Posts in "Hot Topics"
March 24, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
For the past year, radio broadcasters, like most media outlets, have been playing defense. Now is the time to switch from defense to offense, and take advantage of new opportunities.
Why is this?
It appears that the economy is improving. The COVID relief package, which has been approved by Congress, will result in added dollars in most Americans’ pockets. Many will quickly spend that newfound money. Make sure your advertisers are prepared to compete for those dollars.
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March 23, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The recently unveiled survey results of the Infinite Dial 2021 produced a revealing statistic. The radio industry must acknowledge that we are potentially losing one of our most precious commodities – time.
The annual Infinite Dial studies are a treasure trove of valuable information. One particularly eye-opening statistic was the amount of time consumers spend each week with online audio.
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March 10, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
For programmers, there are numerous ways to judge success. However, success is limited if the programmer does not know the ultimate potential. The size of the pie is the maximum amount you can get – is that big enough to be successful? Since it’s nearly impossible to get the entire pie, how big of a slice do you need to declare success?
There are several ways to measure this potential. Let’s focus on demographic and format.
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March 2, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Many questions remain regarding how Nielsen’s headphone adjustment impacts individual radio stations. Last fall, we addressed this new modeling procedure, which was introduced with the October 2020 PPM survey (see here and here). While the headphone adjustment undoubtedly lifts PUMMs (market listening levels), it only results in a positive impact for certain stations.
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February 23, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Many consider our new Democratic President to be a moderate. Even his decades on Capitol Hill reflected a moderate position. For this reason, I was surprised when his Republican rival labeled him a socialist who wanted to defund the police. Yes, this was a portion of the Democratic Party, but not the person they selected as their candidate.
While Biden won the popular vote and the Electoral College, many states were much closer than a lot of us expected. All of a sudden, some people who voted for Trump described Biden as a socialist who wanted to defund the police.
Simply put, for a portion of the population, the Republican’s branding of its competitor worked.
So what can we learn about this moment in history that can help us in the radio business?
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February 9, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
If you are an avid follower of ALL ACCESS, you know that The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. pen a monthly ratings column. We are fortunate to look under the hood of the data for the top fifteen PPM markets. This affords us a somewhat wide perspective on ratings trends.
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February 2, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
BIA Advisory Services tracks and predicts advertising revenue on a nationwide and local market basis. They forecast ad expenditure by advertising category. In a recent interview for Forbes.com, Rick Ducey, Managing Director of BIA, outlined how ad expenditure will change in 2021.
This is a critical comparison, because for most reading this, 2020 was a miserable year. COVID caused massive shutdowns in retail, entertainment, travel, and restaurants. Is 2021 going to be a rebound year for advertising expenditure? Much of this depends on your definition of rebound.
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January 25, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
We sit in a somewhat unique position that allows us to peek under the hood of radio stations in PPM markets across the country. As we work with our clients to help increase both revenue and ratings we are seeing the formation of some notable trends.
There is no doubt that the nationwide lockdown in the middle of the March survey resulted in a negative effect on radio listening. This effect bottomed out in the April book and has since then shown gradual improvement. The emphasis is on the word gradual, as radio’s recovery has resembled the Nike swoosh rather than a “V.”
Specifically, here are some trends we are seeing …
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January 5, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
A perennial concern of Nielsen subscribers is whether the company is delivering quality research. We at Research Director, Inc. continually track not only Nielsen’s total sample, but also how well the make-up of the sample represents each unique radio market. Several different metrics exist to help our clients understand how well the sample represents the overall population.
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December 21, 2020
Filed Under: Hot Topics
A recently released study from CUMULUS MEDIA/Westwood One and the RAB will prove to be an invaluable resource for radio salespeople. It will allow advertisers to determine the appropriate spot level needed to achieve their specific campaign goals. In most cases, it documents that the client should actually increase their spending on a radio station. This could be perceived as a ploy to pry more budget out of an advertiser. We strongly suggest that these findings be positioned as insight. This data will help you assist your clients to place more effective campaigns with better results. And in turn, that enhances your credibility.
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