Tag: "P1"
Monday Memo: “Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful…”
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — I wrote this during the first big blizzard of the season – not the last — and much of the East got whacked. Weather has been increasingly extreme most everywhere in recent years, and brutal hurricanes and raging wildfires and heat waves and floods and droughts will continue. What the heck, we’re probably mathematically overdue for an earthquake too.
Even wackier than the weather: The news. And don’t expect things to “settle down.” Though less-erratic, the incoming administration will be no less-newsworthy. Notwithstanding longer-term optimism over vaccines, the pandemic’s worst days lie just ahead; and the injured economy is as-directly impactful on listeners’ day-to-day survival. Repairs on President Joe Biden’s To-Do list are matters that transcend political arm-wrestling. Watch infrastructure (translation: “jobs”).
Monday Memo: Round-Off Teases
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — The quickest way to move the ratings needle? Not billboards, not TV spots, not direct mail.
This might sound like double-talk, but heaps of audience data demonstrate that the quickest way to move the ratings needle is to get listeners who listen to your station most (so-called “First Preference” or “P1” users) to listen even more. Especially in PPM markets, where the meter hears lots of “drive-by” listening.
Monday Memo: Got Local News?
Guard It.
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — Example: Actual copy, a story about a love triangle shooting:
- Here’s what listeners heard – read this aloud: “The woman’s husband arrested the wounded man taken to the hospital.”
- Here are the facts the writer obscured: Police arrested the woman’s husband, the accused shooter. The person he shot was hospitalized.
- As-is, the ear was told something different when half-sentences ran-together. It sounded like the woman’s husband was a cop, who arrested someone who had been shot.
Verbs are our friends.
Monday Memo: 1,000 True Fans
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — I’m hearing from lots of podcasters reacting to “Mainstream Media, Redefined,” the TV segment I did with TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison. ICYMI: https://youtu.be/HpE_iwSvIYE
They’re enthused, but frustrated. A common concern is “How do I get more downloads?”
I tell them they’re asking the wrong question, for reasons broadcasters understand.
Monday Memo: Welcome to the Spring Book
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — The Nielsen Audio spring survey begins Thursday, and this one matters a lot, because much of Christmas 2019 will be bought-from – and much of early 2020 will be planned-from – these numbers.
The Quickest Way to Move the Ratings Needle
Heaps of audience data demonstrate this: Get listeners who listen to your station most (so-called “First Preference” or “P1” users) to listen even more. Sounds like double-talk, but that’s the ballgame.
Radio’s Biggest Star: Baseball
By Holland Cooke
Media Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — Do the math. For 6 months when habitual listening dips as listeners vacation and otherwise alter their lives, baseball brings:
- long-TSL tune-in (“vertical maintenance” in ratings speak), to…
- 162 three+ hour shows (“horizontal maintenance”), by…
- people who otherwise might not cume the station, in…
- what would otherwise be fringe evening/late-night/weekend hours,
- many of which are suspenseful, and which are loaded with…
- inventory that sells-without-numbers.
And now that games are available elsewhere, affiliated AM/FM stations need to play defense to exploit the franchise. (Pictured at right is HC at his beloved Fenway Park.)
‘Make America Great Again’
By Holland Cooke
Media Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — How effective is Donald Trump’s slogan? It crystallized his shoot-from-the-hip spiel well enough that conservatives who were chanting “American Exceptionalism” a year ago now sound like they think we’re no longer great.
Mrs. Clinton’s messaging hasn’t been nearly as consistent or deft. A while back, her slogan-of-the-week was “Love Trumps Hate.” Huh? Lately, with Bernie Sanders out of the race, and to position against Trump’s nationalistic narrative, she’s settled on the less cryptic “Stronger Together.”
Arbitron Client Conference: Day 1
Time Spent Listening about…Time Spent Listening
by Holland Cooke
Radio Consultant
ANNAPOLIS — If the wistful Kenny G. Christmas music wafting through the hotel is nearly-drowned-out by the sound of 250 people typing, it can only be…Arbitron’s Client Conference.
This is an annual Who’s Who of radio Programming, and everyone here admits to the nerdy curiosity necessary to digest a two-day meeting about audience measurement. I do a half-dozen media conventions a year, and I always extract more “take-home pay” from this one than any other.
Here are my notes from day one. More here tomorrow, and more Monday.
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