A&O Pre-CRS Seminar '09 - At The Country Music Hall Of Fame

Jessica Andrews performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum and Rascal Flatts previewed their new video as the Albright & O'Malley Pre-CRS Seminar opened, cosponsored by Country Aircheck and Lyric Street.

Pictured (l-r) are Disney Music Group's Doug Howard, Greg McCarn and Randy Goodman, CA's Lon Helton, A&O's Mike O'Malley, Andrews, A&O's Jaye Albright, Disney's Kevin Herring and Carolwood's John Ettinger and Chris Palmer.

Keynoter Jeff Vidler (Angus Reid Strategies) urged the assembled programmers to pick the right target demo in their markets, know and reflect that target, build a bold and relevant brand, and hitch that brand to digital media, "What’s Next for Radio."

Changing demographics:
• Leading edge of baby boom out of 25-54; miniboom now moving into 25-54
• 25-54s will get more diverse – white, non-hispanic declines
• Growth will be in more urban counties; metropolitan counties younger as well
• Hispanic median age 27 (black 33-34, white 41)
• Older, white, rural vs. younger, diverse and urban
• Challenge: How can country remain true to roots and values yet appeal to younger, diverse, urban?

Internet changes
• Consumer is in control and know it
• Expects everything faster, better, cheaper
• Want what I want when I want it
• Increased expectation for material success, more women in the workforce balancing family and aging parents, increased commute time (148 hrs per year)

Explosion of choice
• Number of brands on shelves – 15,00 in 1991, 51,000 in 2001, 135,000 in 2011
• Ad messages per day – 1960- 1,5,00 by 2010 = 9,000
• Unlmited media fragementation – 175M Facebooks uers, 250M my space, 2.2 million Twitter, 27 million Xanga users
• 83 M visited youtube in Jan 2009, 34% more vidfeos watched than last year, 150,000 videos uploaded each day

New Audio Alternatives
• Young – mass media is spam controlled by someone else and a poor alternative
• Share of past week listeningto all forms of audio (online consumers):18-34 – use less than half of 55+ (27%/60%); 35-54 47%; 18-34 46% of all audio is to personal music”
• 18+ - about 50% radio indespensible/important
• Why: distribution advantage (esy, convenient free) 40%; exclusive content 30%, non-exclusive conent 20$=%
• 18-34 place most value on easy/convenient/free

Recession Is the mother of Innovation

Format Core Brand Values:
CHR – young, in touch with trends
Country – down to earth, comfortable with self, family important
Rock – renegade party
Alternative – open-minded, discovery
Soft AF – refined, loving, being content

Richard Harshaw/Monopolize Your Marketplace

Record incentives aren’t helping sell cars: “What convinces is conviction” – Lyndon Johnson (no amount of logic will change a conviction)

Hyundai – up 14% in January (assurance program); Ford down 47%

Find out what’s really important in your products, i.e. "If you lose your job, we'll take the car back, no questions asked."

Confidence gap – increased knowledge/competition, choice/information, longer buying cycles, prducts are commodities, identical marketing messages

Inside reality vs. outside reality
What’s your inside reality for your station as it relates to advertiser relationship?

Outside perception – how people thing about you (no matter how good your inside reality is, the outside perception will drive the business)

Typical relationship is transactional: client gets exposure in exchange for dollars
You deliver ratings, offer a certain value – it is what it is
Sales staff is full of sales people (not necessarily marketing people)

Advertisers frustrations: they have budgets, but they don’t know much about advertising
Symptoms – they let ad reps write their ads for them
Continue to spend money on things that don’t work
They become skeptical of all new ad opportunities
Now scared because of recession

Outside perception – aad sales jobs often, wll do anything to get sale, try to sping numbers and cut prices in hopes of getting any sale

Three steps to Powerful Marketing
Have something good to say
Say it well
Saying it often

Have something good to say – your marketing job will be eaiser if you innovate your business
Become Fountain of knowledge:for customers – they need customers
What business are you really in – helping clients maximize their advertising opportunities

