As our strategists travel to the growing list of markets that have switched to the PPM methodology, we see more sets of market execs and programmers who are perplexed and panicked. It is easy to understand – the rules of the game for radio stations have changed substantially.
It is so powerful to see the audience reaction, moment-by-moment. Our clients have seen listener reactions to content in our dial-based Content Analysis studies, and listeners can be brutal. (In fact, someone in one of our meetings suggested we call our Content Analysis research the “Personal People Dial”.) But when the listeners’ actual behavior affects your ratings, it rocks a programmer’s world and puts a lump in your throat!
As a result, how we use strategic research and music research needs to change, and how we execute Strategic Marketing Models also needs to adapt. Some tactics that were used in the Arbitron diary days are now absolutely critical. We’ll continue to use this space to talk about ways to manage this sea-change.
With the advent of PPM, a new king has arrived in the radio research castle. All hail Cume, which now wears the crown among radio research measuring sticks.
The PPM shows us listener behavior and not perceptions. PPM shows listener usage of radio, as the listener fluctuates from preset to preset up and down the dial, reveals that TSL is much lower than the diary system indicated. Simply put, listeners change stations much more often than they could keep up with in their diary entries. So, the metric of cumulative visits has emerged as the more critical success factor, demonstrating how a station really attracts an audience in a given market.
Imagine you ran a restaurant instead of a radio station – let’s call it the Diary Café. You prided yourself on your customers’ long, leisurely meals – from appetizer to entrée to dessert. Your business model was predicated on your customers staying long and ordering a lot. Your best customer would visit 3 times a day for a long meal per visit. That was TSL.
Now, though, your restaurant’s owner has shaken things up. It’s now the PPM Café. No more fine dining – it’s quick service. Get them in, give them the best service and meal you possibly can, because you know they likely won’t stay very long. . Turn over tables and let customers get on with their busy lives. Your business model is predicated on volume throughout the day. The ultimate customer would come in for a cup of coffee in the morning, a snack mid-morning, a sandwich at lunch and to pick up carry-out for dinner. That’s Cume.
This has created a challenge for stations because they’re not used to thinking about Cume as their point of success. So, now, we’re educating them about what we have learned by working with European radio stations and other international broadcasters over the years. In some of the countries we work, broadcasters that use the similarly computed “Reach” as their competitive benchmark and, as a part of their business culture, position themselves that way in the marketplace.
This is a change, of course, and change is never easy. But it’s time to think differently, program differently, market differently, and sell differently. The PPM offers an opportunity to talk to your marketplace , with Cume front and center. This would require a different mindset for the buying community, but we will talk about that more next time.