Any financial decisions you make based on this column should be immediately questioned.
The U.S. stock market had one of its best upward movements on July 16th of this year, when it surged more than 700 points. A few days later, the same market saw its worst one-day drop in two years when it dropped more than 500 points. A week later, it jumped 650 points.
Those examples make great headlines and stories for news outlets. Based on those movements, professional analysts, investors, and day traders understand, benefit, and lose.
The rest of us say, “Wow.”
We scan a story about the meaning of the market swings to be aware. You never know when it might come up in a meeting or a party conversation. Here’s a tip if you find yourself unaware. Do what I do and say, “Crazy, right? What do you think is driving it?” Now the ball is in their hand and they will dribble it until you move to another topic.
Audience Volatility
July’s stock market roller coaster made me think of a topic I understand much more than stock indexes, treasuries, currencies, and commodities—radio audience ratings.
Ratings volatility isn’t the focus of this post. It’s about our response.
What do we do when the best and worst results are in the same quarter? In the Nielsen PPM world, we can get those extremes in one month if we subscribe to weekly reports.
Programmers and Brand/Content leaders would have better blood pressure and fewer forehead wrinkles if we could respond to the wobbles as we react to the stock markets by saying, “Wow.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to say, “Crazy, right?…,” and move on in the conversation?
However, managers and sellers want explanations, especially during negative moments.
Here’s an A-List to help us prepare for the wobbles:
Advised
Know what you’re promoting or defending.
- If it’s the wonderfully wonky world of radio/streams/podcast/video consumption, do we know enough data to interpret our strengths and weaknesses?
- Can we explain why or why not confidently? Not in a defensive manner.
- Do we know when the trend is moving positively or negatively so we can prepare our communication?
- Bonus: Read the room. I prefer to say, “I don’t know the answer, but I’ll find it.” Truth triumphs. But your audience may have someone of importance who wants you to know the answer. We can’t over-prepare for the critical presentations and explanations.
Aggressive
Communicate results and trends.
- Sales managers are good at communicating pacing and realities. “We’re kickin’ it!” “We’re getting our butts kicked!”
- Programming and Content managers don’t like the last option, so they tend to communicate only the good stuff.
- Tell it like it is all the time. Your transparency will be respected.
- Bonus: Find a story. We’re not ignoring we didn’t hit the goal we wanted to achieve, but there’s usually something we can glean from the data to show momentum. This is the benefit of more data sources. Streaming, podcasting, and social media give us more stories. However, don’t make the story-finding a new strategy. If we’re #1 18-34, it shouldn’t change our goal of being #1 25-54.
Attentive
Listen to the needs.
- We’re focused on our audience and clients. Keep that focus primary.
- However, understanding the team’s moods and needs helps us create and sell our brand’s results. The most repeated line from a sales rep in a radio station is, “I’m not a program director, but….” My response was something like, “Yes, you are. Everyone is a program director, but I have the job title. I want to know what you think.”
- Confidence of direction is essential in leadership, but we need to ask questions and seek insight to challenge our assumptions.
- Bonus: Make sure the questions aren’t an attempt to check the box in the employee relations and culture-building categories. If we don’t want to know, then don’t ask. It will backfire. If we don’t want to know, figure out what we need to change to be comfortable and authentic with a desire to hear input from our team.
Alone (Don’t be)
Find a partner to support us.
- We’re good at many things, but not everything.
- Find partners and team members who fill the gaps. It’s someone who can explain and project differently to compensate for our weaknesses and disinterest.
- When I say ‘partner,’ I don’t mean someone who always agrees with us. We don’t want to be on an island alone, but we need a reasoning voice or a dissenting voice to challenge our strategy behind closed doors and closed Zooms.
- Bonus: Typically, this is a direct report. However, I encourage us to extend this partnership to adjacent departments. We’ll get different feedback and support from non-typical contributors.
Finally, listen to our hearts and our souls. Brand turnarounds and improvements take more time in today’s noisy world. It shouldn’t be an excuse, but we need to feel the momentum before we see the momentum.
Strong radio brand leaders know it feels better, sounds better, and looks better before Nielsen indicates the change. They also know when they got lucky one month because of a panel change. Those are the Mondays we send out the report, high-fiving the staff. It’s the same Mondays we stay late and start preparing for next month’s report.
By the way, the stock market has changed since you started reading this post.
Ron Harrell is a columnist for Barrett Media. He founded Harrell Media Group, specializing in radio and audio brand consultation, fractional management, and talent coaching. He has worked in every role on the Programming and Branding side during his career, becoming management and executive-focused in the post-Telecom Act era. Ron has held leadership roles for media groups such as ABC/Citadel, CBS Radio, Chancellor Media, Cumulus Media, Hope Media Group, Hubbard Broadcasting, and WAY Media.
Interested parties are invited to learn more about his company Harrell Media Group and reach out by email at Ron@HarrellMediaGroup.com.
