JacoBlog - Jacobs Media's Blog

Loners?

One of the more interesting findings from the Arbitron/Jacobs "Bedroom Study" was the realization that video gamers aren't just kids sitting in their basements by themselves.  Like TV viewing, gaming is becoming a social activity.  A recent Advertising Age article points out that marketers are beginning to figure this out.

Whether it's Wii parties or "Guitar Hero" fests, gamers enjoy hanging out and competing with each other.  And as we've pointed out in past advisories and blogs, radio should be at the center of this activity.  The "Guitar Hero" application is especially important because it totally supports the music foundation of radio, while giving even the musically-challenged the opportunity to feel like Eddie Van Halen or Joe Perry.

As video gaming spreads to older demos, stations can tap into activities that the audience is already participating in, while cashing in on the phenomenon.

You can see both "Bedroom Project" presentations at the NAB/R&R Conventions in Charlotte this September.  Conceived by Arbitron and conducted by Jacobs Media, "The Bedroom Project" is an ethnography study about media, technology, and survey research.  The presentations are Wednesday afternoon at 3:45 at the NAB; Thursday afternoon at Jacobs Summit 12.

Radio Schmadio

Many of you probably saw the story recently about how a new MediaVest report no longer groups "radio" as a discrete medium.  Instead, it's now a part of a larger category known as "audio."  Included under this new umbrella label are satellite radio, online radio, mobile content, iPods, mp3 players, and even television.

The good news for radio, according to the report, is that AM/FM radio still is a favorite audio-based medium for four in ten consumers, and that there continues to be wide gender appeal.  As TNS Media Intelligence President-CEO Steven Fredericks notes, traditional radio "remains one of the most used and highly valued media in the country."

But the new reality is their finding that "content is defined not by its old media name, but by its core property:  text, video, and audio.  All content, clarified and freed, can be distributed via any converged technology."

As a result, MediaVest's approach to audio planning is described as an industry movement that considers content over distribution outlet.  And that's something that is a tough pill for many radio veterans to get their heads around.  The fact that terrestrial radio is free, wireless, and everywhere is all well and good.  But if the content's not there, it just doesn't matter.

Isn't that a big part of the HD Radio story?  Its success won't depend on whether Radio Shack carries the radio, but whether its "stations between the stations" are compelling enough to drive interest and sales.

A couple of years back, Jon Stewart was asked about how consumers would access his show in the future.  His response:  "We make the doughnuts; we don't drive the truck."

Precisely.  All the more reason why terrestrial radio needs to start cranking out better donuts.

Doc Of Rock

With apologies to Doug Podell, it is gratifying to see that Brian May will finally be awarded his doctorate in astrophysics - 30 years after he formed Queen.  We've all heard the cliché about radio or Rock N' Roll, "It's not rocket science."  Seeing that May's thesis is entitled, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," maybe we'll have to do some rethinking.

When in London a few weeks back, we saw the Queen show, "We Will Rock You," an entertaining couple of hours of Queen hits built around a flimsy story (something between "Footloose" and "The Matrix").  It's a reminder of Rock's staying power, and the truly theatrical nature of Queen's great music.

May's degree - and obvious intelligence - is also a reminder that there are lots of bright people who enjoy making, and listening, to Rock music.  Soon, Rock Radio will be rewarded for having many listeners who are smart and in the workplace.  The early indicators from PPM results show that gainful employment and solid incomes have an impact on ratings.  This is a good sign, and something that will be discussed at the Jacobs Media Summit next month, as Arbitron's John Snyder joins Greater Media Philadelphia's John Fullam, Charley Lake, and Paul Blake" in a groundbreaking "PPM Rocks" panel.

In the meantime, hats off to Brian May, and smart Rockers everywhere.  We've got a PPM unit waiting for you.

A Cautionary Tale Chapter 2

Paul Jacobs offers a follow up to his piece earlier this month about marketing mistakes:

A while back I wrote a posting about how Diet Coke's market share has fallen and pointed out several lessons that broadcasters could learn from their experience.  Here's another example from outside of our business that points out the cost of poor decisions.

Unilever has announced they were putting their laundry detergent business up for sale (remember Wisk?).  This is noteworthy because a few decades ago, Unilever was locked in a pitched battle against Procter & Gamble (Tide, etc.) for supremacy in this highly profitable category.  Hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising and marketing were spent - this category is extremely important to both companies because of the huge profit margins involved and the proceeds go to invest in new products and increasing market share.

