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How To Find & Fill All The Holes This Fall
October 17, 2006
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Understanding & Applying The Science Of Audience Segmentation
Even though programmers should pretty much have their stations' strategies set by now for the current fall Arbitron sweeps, some may not. Even if you do -- and regardless of your state of preparedness -- we want to share a few secrets this time about audience segmentation and where the holes are.
First of all, it should be a foregone conclusion that there are holes. They might be format niches that are not completely filled or transition holes -- the ones left open when there has been a format or personnel shift. But what about the holes for your format and your station? You not only want to discover and take advantage of holes that exist in the market, you also want to make sure to fill and cover your own holes.
That means you have to get your station positioned right and sounding good; that's the best way to cover up the hole. One of the most effective ways to do this is to promote your station outside of the station itself.
There are several ways to do this. We're going to examine some of the most effective ones. In addition, we will also look at one of the most effective methods to increase cume and boost overall listenership this fall.
Although they're often expensive, television spots, direct-mail campaigns and on-air cash giveaways are still the most effective and proven methods to quickly strengthen a station's image. And even though they often go hand-in-hand, each really serves a different function. Direct mail is designed primarily to increase the station's cume. Combining direct mail with a strong television campaign, on-air cash giveaways, tied to an attractive website, can definitely increase both cume and quarter-hour listening.
One of the major obstacles for Urban stations always involves building cume. Often they have tremendous loyalty or quarter-hours, but they fail to attract new cume even for short periods of time. This is why the use of television commercials and direct-mail campaigns could be the best cume builders if they are effectively planned and well thought out.
Direct-mail campaigns most common among Urban stations are lotteries and prize catalogs. Both mean big dollars for promotion budgets. If you haven't done one, or you haven't heard of one being done in your market by your competition, that's probably because not many Urban stations are really into direct-mail except for a few group-owned stations in larger markets. But if you want mainstream numbers, you have to do mainstream contests and promotions. And if Urban radio is to continue to grow, and it must, it has to be more aggressive in its marketing approach and go after a larger audience. This is especially true if yours is a station that has to compete head-on with another station in the same or similar format.
Making Middays Work
One of the biggest daypart holes for many Urban stations still exists in middays. In many markets of varying sizes, Urban radio has failed to get its share of the "listen-at-work audience." According to recent studies, middays have the potential to become the most important and one of the most listened-to dayparts of Urban radio for adults. How can we fill in the hole in middays and capture our share of those listeners?
Tempo-based familiarity is one of the most important basics to remember about middays. Familiarity can be debated in many ways, but musically it's just something that your audience can groove along to. Anything abstract or off-the-wall could hurt you between 10 in the morning and three in the afternoon.
This doesn't mean that you can't safely schedule some up-tempo, fresh new music during middays. For Urban formats, it's also important to remember not all at-work listening in done at the office. Lots of listeners are pulling shifts in trucks, supermarkets and malls. Some are driving between appointments. In the case of up-tempo songs, which the Urban Adult format sorely needs to keep from being too bland, you have to be careful with the adjacency records on either side of them. It also means that all the titles, both currents and gold, should be from familiar artists or familiar-sounding. For currents, that means established artists such as Mariah Carey, Brian McKnight and Lionel Richie. These kinds of artists offer comfort, familiarity and tune-in. If your station has an established morning drive, information-based programming balanced with up-tempo music and humor, you've probably got a good start.
The key to scoring in middays means familiarity and as few irritants as possible. In the morning, the audience is less likely to tune out. You usually wind up with a locked-in audience based on personality and information. This is not necessarily true in middays. You have to be more sensitive to what may offend. An air personality who offends and doesn't communicate in middays will cause problems -- problems that can cause those fickle at-work fingers to find a new frequency.
The main cause of the demise in middays for many Urban stations has been the lack of style, or style without substance. The format may carry an audience, if the music is on target, but at some point, people still want to know that they're listening to a real person. They want to be entertained.
Many of today's midday jocks don't entertain. They tend to withdraw from the foreground and let the music do the talking. They believe that lyric integrity is enough. The real message, they say, is in the music, be it heavy, wordy, intellectual, political or social. But a midday air personality who is prepared and excited about the music is still preferred. In fact, even in middays, the most successful and highly rated air talent are those whose styles are so clearly obvious. They have filled in the "air hole" and made a difference. So how do you develop a style that makes listeners want to listen to and remember you when those Arbitron diaries drop?
Don't Copy, Create
There's a great temptation on the part of some personalities to grab on to a successful style and ride it. It's easier than being original and a lot safer, or so it seems. While it may seem easier, it's really not safer. As soon as those styles are out or change, there is nothing left. There are those who are quick to adapt. They are more successful, often lasting years in the business, even in the same market. But those people are becoming even rarer.
What should a developing jock look to as a solution to the problem of style? Substance fueled by show prep. We must have something to say, every time we crack the mike. And since everybody's talking less and doing those long music sweeps, we have to be even better prepared, intelligent, topical and well exposed. Some of this can be accomplished by simply doing daily show prep and by varying in the approach to reading the liner cards.
The more we talk, especially for the "music freaks," the harder it is to hold an audience. The less we talk, the harder it is to entertain. A voicetracked jukebox can be beaten and, most threateningly, automated or replaced. If you're an air personality, nobody is going to listen to you unless you have something to say. It is your obligation to find some substance to fill in that hole between songs. Filling in that hole all starts with a positive mental attitude and an understanding of what ingredients make the best "filler."
Word.
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