day'.   Don't have a jock to hang out at an event - have a budding audience star jump in.  With a little creativity and some coordination you can find ways to stay involved. 

As we all take a day for the 4th and many of you head out to host fireworks displays, hang at the state fair, or host that music event in the community stand back and consider the opportunity this event might bring or how you could enhance it.   Also take a look at all the events you do in the community.  Which ones have potential and which ones are just taking up space.  You have to balance quantity and quality to be effective here.   

Lastly, thank you local radio for putting in such a big effort for our communities.  You've all given up precious days off, time with your families, and put in lots of effort to your communities.  Sometimes broadcasters may not get as much credit as you, and the station, deserve.   

HAVE A GREAT 4TH WEEKEND.   

Stop Your Busy Day and Look Behind the Monitor

Stop your busy day as a Brand Manager, PD, Ops Manager (or whatever title you've taken on) and take a long look at what you do.   Do you really have a clear view of the brand, the audience, the clients who advertise on it, and the real view from the studio of the team that really creates it?   Yes you have data flowing into the computer from everywhere.  The Web metrics, ratings data with all kinds of special breakouts, and in the PPM world it's pouring out of the monitor like Niagara Falls.

I bet if you take a look you'll find that most of the day is spent behind the CRT display, pecking away on the keyboard and zipping the mouse around.  It's a sea of logs to edit, data to review, emails to answer, audio files to review, imaging files to edit or evaluate in a wave editor, and maybe a web meeting here and there.  There is new software to master, new distribution platforms to keep up with, the web site to keep updated, the studio software complexities/screw ups to master, the social media world to advance the brand's engagement with the audience, the latest trends within the audience, today's gossip, the music in your format, and then there are the management of the whole team that will likely make or break the brand.

In today's world you also may be doing all of this with 2 or 3 stations in the cluster so you can see how easy it's become to enclose ourselves in a computer cocoon.  Our POV has changed from listening to our brands, actually watching/listening to the audience, and interacting with clients marketing themselves with our brands.  Instead we see it mostly from a 22" LED monitor filled with data graphs, wave forms, emails and logs.

As you head into the Spring and Summer maybe it's time to set a few new priorities for your role and your POV.    Here are some suggestions:

• Hit the Sales Road - What do the local clients think about your brand and using radio to market their brands?  Have they noticed the engagement you have with your audience in social media?  The power the on-air personalities have to market their products with their audience?  The impact you make in the community with the promotions and events you stage and work with?  Have you showcased the creative power of your brands and radio to them or have we just let the on-line world take that stage?   Or do they really see us as yesterday's media that doesn't work as well as some of the on-line experiments they engage in.  Do they really have a vision of your audience anymore?  Or has it also been lost is a sea of CPM breakouts? 
• Get away and Really Listen - We used to get a hotel room and write down the whole day.  With BDS and Mediabase we can see the music anytime, but what about the imaging, the personality breaks, the phones, and the music flow on your brands.   How does it stack up minute by minute with the competition.  How does it stand out even in a world where there are so many music options? 
• Listen On Line Also - How does your stream sound?  From the VOP of those of us who listen to a lot of streams in our daily routine you hear a lot that are pretty disturbing.  Dead air, music cut off, commercials chopped up, instrumental music that's just weird, endless boring PSAs and all kinds of streaming events that are unfortunate at best.  Maybe a few years ago not many people tuned in on their computers - we all know that's not the case today.   Have you just let the steam dry up??
• Social Media and the Web - Stand back and take a LONG HARD look at the website, Facebook, and Twitter.  Are we falling behind and looking at a website that is just dated and not maintained.  Do we still have the same jock blog entry from last summer?  Are the news feeds on our Rock station all about Justin Bieber?  Do we have a cume of 120,000 but only 4,000 facebook fans and the posts are just coming from a few personalities with no strategic or tactical purpose?  
• Hang with the Audience - We used to do listener advisory boards and there were also lots of events, remotes, and moments when most PDs had time to get a good look and listen to the audience.  Not only did we see the number breakouts and graphs on their listening, we actually listened to them.  Maybe it's time to start again?   
• Hang with the Personalities and Programming Team - Yes everyone's busy, but you need to keep the creative juices flowing and the teamwork ticking.  Just having staff meetings, procedure memos, email notices, and show meetings that are mostly mechanical it's time to brainstorm, create, have some fun, play a few jokes on each other, and get pumped up to entertain the audience.   Most of this doesn't come pouring out of a monitor and keyboard.   

