PPM Commercial Placement

Listeners Treat Commercials Like Weeds

For some time now, all of us on the programming side recognized that one of the most irritating things that listeners have always complained about was commercials. They always asked why their favorite station had so many commercials. When we really looked at the research data, we found that an overabundance of commercials was definitely an irritant. No surprise here, right? The question was what could we do about it?

In these tough times, no station wants to reduce their commercial load because that would mean less profit. But then we figured out that maybe if we reduced the number and length of commercials, we could charge more for the commercials we aired. And we would have removed one of the big obstacles from our listener's complaint book.

The problem was that it was a theory, not a reality. The reality was that GMs and sales managers who needed to hit their numbers to stay employed said we're going to sell all we can. So as programmers we were just going to have to find another way to make our stations more listenable. With that thought in mind, spring is probably as good a time as any to look at upgrading our programming strategies.

Everything becomes important when your station is attempting to compete in a world measured by Arbitron's PPM. Sometimes you want to stand out. Other times you need to blend in. There is no doubt that if we can't reduce the number of commercials we run, maybe better placement would help. Done right, it might give you an advantage with PPM and even with diary-measured markets. The key is to stand out with a station whose imaging and production conveys just the right stationality, vibe and presence. You want to shape your imaging and production to complement the attitude of the station. To do that you need to know who the target audience is and a little about their lifestyle. Then you want to plug in imaging and production that makes you more memorable.

Commercial placement is one area that is seldom talked about that is becoming increasingly important as the "Generation Y" continues to grow and suddenly has several more media choices. That makes them less tolerant. This is the problem with commercial irritants once we stop the music. Most Urban stations have competitive weaknesses when it comes to placement of commercials and in-house production. PPM is showing more young listeners are using more radio than originally believed.

Urban stations have to retain their audience for longer periods with PPM. PPM data show lower Time Spent Listening (TSL) than with the diary, so it's important to structure our programming to keep the average listener listening longer.

It's important to avoid "tune-out lines" such as "We'll be right back" or "Back in three minutes." Instead you might want to say "Coming up, we're going to bring you a text message Little Wayne sent from his prison cell and we're going to play this week's most-requested jam."

How Do We Keep Them Listening?

What do most people do when commercials come on? We all know the answer to that one. They tune out, especially if they're in their car, where it's a quick one-button motion. The problem is that sometimes there is nothing you can do about the commercials. Every station has them. But you can anticipate the tune-out, keep them listening a little longer and create a situation so that when they do tune-out, they'll come right back.

Most programmers believe stacking the spots or clusters in the last quarter-hour is the only way to win. They reason that it lends itself to better quarter-hour maintenance. That assumption is based on the notion that most diary keepers stated their listening as beginning at the top of the hour and lost interest with each subsequent quarter-hour. That theory holds that the first three-quarters of an hour should feature smaller stopsets than in the last quarter-hour. Others said that listening begins pretty much equally round the hour. With the meter both of those theories have to be revised. Why? Because recall, for the most part, is no longer a factor. But that doesn't answer the question of how to make stopsets more acceptable, less of a distraction and a tune-out factor.

The secret is to schedule commercial inventory with the same care and concern that you do music. The exact order or stacking of commercial units needs to be handled with precision. Among the factors programmers should take into consideration are the commercial's sonic compatibility with the format's music and ambience, as well as its length and production values. The idea is to always schedule commercials in inverted pyramid style. That means you should lead with the commercial that has the highest production value or sounds most like the radio station.

Many radio commercials, especially those national PI's (per inquiry) commercials with the 800 number, pitching male enhancement products or loan modifications, tend to scream at the listener in an attempt to get their attention. That's because someone at the agency level who is light years away from the shallowest radio experience, is convinced that if the spot is too passive, the message won't cut through.

It is my contention that listeners engage in commercials only for products or services in which they already have some interest. They could care less about some big-voiced guy screaming about zero percent interest on a new car if they can't afford or don't need one. But if they need an oil change, a Jiffy Lube spot offering a real value this weekend will get their attention. The problem is we never know about specific audience needs. So other than proper placement, there's not a whole lot we can do there. But there are other things that can help. Programmers need to find compelling ways to keep the listener engaged by factoring production values into commercial breaks.

The best way to avoid tune-out is to first hook on the left side of the stopset, which you should be doing anyway. Those listener appointments or occasions of listening should be automatic. Then you should play commercials that have a high production value or sound most like the radio station first in the break. For example, a well-produced musical commercial or great sounding locally-produced promo should lead. If the audience is in the zone and grooving to a jam, as it fades, hopefully the live air personality will do his or her job to keep the listener feeling good ... continue the mood. So it just makes sense to not suddenly jar them with an aggressive-sounding commercial first in the stopset.

Here's something else to keep in mind. Recent studies, conducted in a variety of markets, have shown that 60-second spots feel longer when they follow a :30, so you should try to arrange breaks with the :60s first, followed by the :30. Sometimes you get trapped when a sponsorship is sold so that a 10-second commercial has to be first in a break. You should work with the sales and traffic departments to let them know the risks involved. Other factors naturally are keeping competitive clients away from each other, which the traffic software should handle. You also want to keep the same voices from appearing in back-to-back spots. We hear of lot of this lately, with stations cutting back and often the only available voice winds up voicing everything. Realize too, that just like the music, commercials have burn-out. Someone riding in the car, wearing a PPM, when they hear an overexposed commercial, is likely to punch out and your station could instantly go from a P1 to a P2.

Ideally, you want the commercials to flow just like your music flows. You want to avoid jolting transitions. Since commercials make up nearly 15% of every hour, we need to pay closer attention to stopsets and how they air. Today's programmers can't just schedule songs and promos and call it a day.

"Back In The Day" Was Different

There was a time when seemingly we had a measure of control over commercial placements. Some of us will no doubt remember when commercials were on tape cartridge and we could label them, indicating "number one" for the spot that was to run first in the stopset, probably a big concert spot or a really tastefully done McDonalds, Coca-Cola or Sprite commercial. We could follow the order the production director or PD labeled the spots.

Today's technology has a tendency to allow people to forget artful flow. I remember grabbing the program log, separating same voice spots, putting the #1 action spots first and the less entertaining one in the middle and then another interesting one at the end.

Proper PPM commercial placement is another example of attention to detail -- doing some little ordinary things better. This can help your station to stand out and score.

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