Radio Was Easier

Let’s face it.  Doing radio is harder today that it has ever been.

1. Short attention spans.  
2. PPM demands for excellent second to second execution with no wasted time that could cause a lost listener.  
3. More usage of multi-media for music and info that means radio’s once exclusive lock on basics no longer exists. 

Hardest of all these days is self-promotion.  It has never been more crucial to build and own core usage-driving images, but the audience won’t sit still for anything that sounds like a sales pitch.

1. Writing must be crisper than ever, every bit of production has to improve flow.  
2. Everything has to be believable, reinforcing values of the target.  
3. Momentum and brevity should be baked in.

Anyone who still believes that radio was better yesterday or simpler to execute now doesn’t understand the skill level required to be a market leader in 2014.

When It Comes To Cross Media Usage, Keep Your Eyes On Canada

Since BBM Canada makes use of the PPM to measure both major market TV and radio usage, Canada's media ratings company is in an excellent position to compare apples to apples in all forms of encoded audio and video usage.

BBM has three initiatives underway:

• BBM started a test last August to determine whether or not the PPM radio meter panel can support Internet streaming measurement (i.e., separating Internet streaming from live broadcast currently reported together) and to look into the volume of Internet streaming usage by radio broadcaster audiences.
  
  Twenty-two Toronto member stations started participating in a test late last summer, separately encoding their online radio stream.  Now, 25 Toronto radio stations are encoding both their terrestrial and streaming programming.
  
  Then, in November eighteen stations in Vancouver Central (Metro) Area were added to the test and as of December, sixteen stations have participated in Montreal Central (Franco and Anglo). 
  
  Individual station-level data have been presented to all participating broadcasters in each market by BBM, but the data is not yet currency for public release.
  
  However, the early headline is quite promising, boding well for the future.
  
  The combination of over the air PPM usage average minute audience and encoded streaming appears to increase radio's total week 12+ audience by about 3%.  OF course, there is great variability in online streaming between stations.
  
  BBM told its member stations this week that overall the highest percentage of online listening occurs during the workday at 5%.
  
  
• The second initiative is to report radio tuning and television viewing in a single database. 
  
  BBM’s Cross Media Database was tested in the past few months, and will be released in May with data back to September 2013.  Quarterly releases will occur until August, and then Cross Media will be released monthly.
  
  Cross Media Data is not currency as it is based on Central Areas, and Television currency is based on Extended Markets, but this single source data should have many other uses.  Data will be at the respondent level so users will have a lot of flexibility looking at tuning between radio and television from the same sample.
  
  
• The third initiative, Non Linear Measurement, is in a proof of concept test.  This is designed to report media that is accessed from servers.  The initial test is for Video on Demand, but this technology to extend PPM to user-controlled access will have many other uses in radio and television.   Television broadcasters have installed the software based encoders and will insert the PPM codes as the material is loaded to their servers.  Data should be available for industry assessment mid-2014.  BBM is the only measurement organization able to measure Non Linear consumption in its panel.  BBM already reports all live streaming, so addition of non-linear will give users a full view of consumption of their programming regardless of the platform. 

These initiatives extend BBM measurement across media, and much deeper into media now reported.  It should be clear in a few months how these datasets can be used.

Organizations south of the 49th parallel working in this same area have a lot to learn from our Canadian friends right now.

Playing Catch Up

CBS and other major group owners are working with Nielsen Catalina Solutions to demonstrate the power of multi-media usage to help marketers tailor advertising across platforms in the belief that it will ultimately improve radio's revenue shares.

Yesterday, Clear Channel confirmed that it is “far along” in the process of working with measurement partners to define next-generation cross media measurement for audio. The company didn't disclose which researcher it is using, but EVP of insights, research & analytics Radha Subramanyam told Inside Radio the work “will lay the foundation for how the medium is looked at in the 21st century” and provide “a true read of what is going on in the ecosystem.”

It wouldn't be surprising to learn that Cumulus is working with Triton Digital on something similar.

Clear Channel, meantime, says it is “far along” in the process of working with measurement partners to define next-generation cross media measurement for audio. The company hasn’t disclosed its measurement partners but EVP of insights, research & analytics Radha Subramanyam says the work “will lay the foundation for how the medium is looked at in the 21st century” and provide “a true read of what is going on in the ecosystem.” - See more at: http://www.insideradio.com/article.asp?id=2753936&spid=32060#.UvJ44IWyU2Y

As more media buying is done transactionally by computers talking to each other the data coming from new media measurement initiatives means, hopefully, that our sellers will no longer need to overcome old media buyer stereotypes that have meant radio fails to get its fair share of the media usage pie.

Solid data is crucial in this effort and the combined power of on line, at home and away from home/mobile, I'll bet, will support something anyone who engages daily with people who use radio has known for a very long time:  they actively and heavily use audio entertainment while multi-tasking throughout their media day and that improves the return on investment of audio advertising.

Hopefully, it won't be long until these efforts are peer reviewed, coordinated and accredited so that the buying community gets consistent, believable numbers from everyone concerned.

There's too much at stake to get this wrong.

Bring It On

Yesterday, I wrote about possible upsides and downsides for today's broadcast radio in the recent Nielsen "lunch" which featured Arbitron as a main course (Hopes And Fears).

There's one aspect of the deal that doesn't worry me one bit:  Nielsen's intentions in acquiring Arbitron is to begin measuring online radio services like Pandora.

The research has already been done and it's clear that when measured on an apples to apples basis, both streaming of terrestrial and also over the air broadcast stand to gain.

The fact is that traditional "radio" (I can't wait to universally adopt the term 'audio' advertising) currently is greatly undervalued.

It's been happening in the real world for three years now in Canada with BBM using PPM to measure radio and television usage across the same panel.  It's possible to literally follow which ad on one affects the other and of course how a combination of both broadcast media can impact branding, product adoption and make cash registers ring.

James Cridland is a British radio futurologist and has become expert in the real world as well, consulting, writing and speaking about what happens when radio and new platforms collide.

He was a on air talent at local stations, digital media director at Virgin Radio in the UK (now Absolute Radio) and helped the BBC to develop the iPlayer. Cridland operates the website Media UK, works with The Radio Academy, is involved in RadioDNS and a co-organizer of the nextrad.io conference.  I love the way he puts it:  "Radio needs one voice." (click to read his recommendations for radio to make the most of their online presence)

An October 2012 EMarketer study on the growth of mobile found that broadcast radio has a 13.2 percent share of time spent wih all media per day, with a 9.3 percent of the U.S. ad share. 

It's a sad statement that our sellers have not been able to justify increasing radio's rates by the 30% the current audience rating shares affirm that we earn.

Perhaps when buyers see radio's online and over the air usage stats on the same page with all media based on the identical sample, we'll finally get the price we deserve.

If Nielsen's vision for Arbitron can help us do that, they are going to find radio managers and owners asking them "what are you waiting for?  How soon can we start?"