These days, most Rock and Alternative brands work hard to develop a product or show they can be proud of. Research has been done; the sales team has one-sheets that will light up conference rooms, and the digital assets are mind-bending.
This is it; our time is now; boxes are checked. Order a round of doubles, $how us the money.
- Research
- Product
- Sales
- Digital
Great, but I’ve never heard of you.
That’s reality.
Don’t get deflated. The hardest and necessary first steps have been taken. Without them, one may as well hit up LinkedIn for jobs. Now it’s time for three more critical steps.
- Understanding
- Patience
- Method(s)
In Rock and Alternative spaces that rely on a Nielsen report card, having a clear understanding of an always-fluid ratings puzzle can’t be overlooked. Weeks, months, or quarters can be up or down for no rhyme or reason.
A brand can make exactly zero changes from April to May, yet the ratings report card can tell different tales. The whys of this are best left for another day, but one month, a show can save the day, and then get slaughtered without warning.
And decoding year-over-year numbers for the GM can sometimes be like explaining wave-particle duality. Often, it may be better to reschedule that meeting for a few weeks from now, when champagne might be served.
Nielsen panels are guaranteed to change, just like marketplace conditions. If there is a true understanding of how it all works, it means patience will come easier, as hard as it is.
Whether Radio or TV, the law of averages always applies and eventually aggregates to tell us what we’ve really got. Heading south or being lackluster nine out of 12 months means there’s likely trouble, so start digging in. Riding high from Summer to Christmas means something is going right, so don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Patience also prevents knee-jerking, which can ruin brands. Here’s an example many can relate to:
The morning show had a solid year, but the calendar turned, and soon came a memo from the corner office: “Q1 ratings looked terrible. We need a new show NOW.”
Not so fast.
Even the best brands have down quarters. When it comes to knee-jerking, there’s an ironic and common occurrence in radio: one’s last book ends up looking great. Maybe change was really needed; maybe it wasn’t. Trusting the law of averages helps create enough patience to really know the answer.
Lastly, it’s easy to identify situations where understanding and patience are in play. Turnover is rare, and product changes usually aren’t drastic. These are brands that understand how the ratings game works. Now, add the right methods and success will come in a reasonable amount of time.
By methods, I mean, how to create buzz, word of mouth, marketing, awareness, and tune-ins? The good news is that there are dozens of ways to market for budgets of all sizes, but being good isn’t always enough.
Media brands often assume everyone will hear about them because the signal covers the market. “Everyone uses Radio, they’ll find us.” They assume subtle changes will be quickly noticed. “If we add one more current per hour, the market will finally see us as the New Rock leader.” Those assumptions are wrong.
It’s proven every year. Research studies from the North, South, East, West, and even Canada dispel assumptions. They show that the target audience had NO IDEA a new brand signed on, that so-and-so crossed the street, that station A flipped formats, or that many had no clue a heritage morning show retired years ago. The right methods weren’t in place, or at all.
In the ‘70s, the average American was exposed to approximately 500 marketing messages per day. Today, it’s anywhere between 4,000-10,000, depending upon where one lives, their career, commute, and how much time they spend online or with media of various types. Everyone reading this has forgotten most of the billboards they saw on the way to work today.
I love pizza. The world’s greatest pizza place could open in Los Angeles and unless it’s right down the street or along my normal traversing patterns, I’ll never know about it unless a message is delivered to me – somehow. And it usually needs to be delivered more than once.
The methods to try and deliver these messages will determine whether Jumbo’s Pizza will expand to more locations or be left to languish in the strip mall next to the massage parlor you’ve never seen anyone enter.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all blueprint for exposing one’s madness. Every brand deserves its own unique playbook of methods, whether traditional mass marketing, geo-targeted, niche, grassroots, guerrilla, social, digital, or smoke signals.
Follow the steps before you decide what the creative methods will be, but if you don’t follow the steps and then incorporate some methods, well … there’s always LinkedIn.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Keith Cunningham is a music industry and Rock/Alternative columnist for Barrett Media and the founder of Black Box Group, a modern-modeled creative & strategic consultancy built for brands that need strategies with teeth. He’s the former Master of Mayhem at 95.5 KLOS-FM in Los Angeles for over a decade, a nationwide consultant, and has been repeatedly voted one of America’s top Program Directors and strategic thinkers. Keith has built his career by taking multi-million-dollar brands from worst to first and leading Marconi & Gracie award winners along the way. A data nerd with a rock-and-roll heart, he is an advisory council member for St. Jude fundraising, a fantasy football champion, and lover of his daughters & dogs. Reach him at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com or on LinkedIn or X.
