How the Nielsen Audio Analyzer Can Help Unlock Market-Level Insights

Branding a product or service is always a challenge. Nielsen knows that better than most.

Does the name make sense for what the product does? If the product is to be used in multiple countries, does the name have a negative connotation in another language? For example, the Chevrolet Nova could mean “no go” in Spanish (“no va”), but despite that, the car sold well in Spanish-speaking countries.

Sometimes, the world changes, and you’re stuck. Do you remember the weight-reduction candy called Ayds? Along came the AIDS disease, and that was the end of Ayds. Along the same line, Arbitron once had an analysis package called AID (Arbitron Information on Demand). When I was operations manager at WSPA-FM in Spartanburg, I filled out a survey about AID and received a free T-shirt that said, “I Bring AID.” Not something you wanted to wear after AIDS hit, and Arbitron allowed the AID trademark to expire in 1997.

Back in the Arbitron days, our demographer, Dan Estersohn, came up with a good idea for a product. If you wanted to know what counties or ZIP codes were in a market, you could simply look it up in Arbitron software. Perhaps you wanted to look up a county and find out where it landed in a metro or DMA. It was named the Arbitron Audio Analyzer, and today, it’s the Nielsen Audio Analyzer.

Just one problem existed—to the best of anyone’s knowledge, the Audio Analyzer doesn’t analyze any audio.

If you are a subscriber and don’t have access to it, you should get it. You can access it from the Nielsen portal, and it’s a useful tool, even if you don’t use it frequently. For people who work with multiple markets, it can be very helpful.

In the days before the CPRs (Control Panel Report) for PPM markets, I used the Audio Analyzer to find strong and weak ZIP codes for Cumulus stations. I’d pull an Analyzer report with all the ZIPs, which I exported to an Excel file. At that point, I’d try to get into a Zen mode for the next step.

Here’s why: In the PPM Analysis Tool, you could recreate the market at the ZIP code level. Just do a custom definition using all the ZIP codes from the Analyzer. Occasionally, some ZIPs would not show up in AT, perhaps because they were business ZIPs, but this step was typically easy.

Now for the fun part. If you wanted to see where a competitor station was doing well, just run their estimates for the daypart/demo combination of your choice—for example, P25-54 for Monday–Friday, 6 AM–7 PM. Then remove one ZIP code and run it again. Did the AQH and cume decline? No? Put that ZIP back in and take out the next one. Continue until you’ve run every ZIP code in the market.

For smaller markets, this activity didn’t take too long—for example, in Memphis or Salt Lake City. However, New York and Los Angeles required a great deal of patience, something I don’t always possess. Those metros have hundreds of ZIP codes, so going through them one by one is about as exciting as reading a trade press column about going through ZIP codes one by one.

However, the value was that I could report the strongest ZIP codes for a competitor. As any PPM market programmer knows, a couple of big meters can make the numbers jump. Even after the CPR was introduced, I was still running some of these because, well, Cumulus wasn’t known to splash the cash around, and obtaining CPRs for other stations in the markets cost money.

The Audio Analyzer has value for diary markets as well. Do you know all the ZIPs in your market? And what if your market definition changes? For example, some markets may change definitions without adding or subtracting counties. Nielsen could determine that a particular county should be split for race/ethnic reasons, and you should know what ZIPs are included in an HDBA, HDHA, or the remainder of the county.

It’s not something you’ll consult every week or even every month, but the Audio Analyzer—even with a nonsensical name—can have value for you. If you don’t have it, ask to gain access through the Nielsen portal. I don’t believe there’s a charge, but then again, Nielsen is not known for giving out much of anything for free.

At least Arbitron was known for giving out free screwdrivers, which I believe was a fun idea from the brilliant mind of the late Sherm Brodey (full disclosure: I have three of them with two different logos). Nevertheless, ask your rep for access.

Let’s meet again next week.

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Dr. Ed Cohen

One of the radio industry’s most respected researchers, Dr. Ed Cohen writes a weekly business column, heavily focused on ratings research for Barrett Media. His career experiences include serving as VP of Ratings and Research at Cumulus Media, occupying the role of VP of Measurement Innovation at Nielsen Audio, and its predecessor Arbitron. While with Arbitron, Cohen spent five years as the company’s President of Research Policy and Communication, and eight years as VP of Domestic Radio Research.

Dr. Ed has also held the title of Vice President of Research for iHeartMedia/Clear Channel, and held research positions for the National Association of Broadcasters and Birch/Scarborough Research. He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Broadcast Communications at Western Kentucky University and welcomes your thoughts. Reach him by email at doctoredresearch@gmail.com.