|
There are still too few markets using the Personal People Meter (PPM) from Arbitron, and from what we’ve seen so far, Adult Contemporary is finally getting the credit it deserves as a format.
Arbitron shows that Adult Contemporary has more listeners than what was previously recorded in the paper diary. There are also more men listening to Adult Contemporary than was previously shown in the paper diary. The overall position of Adult Contemporary is better than what was thought in the past.
However, Time Spent Listening is shorter and as Cume increases it looks as if TSL will not rebound. One thing that we’ve always known is BIGGER IS BETTER and the bigger your Cume the bigger your overall ratings will be. No longer are listeners “falling asleep” and drawing a straight line from 9am to 5pm.
The People Meter is showing what we believe to be real and true listening, where listeners are moving in and out of all radio stations through the workday.
We also know the People Meter picks up whatever radio stations are within its presence. You walk by a cubicle and that individual is listening to AC … your People Meter will pick it up …and it shows you were listening to an Adult Contemporary station. The same is true for every format, but it does underscore the necessity to continue pound away at at-work listening.
One of the other things we are seeing with the People Meter is repeat tune-ins is an easier way to build Time Spent Listening than getting someone to sit through break after break after break. Give the audience a reason to come back. The John Tesh radio show focuses on content that fits their positioner, “Intelligence For Your Life.” The teases John delivers are designed to bring listeners back to the radio station and that repeat tune-in is an easier way to build TSL than expecting an audience will have zero distractions or interruptions during the period of time they are listening.
Give the audience a reason to come back. Encourage repeat tune-in be it content, contests or pre-promotion of a great favorite song.
A product platform we’re involved with (Daniel Anstandig, Mike McVay and broadcaster Lee Zapis) is Listener Driven Radio. One of the benefits of Listener Driven Radio is that you can connect to 85+ social networks and alert listeners when their favorite song has just begun to play on your radio station.
Let’s assume you are a fan of Matt Nathanson. His song “Come On Get Higher” starts to play on your radio station and a tweet (or whatever notification fitting the 85+ social networks that’s applicable) goes out to those who’ve registered with your station and notifies them that their favorite artist or song has just begun to play on KXXX. This type technology is what will drive TSL in the future.
Adult Contemporary for the longest time has been the “Rodney Dangerfield” of radio. That is it received no respect. Today, the rating device known as the PPM indicates that Adult Contemporary stations due in fact have significant phantom cume. If you are in a medium and smaller market, then despite what you may think will be an increase in expenditures, you should in fact partition Arbitron to bring PPM in your market sooner instead of later.
The only way you will get your fair share of the advertising dollars is to show that you have the larger audience than we’ve always expected that exists on AC stations.
Finally! Adult Contemporary is being recognized as the first or second most listened to music format in market after market.
|
