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Top 10 Research Discoveries of 2012 to Help you Win in 2013
December 3, 2012
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Every week during the last year, we've shared dramatic findings from our 2012 national study of over 1000 Adults 18-49. We have focused on actionable results that you can use to your advantage today. And even more importantly, we have illuminated dozens of facts that Arbitron does not want you to know about PPM panels. You can use this information to play the PPM game and maximize ratings success. Arbitron continues to claim that the PPM sample is representative of the total population. Nonsense. Our research has consistently shown that, aside from representing the population correctly in age and gender and ethnicity, this is far from true. A PPM prospect is very different from the rest of the population, in attitudes, lifestyle, communication habits and how Radio is used. That's why we investigated and reported what kind of consumer is more likely to accept a PPM, and why. Here are 10 critical things we have learned:
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Every week during the last year, we’ve shared dramatic findings from our 2012 national study of over 1000 Adults 18-49. We have focused on actionable results that you can use to your advantage today. And even more importantly, we have illuminated dozens of facts that Arbitron does not want you to know about PPM panels. You can use this information to play the PPM game and maximize ratings success.Â
Arbitron continues to claim that the PPM sample is representative of the total population. Nonsense. Our research has consistently shown that, aside from representing the population correctly in age and gender and ethnicity, this is far from true. A PPM prospect is very different from the rest of the population, in attitudes, lifestyle, communication habits and how Radio is used. That’s why we investigated and reported what kind of consumer is more likely to accept a PPM, and why. Here are 10 critical things we have learned:
1. Consumers who are more digitally active are much more willing than others to take a PPM.Â
- Here we are, looking for consumers who are willing to carry a spy-mic on their person for months, to collect personal data for commercial use, in return for a few hundred bucks. And we are doing so smack dab in the age where ubiquitous and completely open digital communication and data-mining are on the advance, but fighting pushback on over-messaging and on compromised privacy.  So the great news is that the PPM Prospect isn’t nearly so concerned about privacy or over-messaging, and he is likely to be quite comfortable with ubiquitous and completely open digital communication and data-mining. Smartphone users, heavy Internet users, and highly-active Facebook users are each much more likely than the average consumer to accept a PPM. People who already carry a digital device around with them are more comfortable accommodating another one, and less technophobic, than those without a smartphone. The heavy Internet user is likely to be already well-assimilated into, and presumably more accepting of, a culture of constant digital connectivity and easy access to information. The Facebook power-user is quite comfortable living in a high-exposure info-sharing fishbowl.Â
2. PPM Prospects are much more reachable by mass e-mails, direct mail and radio station texting.Â
- Not only is this a population that we can attempt to reach via mass-messaging, they actively consumes mass-messaging. Perfect for modern digital and direct mail advertising tactics, with a lot less waste.  A radio station’s hit rate for digital and direct-mail tactics, among PPM Prospects, is remarkably higher than it is among those we don’t care about. The station that frequently texts meaningful content to its base will be reaching a disproportionate number of meter wearers.Â
3. PPM Prospects are social animals, who particularly value Radio for the human contact and interaction.Â
- We see dramatic differences between PPM Prospects and non-Prospects in their desire for the human element, in mornings and beyond. The more human-being-centered a given consumer’s morning radio benefit is, the more likely he is to influence the ratings. Those who do not typically listen before 8:00, as well as those who say they are listening “to get energized” or “to relax” are only slightly more likely to say “yes” than to say “no” to our theoretical PPM question. Meanwhile, those who say they listen “to be informed” have a much stronger yes:no ratio, more than 5:3. Those who say they listen “to have a companion” boast the best yes:no ratio of all, close to 7:3.  We also found that consumers who say they have no favorite morning show (a majority of the sample), or whose favorite show is “mostly music” are about evenly divided between yes and no, while those whose favorite show is “mostly talking” or “balanced” are much more likely to say yes. Moving beyond mornings to all-day music listening, we also found that consumers who value DJ-provided information about the music are more likely to say yes to the meter than consumers who do not.Â
4. People who trust Radio are much more likely to accept a PPM.Â
- Consumers who believe in Radio and what it does for them are much more likely to participate in the ratings. We corroborated this finding with the results of three different questions. Those who feel that stations do a good job of providing them and their peers with high quality programming say yes at a 2:1 ratio, while those who disagree are evenly divided. Those who place high trust in the station they turn to for news and information say yes at a similar 2:1 ratio, while those with low trust are evenly divided. Those who say that radio stations do care about the listener also say yes at a 2:1 ratio, while those who say that we are self-centered and self-obsessed say yes at only a 5:4 ratio.Â
- So, earning trust for our reliable information, stressing a genuine commitment to the listener, overcoming cynicism, and nurturing good feelings about the radio listening experience in general will deliver our station more meters. Conversely, regardless of how much they are actually listening to us, we are going to underperform in meters if our consumers perceive us as non-reliable for information, not serving consumer needs, or just singing songs and carrying signs that mostly say “Hooray for our side!”