Gee we didn't even hit a full 7 steps here.  If we just took 1 day and spent it on each area here in 6 weeks your brand could be a lot more in touch with sales team, the air personalities and the audience.  Plus we all know it would clearly sound better on the air and on-line.   The biggest step here isn't 200 sit ups a day - most of it is just pushing away this keyboard I'm typing on and the monitor you're reading this on.   BYE.   

Exploring Your Local Market Dialect

Traveling from Radio market to Radio market in the U.S. and Canada one of the traits that is always fascinating is the local dialects.  It's the one big key to sounding local and a part of the community for any talent in any market and it's also often very important to the whole staging of a station/brand.

Where did these traits come from?  Why do we have so many different accents, phrases and styles of speech?  I ran into an overwhelming exploration of the various Dialects in North America in a recent link from a Facebook pal.   This is an amazing map and site, complete with You Tube links to illustrate various Dialects, as well as detailed histories on the evolution of the Dialects.

You can take in the whole site here.

The author is Rich Aschmann who is a Christian Minister who does this more or less as a hobby.  As he notes 'some people collect stamps - I collect Dialects.'  It's an amazing site that has way more information than most of us will every use to pick up the Dialect in Minnesota or around Pittsburgh but if you want to really dig in and know your market this is a valuable resource - if you can understand and grasp it all.

Even though we all speak English there is clearly a regional and local influence across both the U.S. and Canada.  It's more than just 'soda' or 'pop.'

TSL Part 8 - Some Conclusions and Summary

TSL started out as a math formula to illustrate the relationship between the Cume audience and the Average Quarter Hour numbers.   We started with AQH times the number of quarter hours in the daypart (504 for the total week) then dividing by the Cume.   When we started, getting 30-40 quarter hours a week was a strong performance.  Over the years we've seen this number shrink.  Some of it comes from changing to PPM data measurement in the top 50 markets.  The reality of the meter vs. the old diary recall data has changed the trending here so measuring long term trends in the audience have become a mute point.   But, we can clearly see that TSL is getting weaker for the transmitter radio world even if the 'rules of the game' have evolved.

If you look back at the series here we've sampled a lot of tactics and strategies to try and improve TSL.   The list here is still evolving.   I just got a note from Jon Miller at Arbitron about new TSL analysis of PPM data that is looking at the number of days audience groups tune into a specific station.  Obviously if you can go from 3 to 4 days of tune in from the sample your TSL will improve.

Sean Ross (now with Billboard) recently brought up some interesting points on TSL.   His points seem to highlight that while we spend all our time building occasions and making appointments and focusing less on keeping people listening right now we may be hurting TSL.   You can read Sean's excellent piece on TSL - HERE 

Setting up our clocks to follow listening patterns has helped TSL.   No doubt that building towards events with billboards and teases has held some ears listening longer.   Pushing for more tuning occasions has also shown to be a clear way to gain some more TSL.  As we comb through more and more data on PPM we will no doubt see even more ways to tweak our programming systems to gain that 'extra yard' or 'run per game' by tweaking the game plan.

No doubt there are answers to keeping TSL strong in all the number crunching, but we also have to look beyond the numbers.  Going back to our 'Money Ball' analogy here we've all seen players on the field who clearly win games, fill the stands, and manage to do it even if the competition focus' their resources just on beating them.   How do you think Derek Jeeter fairs in pure Money Ball world?  Probably not nearly as good as he performs as a great baseball player with a bat or glove in his hand.

