Selling Audience Loyalty

In the world of transactional business, it is all GRP and Cost per Point. In new business development, most salespeople rely on the cume to their station or cluster – in other words, how many consumers the advertiser has the potential of reaching.

While in this second case cume is an effective sales strategy, it leaves out one of the great elements that makes radio an effective advertising outlet: station loyalty. Many listeners have an emotional relationship with their station, and this needs to be exploited in the sales arena.

Talking about how your listeners feel about your radio station is valuable, but a good sales rep should also be ready with facts to translate this passion into facts and figures. How do you do that? In most markets, three elements can illustrate your listeners’ loyalty.

First Preference: In non-research language, First Preference (also known as P1) is a listener’s favorite radio station. A listener spends the most time with their P1 station, so it’s a fair assumption to say it’s usually their favorite. Therefore, they have an emotional relationship with the station and an advertiser’s message will be most effective with these listeners.

Time Spent Listening/Average Weekly Time Exposed: How long the average listener spends with a radio station is an important selling point. Radio stations that have long time spent listening result in a higher likelihood that the advertiser’s message will be heard. This is typically very impressive in diary markets. While PPM data often shows lower time spent listening than diary data, and since all listeners do not listen the same way, it can be advantageous to outline the time spent listening of just your First Preference listeners. Show the advertiser that your target listeners are spending a lot of time with your station.

Duplication: While just a comparison to other radio stations, duplication analysis can show an advertiser the other stations that your listeners do not tune to. It allows you to say: “The best place to reach my desirable listeners is on my station.”

While any one of these can be used to differentiate your station from other advertising options, the right combination of all three is powerful. If you can document that you deliver an audience concentrated with First Preference listeners who spend long time spans with the station and have low duplication on other stations, you’re showing the advertiser that the best place to reach these consumers is on your radio station.