5. Those who feel close attachment to a station, either for music or for mornings, are much more likely to accept a PPM.Â
- Relationships do matter. It sure looks like one of the motivators to accept a meter may be a desire of the Truly Passionate Station Fan to send a message about it to The Ubiquitous Them of The Media. Thus, the game is more complicated than “the guy with the most listeners will win.” It’s a lot closer to being “among the players who have large audiences, the guy whose audience has the most passion will win.”Â
- It’s this simple:Â plenty of people do not have a favorite music station, but they are less likely to accept a PPM than those who do.Â
- And those who do have a favorite music station, but aren’t really crazy about it, are a lot less likely to accept a PPM than those who really love the station.Â
- Similarly, while a majority of consumers do not really have a morning show they embrace as “favorite,” they are less likely to accept a PPM than those who do have a favorite morning show. And folks who not only have such a favorite show, but give it long daily TSL, are more likely than those who have a favorite but listen to it for a shorter daily interval.Â
6. The overwhelming majority of PPM Prospects are motivated by the money.Â
- The PPM Prospect is saying yes, in order to receive some anticipated benefits, that (s)he perceives to be worth the anticipated costs.Â
- The Non-Prospect, on the other hand, says no, perceiving that these benefits are not worth the costs.Â
- And the key benefit today is cash. In the PPM game, money means a lot more than it did in the diary days. It is the overwhelming single motivating reason, regardless of income level, when a consumer says yes. Nine in 10 consumers who agree to be electronically monitored by the radio industry cite the money, far more than cite other potential benefits.Â
- Just because money is the prime driver, the key is still the “worth it.” Plenty of lower-income folks, for whatever reason, still say “not worth it,” while a significant minority of upper-income folks nonetheless think “worth it.” But whether it’s about making ends meet or about indulging in a luxury purchase, the bottom line is that most of these folks carry the thing so they can get the k-ching.
7. Starting at mid-income, many PPM Prospects are also motivated by the psychic benefit of having their voice heard.Â
- The other 10 percent (allegedly not motivated by the money) tend to be part of a larger group that cites “having your voice heard by Media Companies” as an important benefit. It turns out that the PPM consumer is defined mostly by one or both of these two motivating benefits. For those at the lowest economic level, non-cash benefits are relatively weak factors. But at household incomes above $50,000, here’s your Venn diagram: 60% in the non-overlapping “only want money” area. 10% in the non-overlapping “only want to be heard” area.  Plus another big 30% in the “want to be heard and also want the money” area. So it is fair to think of that “Hear Me!” factor as a huge influence on the pool. For as many as two in five meter-wearers, it may act as a tie-breaker when the financial benefit alone might not have been a slam-dunk.Â
8. High-income households are much less likely to take a PPM.Â
- Seeing the benefit as worth it is of course what separates the Prospects from the rest. Accordingly, the data are not surprising and confirm what benefits are driving. Obviously, Arbitron money is going to make more of a difference to a person at the lower income levels. The benefits outweigh the costs for him, but not for someone of the same age, gender, and race who makes a lot more money.  Unlike Neilsen TV ratings panels, which are in fact income-balanced, Arbitron is collecting data from whoever will cooperate. And those tend to be the people who need the cash the most. To pretend otherwise not only flies in the face of common sense, it flies in the face of the hard data. Our ratings fate is in the hands of a pool that is disproportionately downscale.
9.Parents Are More Willing than Non-parents to Take a PPM.Â
- The greatest economic need tends to be among parents. Parents are used to compromising their lifestyles in order to make ends meet, and that can include carrying that damned electronic thing around for months. Thus, it’s not surprising that people with kids at home are lots more likely to say yes than people of the same age and gender and race without kids at home.Â
10.PPM Prospects are much more influenced by contesting than non-Prospects.Â
- Arbitron has given us a methodology that targets exactly the people we can reach the most easily with marketing, targets the people who care more about radio, and gives us two very clear motivating drivers (money and the desire to be heard) to follow to find the target, and there’s even more? Yes. The really cool thing about the folks who will carry this device for a few hundred bucks is that not surprisingly they are much more motivated by big prize contesting than the average bear. They freely admit that they are open to changing listening habits for a shot at big bucks. Accordingly, we can help ourselves bigtime by focusing our targeting on people who can become passionate about us. And just to insure make sure we get their attention, offering them a big promotional love bribe.Â
The 2013 study is out of the field. We’ll be back in January with updated information and insights into the Radio world. Thanks for reading.
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