A New Way Forward

Reach, Not Frequency

Although both are important, Urban stations searching for a new way forward are finding more and more that reach is key, particularly in the PPM world.

Just about everybody in radio would agree that 2010 will go down in history as another year of forced, accelerated change. The unfortunate and often necessary cutbacks that radio has been forced to make have certainly reduced the amount of personalities and great content available. But there must be an investment in talent, content and overall product development so current market conditions can be exploited. Regional programming has brought about considerable cost reductions, but has also resulted in less localized, relatable content. While we've embraced the Internet to extend our brands, most stations do not have highly interactive sites that allow for listener-contributed content. And those few that do, do so at a price ... a price most stations or groups are not willing to pay.

What has caused this change is technology? Technology will continue to spawn new gadgets such as the iPad, new research and new competitors. What can we do, since we can't control it? We can only attempt to understand and embrace it.

Within the Urban formats is a lot of diversity from a number of musical blends. That's part of what has changed in 2010. Research now should include Hispanics, some of whom may be bilingual. The key to building cume and reach is to find the songs and the blend that will be welcomed by a broader audience.

In marketing Urban stations, reach beats frequency. Reach is media's gift to marketing and is a fundamental part of how mass advertising works. When money is tight, casting a wide net is not as attractive as highly focused advertising targeted to specific demos, which no one does better than radio. Advertising is most effective when it reminds listeners who happen to need a product or service about a new or established brand. It's the difference between reminding and remembering. Reminding is a stimulus that can be controlled; remembering is a response that cannot be controlled. Radio's role is reminding, but not when used as a frequency medium. Frequency -- contacting one consumer three times with a message -- is not as effective as reach ... contacting three consumers once. This is because one consumer is far less likely to need the product than any of the three would be.

DNA & The Target Consumer

Who is your station's target beyond age and gender? Often it turns out there's a huge difference between what you consider to be the target and who is being attracted to the station. Successful Urban stations learned to develop a prototype listener in the late '80s. Since then there have been many advances in targeting, but many of them have been ignored up to this point. They have been ignored for the obvious reasons. Programmers have been just too busy to concentrate on them and like so many things, they just slipped through the cracks. But they're too important to ignore if you want to win. You need to know things about your listeners, beyond just their demographics, age and sex. You need to know, for example, how they use the media, whether or not they're media-savvy or mostly "iPoders." It takes keen observations and solid research to build the most important clusters to your station. Wal-Mart knows there are three kinds of listeners ... so does McDonalds. These genetic codes are like your station's DNA.

Like people, radio stations have a genetic code. It wasn't passed down through generations of ancestors. Instead it was created based on everything you're doing and everything you've ever done ... at least everything your listeners remember about your station. Your station's DNA is determined by the audience. It's what they see as your defining moments. That is why we say that branding is a noun, not a verb. It's not something you do to others. It what your listeners do to you. Your DNA or brand is the emotional connection between you and your listeners, based on the intangible aspects of the station. It's the soul or the concept you develop to communicate and become the brand your listeners perceive you as being. A brand lives in the mind, not in the ear.

Effective Reach Planning

It is this broader base that can make a reach difference, but in order to make that difference, you have to tweak the format with higher rotations and rotational patterns that are evolving all the time. With both Urban formats, you not only have to find the right songs, you also have to rotate them higher and give them the impressions they need for the listeners to become familiar and comfortable with them.

When you're thinking about your potential new listeners, you don't always want to simply say you're going after the 18-34s or the 25-49s, although those are cells that are extremely important to the formats. There's a new, particular audience who likes to stay on the cutting edge. That's an audience that wants to hear some of the familiar songs they grew up with alongside the new songs. It's also a lifestyle thing.

Most Urban outlets build cume by being full-blown, current-based, hit music stations. It's a misnomer to think women don't like hip-hop. They just like to hear hit rap songs that are familiar, melodic and tuneful. To build cume with females, there has to be that balance.

We're in a numbers business, one of cume numbers and reach numbers. In today's cume and frequency jungle, you have to find out how you are doing before it's too late. The current Arbitron PPM measurement system shows the true impact of cume and reach. With the diary, the unaided recall process was different. An Arbitron diary can't really measure Time Spent Listening (TSL). At best, it measures memory.

Reach planning increases the number of stations, reduces the number of weekly insertions per station and, if necessary, pays the higher cost-per-thousand (CPP). For the higher reach schedule. this higher CPP is still far lower than television, particularly with highly rated Urban stations.

In the busy, fast-paced world most of us operate in, there is often a tendency to want quick, bottom-line answers. We're all looking for a new and fast way forward. The new way forward for Urban stations means placing more emphasis on reach and a new focus on advertising. But advertising can't do it alone. Today's media planning focuses us more and more on the consumer's role in making advertising work. Ads on the radio work best when the consumer is receptive. That notion should tell planners that reminding many consumers is better than lecturing a few. Smart Urban stations in 2010 must embrace reach and develop a wide-angled view of evolving technologies and their prospective impact.

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