They didn’t hear it. Or – didn’t want it.
You’re sitting alone in a T-Mobile store on a summer Saturday morning, asking why not one listener has appeared at your ‘live remote.‘
It’s a self-inflected wound.
Your announcements about the event didn’t reach the target.
Plus, the offer wasn’t robust enough to move butts into the store.
The scenario embarrasses you, the client, and the Account Executive.
Let’s explore – why.
Digital audio measurement—Nielsen Audio Portable People Meter—has been deployed in the Top 48 Radio Markets for a decade and a half. Certainly, the methodology has flaws, but data gathered from people using the meter teaches us lessons.
If you have the opportunity to dig inside the Nielsen PPM data, you’ll find one data point that tells us about listening habits.
The average occasion of listening – whether you’re a Talk, Christian, or Country brand – is somewhere between 11 and 15 minutes.
Whether you’re 1st or 31st – average 13 minutes.
Couple this data point with the information that people’s attention spans have diminished by 50% in the past two decades, and listeners are more passive listeners than ever.
In the television orbit, NBC knows that the audience is distracted and often ‘second screened.’
The amount of promotional announcements NBC runs in Prime Time for the 2024 Summer Olympics averages six messages per hour.
Per HOUR!
Old School programmers remember the ‘promotional grid,’ where we’d allow perhaps 28 mentions per week for outside events—four per day.
With this in mind, consider the following:
- Increase the number of announcements for your events to get greater exposure. In lieu of standard :30 second promotional announcements, develop :10 second (or even :05 second) messages and air them several times per hour.
- Lead with benefit. What’s the MAIN attraction to get the audience through the door? At times, we hear promotional announcements that lack creative insight and put the benefit at the end. For example, if you’re giving away a trip to Hawaii at your T-Mobile event, that’s your lead.
Let’s broaden this practice to all elements:
Station ID’s – Let’s eliminate all ‘silent segues’. That is – ID between every element. We hear from programmers – even those suffering through PPM measurement – that ID’ing the brand between every element creates ‘clutter’ and, worse yet – “The listener knows who their hearing”. Not true. Imagine Starbucks only printing their logo on every third cup. They would save big money on printing, yet would the consumer OR the people who see the consumer know where their coffee was created? Nope. If the occasion is 13 minutes and you don’t ID your brand for several elements, listeners won’t know who gave them that listening experience.
Music – When Taylor Swift was white hot six months ago, why NOT play a TS song two – maybe three – times per hour? Why NOT play Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” (Classic Rock’s best tester) six times per day? Listeners complain about hearing songs that they do NOT like often. Not their favorites.
Imaging – To YOUR ear, you might have imaging or elements that seem to play ‘a lot’. To YOU, it’s burned or overplayed. From Neilson’s PPM data, listeners actually hear your product about three to four hours a week. You listen twelve hours a week. Again, occasions are about 13 minutes throughout the week.
Morning Show Benchmarks—A spirited debate has ensued on this. Most shows run a popular benchmark only once per show. If the feature is hot with your audience, why not run it multiple times? The audience at 6:20 am is far different than those listening at 8:40 am. In fact, Nielsen data shows that if you run a bit at—say, 8:40 am once—less than 5% of your loyalist listeners (P1—cume) will actually hear it.
Show Promos—Music brands typically cross-promote their morning shows a few times per day. We hear that increased frequency adds to perceived ‘clutter.’ This is solid practice, but frequency needs to increase IF you want the majority of your audience to hear it. Solution: Run shorter promos on-air with greater exposure and push details to digital platforms.
From Neilson’s own experts – “Your cume is bee-hiving all the time.”
Turning over every – 13 minutes.
Your brand is not in a vacuum. Radio competition is small compared to the audio platforms begging for the ear. Spotify – Soundcloud – Alexa – SiriusXM – Apple Music – Podcasts and dozens more are constantly in the way of your brand.
To add to those distractions, your audience is bombarded with up to 10,000 ads per day.
If content is KING – frequency is QUEEN.
Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