The fact that Unilever is getting out of the business shows who the big winner is.  But in a recent article in Advertising Age, two reasons stand out that we should take note of:

1. P&G aggressively conducts research and isn't afraid to innovate.  They were one of the first believers in ethnography, where consumers are viewed using the product in their natural environs.  They knew that data was valuable, but there's no substitute for observing consumer behavior.  While P&G researchers were watching consumers wash their underwear in their basements, the article notes that "Unilever executives hadn't been in a laundry room for years," and in an interview in 1999, their President was quoted as saying, "That would never happen here."
   
   He doesn't have to worry about that any more.  Of course, he probably has someone else wash his underwear.
   
   As we learned while conducting "The Bedroom Project" ethnographic study for Arbitron, observing consumers in a natural setting interacting with and talking about a product is incredibly valuable, and something radio needs to do more of.  The mystery behind why radio listeners do what they do can be found simply by observing behavior and following up with key questions.
2. P&G played hardball.  Last year, P&G spent $218 million marketing their laundry brands compared with $25 million for Unilever.  They swamped them.  In radio, we're trying to defend ourselves with shrinking promotion budgets while Apple spends hundreds of millions to market iPods and iPhones and Sirius and XM spend even more marketing satellite radio.  Why are we surprised to learn that usage of these products are cutting into time spent listening to radio?

Some of the solutions for radio's challenges are out there.  We can learn from other's mistakes.  And mistake number one is, "Don't become Unilever."

You can see both "Bedroom Project" presentations at the NAB/R&R Conventions in Charlotte this September.  Conceived by Arbitron and conducted by Jacobs Media, "The Bedroom Project" is an ethnography study about media, technology, and survey research.  The presentations are Wednesday afternoon at 3:45 at the NAB; Thursday afternoon at Jacobs Summit 12.

Say What?

This must be "Bite The Hand That Feeds You Month."  Recently, the musicFirst coalition used that inane "study" by a university professor in Texas to make the claim that radio airplay hurts record sales.  Then, Cox's Bob Neil was attacked for claiming that many Oldies artists' careers were made by radio airplay.  And if that wasn't enough, Deep Purple front man Ian Gillan now insists that Classic Rock radio stations are a "death sentence" for older bands because they just play vintage material rather than new music.

He has got to be kidding, very uninformed, or simply delusional.

First, if it weren't for Classic Rock radio stations, "Smoke On The Water," "My Woman From Tokyo," and "Highway Star" would all but have disappeared from the terrestrial radio airwaves years ago.  Classic Rock has revived the careers of many legendary bands by creating a home for them that appeals to rabid fans of many demographics.

Second, Classic Rock stations actually expose new product from older artists, albeit on a limited basis.  But given the mission of these stations and audience expectations, doesn't that make sense?  When listeners tune in WMGK or KZOK, they aren't looking for the new one from Deep Purple, Foghat, or Paul McCartney.  They may be interested in hearing what these artists are up to nowadays, but that's not why they listen to these stations in the first place.  And even though the exposure on Classic Rock radio may not be what 50 Cent or the Red Hot Chili Peppers receive from contemporary music stations, try to find new songs from classic artists on Active Rock radio.  It isn't going to happen.

Finally, Classic Rock radio has also heavily promoted concerts along the way, making it easier for vintage artists to appear before large and enthusiastic crowds.  Most stations go out of their way to welcome bands to town, herald their appearances, create concert festivals, and heavily play their music.

Gillan needs to face the facts about where artists from the '60s and '70s figure in the overall scheme of things in the music business.  Labels aren't interested, and contemporary Rock stations could care less.  But Classic Rock stations provide a warm and loving home for most of these vintage bands.

Yes, there are the Paul McCartney's, Tom Petty's, and U2's that have managed to meld their past with a present with varying success.  But for everyone else, Classic Rock radio remains their best bet at exposure and continued viability.  And in fact, most stations would love to have a deeper, richer involvement with these artists through interviews, backstage opportunities, and other promotions.

Ian, figure it out.

Get It "Write"

Jacobs Media's Tim Davis points to some great resources for doing "write" by your Web audience:

Now that everyone's firmly focused on Internet revenue, and specifically, station websites, I wanted to give you some of my perspective.  As we know, radio station Web sites are often a work in progress, and redesigns are ongoing.

