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Does Local Really Matter?
March 23, 2015
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Cynically, we're not trying to create the best programming for the entire population within a targeted demographic. We're trying to create the best programming for the very small population participating in or likely to participate in the applicable Nielsen Audio ratings methodology. Again and again our NuVoodoo PPM Prospects Studies show that likely PPM participants are somewhat downscale compared to the total population and that the tremendous bulk of them would be motivated to participate by the incentive payments and rewards offered. It's the something for nothing crowd - even those at higher household income levels are in it to get the little extra they get from participating. You can imagine how this distorts their behavior as consumers and in other ways. As a group, since they're responding to an opportunity to participate in a study about radio and television, they tend to self-select as people who consume more of those media. And, as a result, they're more likely to be plugged in and aware of all sorts of things compared to those who would eschew an offer to participate in the ratings survey.
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Cynically, we’re not trying to create the best programming for the entire population within a targeted demographic. We’re trying to create the best programming for the very small population participating in or likely to participate in the applicable Nielsen Audio ratings methodology.Â
Again and again our NuVoodoo PPM Prospects Studies show that likely PPM participants are somewhat downscale compared to the total population and that the tremendous bulk of them would be motivated to participate by the incentive payments and rewards offered. It’s the something for nothing crowd – even those at higher household income levels are in it to get the little extra they get from participating. You can imagine how this distorts their behavior as consumers and in other ways.Â
As a group, since they’re responding to an opportunity to participate in a study about radio and television, they tend to self-select as people who consume more of those media. And, as a result, they’re more likely to be plugged in and aware of all sorts of things compared to those who would eschew an offer to participate in the ratings survey.Â
Attitudinally, we see some striking differences between the small group who predict they’d participate in PPM (PPM: Yes in the chart below) and the larger group of those who would avoid participating (PPM: No in the chart). The PPM likelies respond more actively to everything and, in the chart below, strikingly more actively to agreeing with the idea that a radio station contest can add to their enjoyment of a station.Â
We also note greater endorsement of the ideas that it’s important that local stations connect with their communities and that the station hosts really know the area. While this doesn’t mean that voice-tracked shows with great talent from a larger market are bad, it DOES mean that the talent has to have a letter-perfect knowledge of the market. This means more attention to show prep at the talent end and more sharing of information from the station end, so that the talent can quickly build his/her knowledge base – so that it’s never apparent that he/she isn’t local.Â
Street names, pronunciation of local towns and communities, the history of local concert venues, school rivalries and so many more details are out there waiting to trip up talent, whether their shows are piped in from elsewhere or if they’re simply newly-arrived to the area from another market. We talk the talk about the importance of radio’s localism – and it turns out it really IS important to most of the people who determine our fates. We can’t afford to fumble it on the air…ever.Â
We’re also noticing pushback on stations constructed of mainly produced elements and lacking in human interaction. It really is that intangible something that separates the experience of listening to a really well-prepared music show on a great radio station with the experience of listening to your own iPod or Pandora or Spotify or other online stream. That (apparently) live human warmth can convey so many things better than our most cinematic production.Â
In content testing for client stations – where we actually get listener feedback on station elements – we see again and again that a live promo often communicates the ideas better, gets better engagement from listeners and is more enjoyable than a produced element trying to convey the same information. It’s critical that we not under-play this very powerful trump card in constructing the flow on stations.Â
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