While the numbers do offer some effective tactics great TSL comes from keeping the audience engaged.  Being a unique/special brand that builds a bond with listeners and keeps them entertained, informed and musically intrigued.   Rarely is there just ONE answer or tactic to success.  It always takes a balanced combination of tactics and strategies.  To win make sure you have a full and balanced approach.

We have tons of experience in building TSL, lots of data to look at and learn from, and a long history with the audience that gives us all the advantages to preserve TSL even as more and more media options present themselves every day.  In may ways 'we are the pros in this world'  the new comers really don't have much to show with the key elements of entertaining and engaging radio.  They rarely have personality, information, a local community presence, imaging/branding and when it comes to promotion radio's abilities still very strong.   The tactics are important but so is the product.  

Thanks for your TSL here and of course you thoughts and input are always welcome.

TSL Part 7 - Picking Your Moment

As we head into our 7th in a series on Time Spent Listening tactics we have covered different theories, tricks an practices programmers have used to improve TSL.   Radio is clearly facing lots of new options for entertainment and music as the internet continues to expand.   While we have seen our cume levels hold up fairly well you can see that all the new options are draining TSL.   We have been reviewing the evolution of the past tactics in this series to get all of us focusing more on strengthening TSL.

This week we are looking at some new thinking that is starting to evolve as we see more and more data from  the PPM world.   The thought here is to focus on key stop sets or key times of the day when you have high usage (PUR or PUMM) and can get the most impact from a TSL extending piece of programming.

Mark O'Neill and his ROI Media Solutions team are behind the discoveries here and Mark spoke the the last Arbitron Programmers Conference in December.

Mark's Proposal here is to look for those key moments during the day that occur on a regular/daily basis and use those to implement key TSL tactics.  For example you may find that around 4:40 you see a spike in overall listening on a consistent basis but for your station there is perhaps a dip in listening or no advantage to you even though the 'tide is high.'

Mark's idea is to 'fire your tactic/heat seeking missile' here.  It's more than just roaming over the listening levels and then looking at your ratings.  PPM puts out a TON of data and bringing it all together takes careful sorting of the data and unique analytics.    You can learn a lot more catching Mark's presentation here.

You may wonder how just focusing on one quarter hour or even a key stop set could actually bring on a meaningful gain for the overall ratings.  Mark's theories and proposals seems to have 'proof' that there are clear improvements with his tactics and strategy.  You can learn a lot more catching Mark's presentation here.

TSL is going to be the key to keeping terrestrial radio strong as more and more options appear.  We'll sum up the series next Friday with a review and some thought/debate on the effectiveness of the strategy and tactics we've used to improve TSL over the years.    Thanks for sharing this series with fellow programmers. We all have a great opportunity and a big challenge ahead as more and more options for the audience appear daily.

TSL Part 6 - The People Meter !!!

As our tale of the evolution and tactics programmers have used  to increase Time Spent Listening  rolls on we suddenly hit a very different reality - the People Meter.   As the top 50 markets moved from the diary method of gathering data to the new People Meter suddenly we began to see TSL take on a lot of new tactics and thinking.

PPM gathers listening data in the sample with no listener bias.   PPM's don't forget which stations they punch up on the commute or what they listened to all day at work.   It doesn't ignore dad listening to the hip-hop station after he picks up his son from practice - even though he has no idea who Drake is.

On the other side you also have lots of programmers still living in the non PPM world in the 180+ markets that still rely on the diary.

As we began to break out the minute by minute data and saw actual content in Media Monitors you could see a lot of different patterns developing.   What we saw overall was that TSL was way down from what we had in the diaries.  People listened to many more stations than they noted in the diary and punched around a lot more than we saw when they had to write it down.