We have conducted a number of "usability studies" over the past few years, so when a new Poynter Institute Eye Track study was released - or at least a few bite-size chunks - it caught my attention.  The preliminary results are in from their latest EyeTrack study, which measures eyeball movement on websites to see where people are really looking when they load a page.

While focused on print media in specific, and the differences between how people read Newspapers and Magazines in print versus online, the clear outcome is that people read differently online - something we as content providers have to do a better job of addressing in our websites.  Some key findings:

• In print, about 3/4ths of the respondents were "methodical" readers versus scanners - however online, this drops and the two ways of reading are 50/50.
• Alternative ways of presenting large amounts of text - Q&As, in bullet form, as sidebars, etc. help people pickup the details of what you're presenting better.  The next time you have information about a promotion, contest, or even concert, rather than providing the details ONLY as a narrative in a few paragraphs, provide the key details in a FAQ or bullet format - you'll get better retention on the pertinent details.
• We're used to "big headlines" and photos doing the trick to sell newspapers and even our own radio station website's key features - and while they do get looked at first - nav bars and teasers are the ones that get "clicks"
• In terms of photos you use on your site consider that photos of real people doing things in real time get much more attention than staged or studio photographs.  The next time you present a band in the studio - or even for pictures of your jocks - don't post static, staged images and mugshots.  Go for action pictures of activities.
• Most importantly, people are reading more than ever before - especially online.  While they may be "scanning" versus reading entire articles and features people are taking in much more information than they did previously.  It's never been more important than now to write correctly for the web.

With that in mind, there's a new book that should be required reading for anyone writing for the web: Letting Go Of The Words by Ginny Redish.  It's an easy and pleasant read - well worth the time.  You can download a couple of free chapters from her site.  Much like the Poynter Eyetrack material, her focus is on usability and how people interact with your material.  A quote from the book's forward (written by usability guru Steven Krug) sums it up very nicely.  And take note that he makes these points as bullets!

• "Most of the Web is about words. The pictures, video, and animation are great, but the words do almost all of the heavy lifting."
• "Very few of the millions of sites out there can afford a full time writer. As a result, most of the people (like you, perhaps) who have to write all those words aren’t professional writers. They (you) need some help."
• "And even for most professional writers, writing for the Web is very different from what they know. They could use some expert help, too."

Excellent points all, and the free chapters alone will get you moving in the right direction - and thinking a bit differently about how you present the written word on the web.

Between the latest information from Poynter and this new book from Redish we've got two very powerful resources to help us better interact and engage our audiences.  It would be shameful not to spend the time and effort to take this information in.

Head-To-Head

Investors Business Daily recently set up a comparative analysis between satellite and HD radio in a recent web article.  While subjective, it sheds light on the dilemmas that each of these new technologies faces moving forward.

Satellite received big points for its content, but the reviewers noted that in and around the New York metro area (where the test occurred), there is some drop out where line-of-sight is difficult to come by.

For HD Radio, the author notes that the sound quality is very solid, and of course, the service is free.  But as the article points out, "programming choices are scant."  This is in New York City.  If HD Radio and HD stations aren't fabulous examples in the Big Apple, how does terrestrial radio expect to pull off this technological challenge, and make HD Radio mainstream?

We have heard many stations and broadcasters say they will sink more into programming when there are more radios in the overall population.

But the chicken-and-egg-of-it is that selling more radios isn't going to happen on faith.  It is great content that will drive purchases.  It is word-of-mouth that will convince people to try HD Radio.  It is the ability to be able to walk into a store, hear HD Radio, and tune in cool and interesting programming that will move these units off the shelves.

Articles like this one point out the uncomfortable truth that programming choice is indeed "scant," even in major markets - especially compared to satellite radio.  And isn't that the obvious point of comparison?

Stop Calling Them Listeners

In one of those recent marketing/media posts, there was an interesting essay imploring tech professionals to stop calling people "users" (which has been the official/unofficial jargon for many years) and start thinking about them as "consumers."  Even though the latter is a rather generic term, the idea of "users" seems to connote a special, narrow group of people.  Yet, these days, the stats show that almost 80% of the American population is on a computer.

In radio, we have always referred to our audience as "listeners." And we've made the assumption that really "everybody" falls into this group.  Back when I got started at Frank N. Magid, writing questionnaires, we included a simple radio question (30 minutes a day, an hour a week, etc.) just to be sure that one-tenth of one-percent of the population that didn't listen to the radio wouldn't end up in our survey.  The idea was to make sure those anomalies were not questioned, which made sense.

