Always In Ratings

Is it all about the numbers?

During my twenty-two years in radio, I did everything from sweep the floor to having the unique privilege of heading the launch of two radio stations from scratch.

No one does that alone, it took fantastic teams of people, many of those people are still working on those radio stations ensuring they remain great.

8th caller through wins the tickets.

If you listen to terrestrial radio, you may have noticed something different in the last week or two. There are bags of cash, brand new cars, trips and various other fabulous prizes. For most North American stations, ratings began yesterday so most ramped up their big contests leading up to it. For Canada, it's BBM and in the U.S., it's Arbitron.

So everyone is doing their best to get your attention. In larger markets, they do this four times a year and base their listenership numbers on a tiny percentage of people who actually get an actual book - or diary.

Monitor this.

In some of the major markets, portable people meters are now in place but that still represents a tiny portion of each market who are asked to carry around a device for one to two years and allow their listening habits be monitored.

You see television stations step it up during sweeps. Execs parade their fall line-up to all the major advertisers each year - those are called up fronts. It's a chance to secure revenue but rates are set on promised ratings levels so the race is on. And if you're not a Nielson family, your opinion is irreverent.

This weekend only!

Business to consumer industries have their version of ratings known as sales. And business to business has it's version as well, offering suppliers certain discounts and deals throughout the year.

There is a national furniture chain in Canada that has a sale every weekend. The tent gets bigger, the deals get more unbelievable and they often give out free hot dogs and balloons for the kids.

The absolute lowest price.

It is becoming a trend that every major car manufacturer has a red tag employee pricing annual clearance blowout in September. Does anyone feel the urgency to buy a car in April?

When I built and programmed radio stations, I kept my eye on the product. Now I work with clients on business and marketing strategy and implementation and the focus remains on the product. Without that, all the contests in the world won't help you.

So whether you are B2C, B2B, a broadcaster, an advertiser or a private business owner aren't you always in ratings?

knealemann
Let's create experiences not campaigns.

image credit: istock

ROI: Manage Your Expectations

What Really Is: Return On Investment?

Traditional channels are grappling with both the economic landscape and the countless new tools available. The ones having the most difficulty are those working in industries predicated on inaccurate mass marketing metrics.

A billboard may have given some in the past the impression of success. Or at least gave them the ability to sleep soundly at night.

It's Not Enough Anymore

I worked in the radio industry for many years and depending on the market, each radio station would be rated two to four times each year. During those ratings periods, stations would clamor to yell and scream the loudest in order to get noticed enough to be written down in a ratings diary by less than 1% of the population. Then the ratings company would ‘average’ audience numbers for each market. It's even more anitquated than that, but I won't bore you with the details.

I worked at The Edge in Toronto which targets Males 18-34. Less than ten thousand people would receive ratings diaries and decipher radio tuning habits for five million. That's a sample of .002%.

It's akin to me asking you to decide what everyone will eat at a particular restaurant for an entire year. Once you accommodate vegetarians, allergies, those who don't like spicy food or any cultural biases, your only logical choice is lettuce. Boring, unseasoned, lettuce. Yummy, huh?

Think of that the next time you wonder if the station has more than ten songs or why they keep saying their name. Neither is true, but perception is reality.

More Of The Same

If you ran a music label and wanted the next Coldplay, the chances of you signing an act that is a bit out of the norm are nil. There is too much risk in that; there is no road map or guarantee. Imagine a marketing company suggesting to a client that traditional channels are not their only option? How often do you think the client will pick the ‘sleep at night’ option?

Traditional Mass Media Is Not Dead
Online Is Not The Gold Rush

Radio, television, newspaper, and outdoor advertising options remain alive and will work if used properly. What is essential to ROI is managing expectations. However, one billboard or a few dozen radio commercials will not set you up for endless success. I lost count of the number of clients that would say to me “radio doesn’t work” after a one-week campaign. At that point, you may as well take your spouse on a vacation – at least you’d have some memories and pictures to add to your Flickr account.

A four-piece reggae classical punk band, a spicy Italian meal, a company embracing Twitter, or an adventurous radio station can all work but only when mainstream guesstimates are thrown away.

Count The Receipts

If you realize spending millions on a TV spot during the Super Bowl is less effective than building a community, you are well on your way to managing expectations, return on investment and living in the real world.

What are your thoughts?