Spot breaks suddenly began to look a lot more dangerous than they did in the diary world.  Longer jock breaks became a death zone in PPM as the audience tuned out sooner than we had thought.   Playlists also took a hit - suddenly taking any chances at all looked a lot more dangerous when you could lay the PPM graph right over time period you played that deep cut and see the impact.

Remember the first tactic we noted in our series here of building the clocks to avoid breaks on the top/bottom/15 and 45 times in the hour?   You can read about it below.   That tactic was one of the first ones that saw a tweak in the PPM world. Looking over the tune in and tune out patterns it became obvious that while the no breaks on the quarter hours clock set up that had become the 'law of the land' in diaryland it may not be ideal for the PPM world.

Actually the clock that has evolved is often called the Bow Tie clock as it pushes the spot breaks to the 15 and 45 spots in the hour.   The top and bottom are still left as music islands, but now the actual listening patterns showed advantages to breaking a lot closer to what was no man's land in the diary world.

We also saw a renewed interest in the longer music sweep.  Instead of trying for 'repetitive' style music sweeps with 10 in a row every hour the new tactic was more about 'commercial free hours' and 'commercial free days.'

Appointment listening still seemed like a meaningful tactic in PPM.  TSL does improve by making appointments and you can get some audience to come back if you work at making an appointment that is worth keeping.  The problem is that this tactic isn't as effective as now we see the reality of how much time the audience really spends with each button punch to a station.  It's no where near what we thought it was in the diary world.   The averages vary a lot by station but in the end the reality that when we see all their listening data (not just what they can remember and write down) the TSL is not nearly as long as it was in diaryland.  Of course the good news is that the audience listens a lot more stations than we saw in the diary.   Our reach and Cume numbers are way more than we saw in the diary.

Next week we will take a look at the newest tactic based on PPM where key hours and times are targeted to improve TSL.   Again thanks for spreading the word on this series.  As more and more entertainment and music listening options blossom in the digital world the need for TSL will be crucial for our brands.  We'll need new thinking, creativity and the guts to try new ideas to keep our media valuable in the future.

TSL Part 5- Make An Appointment

As we continue on exploring the tools of TSL that radio programmers rely on we come on the advent of Appointment Listening.

The idea is to set appointments with the audience to listen at key times.  'Tune in at 9a - 2p - 5p' to enter the contest or for some other event.  Really this is recycling in many ways but the theory and 'science' behind it is different.

Most of the TSL tactics we used were to try and extend the current listener.  Get them to listen through the stop set or just give us another 3 or 4 minutes, or maybe another quarter hour.   Stretch what you have.

Here the idea is 'worry more about getting them to come back.'  Again the practice here has roots in breaking down Arbitron data.  If your average listener averages 15 minutes with your station in their tuning occasions - if you can increase the number of times they punch in to your station your TSL will grow a lot more than fighting to hold them for another 5 minutes.

Another key in this tactic is to come right out and promote the times and make the appointment.  This throws out the thought of 'listen all day - you never know when we will give away the big prize'  Here you come right out and admit - listen at 1:10 to win.

This idea does work if you have a good enough 'hook' to set the appointment with.   A lot of the focus here has been with contesting.  Now that we have PPM data you can see this tactic working on many stations.  There are clear spikes around contests with appointment listening.   In the diary world you can also find data that shows success in building more TSL with appointments.   There are also stations that use this tactic all the time and have little to show for it.  The key is having good content and contests to make sure the audience will keep that appointment you tried to make.

Next week we'll start to look at the PPM era tactics of TSL.   Thanks for spreading the word on this series - we've seen a lot more activity on the blog.   While TSL has always been important to programmers to build winning brands and stations it's becoming a crucial tool as we approach the digital and mobile world ahead.  Suddenly we have a lot of new competition for the audience's time and ears.   Keeping the entertainment and attention on our brands will be key and keeping up the usage and TSL will have to be a top top priority.