Psychology of persuasion
Repricocity (if I do something for you, you’d do something for me)
Consistency
Social proof
Scarcity
Liking (more likely to do business with people I like)
Authority (are they really an authority on the subject)

Become a beacon of light in hazy world of advertising; helping them make best choice of budgets, offer bonafide marketing advie and solutions; you have to be willing to lose sometimes

Be liked, authority, reciprocity – all weapons of influence

How to help… become fountain of all knowledge for client
Evaluate marketing messages
Weekly emails with marketing ideas
Monthly mailers/CDs (may be online, but you hand it to you)
Monthly tele-seminar
Website to download information
Live training seminars (put on seminar for clients)
Most ad reps have hand out for money – you hand out material)

Make sure your sales reps "have," so they can give

GARY MARINCE VP/Programming and Services Development

Radio gets better TSL by minimizing tune-outs
To increase your ratings, build a bigger hour
When marketing is high and station has high AQH quarter-hours, we need to keep these hour CLEAN
Highest numbers are often hours with most music
Strategic placement of spots is important – when commercials air, stations lose 20% of QH audience
Keep spots out of strongest quarter hours.

Find out what QHRs are strongest, and keep them clean; puts spots in the softest QHRs (lose 20% of listeners in a QHR that has fewer QHRs to begin with).

The biggest market quarter hours (most AQH persons) – keep ultra clean – minimal (or no) commercials, no promotional announcements, etc.

WYCD – national cume ratings leader for the country format. What do they do?
Highest cume rating – lowest number of titles (tight library)
Minutes in music – cume leader has most
Smallest minutes in mic time – cume leader keeps more audience from tuning away during non-music times
2 stop sets, lowest commercial load limit

Super Heavy User Quintiles: Heaviest users don’t listen at the same times/have a pattern. What have you done for them today?

Accountability – poor talent breaks can cause severe audience erosion; it’s all about the talent presentation/content and the expectations people have of the station

PP1s are even more critical in PPM – fewer number of meters

Voice-tracked do not appear to be penalized; ‘best of’ shows are penalized

Tommy Kramer coaching tips

• Question: What’s your goal a year from now? Answer: I’ll help you.
• Cultivate an environment where you can foster/nurture talent.
• Talent will keep doing the same thing until you show them it’s irrelevant
• Be the moon, reflect back to listeners what he/she care about with your observations and opinions makes you relevant
• You’ll become closer to listeners when you exchange opinions, share feelings
• For reticent talent: play worst break and ask them if that’s what they want to be known for? Do it quietly/one-on-one.
• Unique: where you only say what only you would say
• Find a way to put things on the air that are unique to you.
• With focus (on your listener) comes depth, and with depth comes vocabulary.
• Radio is about words and emotions.
• How to stand out: say things that are unique to you that you and your listeners have on their minds. (is it real, relevant, emotional AND interesting).
• Every meaningful relationship starts with things you have in common.
• Show prep is easy – just keep your eyes open (digital recorder for thoughts; flip camera; cell phone)
• If you’re only doing audio, you’re a dinosaur; all dinosaurs did top become oil was stand still
• The camera angle you use determines how you’ll tell the story.
• The first place you can get out, get out.
• We’re not DJs. We’re voice actors; jocks try too hard.
• How to be great – guaranteed – 5 things (Weigh yourself not against other DJs, but everything vying for listeners’ attention; your promos compete against Hollywood trailers.)
a. Say things once, well. No summing up. Say station first, say something worth hearing; shut up.
b. Getting to the point quickly is the name of the game.
c. Forget about your voice; big voices are less effective because it’s about real; big voices sound angry or tired.
d. Let go of caring how you’re perceived. Egos are the enemy of performance (except for Rush Limbaugh who is intentionally set up to be this).
e. Picture your listeners’ lives, then work back to the control room, then reflect it back featured through your opinions.

Click here to read Country Aircheck's recap of CRS events yesterday including quotes from A&O's Pre-CRS seminar. Thanks again to the Country Music Hall Of Fame for again hosting our event!