That tradition in radio research has held up for thirty years.  Just about every study ever conducted asks the radio listenership question right upfront.  But isn't it becoming presumptuous to assume that just about everyone listens to radio in 2007?  By including a radio participation question, what portion of the population "terminates" at that point?  And when we look at the results of a 400 or 500 person telephone questionnaire, how accurately are they truly representing that demographic?  (I won't even mention the Cell-Phone Only group, which we have covered in this blog before.)

The fact is that the U.S., Omaha, and New York City aren't made up of "radio listeners."  They're comprised of people.  People who do stuff - watch TV, listen to iPods, surf the Internet for entertainment, and yes, listen to radio.

But if we think our market surveys are capturing the population or even accurately representing 18-49s, 25-54s or whatever demographic we're targeting, we're missing the proverbial boat.  Not everyone is listening to radio.  Not everyone has a radio at home.  We saw this vividly in "The Bedroom Project" among our 18-28 year-old respondents.

We can no longer assume that given the myriad choices, radio is near the top of the entertainment heap.  The glut of new technologies and options ought to motivate us to pause and reconsider how we're screening for current and potential consumers.  Who are these non-radio people?  How large a group are they?  What are they doing for entertainment?  And can we get them back again?

It's a whole new game.

You can see both "Bedroom Project" presentations at the NAB/R&R Conventions in Charlotte this September.  Conceived by Arbitron and conducted by Jacobs Media, "The Bedroom Project" is an ethnography study about media, technology, and survey research.  The presentations are Wednesday afternoon at 3:45 at the NAB; Thursday afternoon at Jacobs Summit 12.

What are they afraid of?

Jacobs Media's Dave Beasing chimes in on GOP candidates missing a huge opportunity to campaign like it's the 21st Century.

According to the Washington Post, the Republican version of The CNN-YouTube Debates may have to be postponed from the original September 17th date until sometime later.  There are plenty of home video questions being submitted, but there may not be any candidates to answer them.  Seems several – including two of the frontrunners for the nomination, Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney - still haven’t consented to appear, as of this writing.

As Fred Jacobs wrote in this space following the Democrats’ turn, using questions submitted by YouTube’s webcammers gave the forum a decidedly populist feel – even if the producers from CNN missed an even greater opportunity by allowing questions to be chosen by an online vote.  Our own research and observations indicate that involvement in the process is important to Gen-Y.  Indeed, although the overall ratings for the Dems’ YouTube face-off weren’t high, they were the best among 18-34 year olds in the history of cable channel debates.

What do the GOP candidates have to fear?  Plenty.  Questions from the public tend to be blunt and personal.  Telling a journalist your abstract position on gay rights or health care or Iraq tends not to tug at the heartstrings.  But try answering the same questions from friendly people with real names and faces, right there on camera - that they shouldn’t adopt children, should lose their savings to cancer, or that you’re sorry their husband didn’t come home from war.

Anyone marketing a product in 2008 must give up control, allow the public to have input, and have the courage to respond to real people with sincerity and honesty.  That’s a new way of exposing yourself advocated by Punk Marketing author Richard Laermer, who will speak at Jacobs Summit 12 next month.  It’s scary for everyone.  But what we should fear even more is appearing irrelevant to an entire generation.

"What's On TV?"

The answer to today's blog headline is "great, compelling, buzz-worthy shows."  It is indeed amazing how in this sea of new technology, the TV and cable networks keep coming up with programming that is the nexus for social interaction and discourse - even among young viewers.  A research company called Youth Trends found that amidst all the iPods and MySpace profiles, TV viewing has increased from year to year.

We saw this phenomenon last winter in our Tech Poll 3 nationwide survey among Rockers.  And in the new "Bedroom Project" ethnographic study we conducted for Arbitron, the sound bites about TV were riveting.  Television programmers are living proof that great content transcends distribution outlets - something that should give radio broadcasters some encouragement.

If you build it - and invest in it - they will indeed come.

You can see both "Bedroom Project" presentations at the NAB/R&R Conventions in Charlotte this September.  Conceived by Arbitron and conducted by Jacobs Media, "The Bedroom Project" is an ethnography study about media, technology, and survey research.  The presentations are Wednesday afternoon at 3:45 for the NAB & Thursday afternoon at Jacobs Summit 12.