Gary Marince

Since the rollout of PPM began, we’ve been re-learning how listeners use radio. With new and greater insights gained through PPM, many of our longstanding practices, such as the 60-second recorded promo, have been disappearing. And, for better or worse, many programmers are embracing the “appointment-setting” concept, where the talent promotes a near-term and recurring programming element such as a commercial-free hour or feature programming.
          And that’s the topic for today’s FMQB Programming to Win: Features – measuring whether or not they help your music station’s ratings. In order to assess the merits of setting appointments, we have to separate the cost of setting the appointment and the merits of the appointment itself.
          When we create on-air appointments, we’re trying to influence listening behavior. Typically, when we’re promoting the appointment, we’re away from content. So, while we’re talking – promoting – we’re vulnerable! Anything that gets between the listener and his anticipated music experience is exposure. It’s ironic but there’s a good possibility listeners will tune-away while we’re trying to convince them to listen longer. But does that make it wrong to promote features?
          I’ve been around the most brilliant minds in the industry and here’s my take on their position; think of the task of setting an appointment as making an investment in the station. This means it is an expense with an anticipated eventual payout. The question really becomes “how much is the investment and what is the probable return?” (Remember, if you never invest you may never grow!) Certainly, there are realistic limits as to what a station can promote or use to set appointments. “Coming up, two Bruce Springsteen songs in a row” might not have the same punch as “Your 90 minutes of nonstop hits begins in 60 seconds” – but their investment or expense is the same.
          Do invest carefully; as legendary consultant Jack FitzGerald used to tell programming clients “think of every listener as someone who has “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me) tattooed across their forehead and run everything that hits the air through this filter.” This should help answer the question “is what I’m about to promote (invest) truly the best use of the station’s time or would this same time be better spent delivering on the promise of more music?
          Be careful not to over-promote. The very successful programmer Scott Lindy referenced this pitfall at the recent Country Radio Seminar, stating “you don’t want to be the station who is always teasing (promoting) and never paying off.” If lifestyle dictates the listener can’t be around for the payoffs, all they might ever hear are the promos. Find the balance!
          Determining whether a feature is even appointment-worthy is of paramount importance. I have a great new tool to share with you that will help identify whether certain features are worthwhile, but let’s not forget that “Nothing will kill a bad product faster than good advertising.”
          The industry now has analysis that substantiates a new phrase I just coined, All Features Are Not Created Equal. I’ve been poring through PPM data to determine the success of various programming features for multiple stations in multiple formats, and I’ve come to this conclusion: some features build audience, some sustain audience and some kill audience.
          When there is a feature that builds audience – is promoted efficiently and effectively - it can be very good for the station. However (and I see this frequently) some heavily promoted features are audience killers. Ugh! Not only does the feature drive away audience but the appointment set-up actually serves as the audio equivalent of a flashing “detour” sign to avoid what’s coming up.
          There’s a comedian who tells the story about walking down the street and being approached by someone who hands him a flyer, what he thinks the person is saying is “here, you throw this away!”  Well, when we promote or try to set an appointment for a non-performing feature, what the listener hears is “coming up shortly – something you don’t like and here’s a heads-up in case you want to tune away now.”
          So, the big question is . . . how do we know which benchmarks or features are working for my station?
          With tremendous enthusiasm I encourage you to look at Media Monitors new “Feature Tracker.” It’s an analysis tool which analyzes multiple occasions of specific feature and displays a graphed view of its audience performance. “Feature Tracker” is a powerful look at how a feature performs when compared to the music and spots around it. In Media Monitors Audience Reaction Tool, we could see single occurrences of these bits. In Feature Tracker, we now see an aggregated tally showing the value of the feature, where listeners were before the bit and where they go when they tune away.
          Of course we end up with additional questions such as, “Should I run the feature before the stopset or afterwards? Assuming the feature is good for the station, you may want to consider the merits of putting it in front of the stopset to maximize and sustain audience growth for that quarter–hour (on the other hand, you may want to kickstart the next quarter–hour). Feature Tracker is a wonderful laboratory for experimentation. For the first time, you can confidently find the answer to the questions, “Do I have an appointment-worthy benchmark and when should I run it?”
          Media Monitor clients can expect to see Feature Tracker in the next beta version of GSelector. Others should contact their Media Monitor sales rep for a possible one-off analysis of their feature segments.
          Remember that phrase I just coined, All Features Are Not Created Equal! We now have the ability to determine which features work and which don’t as well as finding the right ratio of appointments to benefits.
          Here’s to great programming! 

Gary Marince is Vice President of Programming Services and Development for Arbitron, Inc. He is available to answer your inquiries regarding the Arbitron PPM or Diary services. You can reach him at gary.marince@arbitron.com.