CRS 2010: “Listening occasions are the new pink.” From INSIDE RADIO

In a PPM world, programmers are discovering just having high cume doesn’t mean ratings success.  How often they listen is more important than ever.  It also requires new strategies.

Insights into maximizing ratings performance under electronic measurement were presented at the Country Radio Seminar this week in Nashville. “Brand drives 75% of usage; execution accounts for 25%,” Arbitron VP of programming services and development Gary Marince says. In other words, a station’s position is three times as important as its on-air execution in building ratings share. While “excellent in the moment” execution drives the duration of a listening occasion, a strong and desired market position — what a station is known for — drives the number of listening occasions. “After cume, listening occasions are the next big ratings factor,” Marince says. Cultivating that position turns on answering three key questions: Can listeners identify what the station is known for?  Does the station have a leadership position in the mind of the listener? Do listeners know who the station is for?  Marince says the old school way of increasing TSL by increasing the length of listening occasions has been replaced by a new strategy of increasing their amount.

According to Media Monitors president/CEO Philippe Generali, 4%-5% of music radio listeners are switching stations in any given five-minute period. Station switching is higher at specific times of the day: the 8 am hour, lunchtime, and from 2:30- 5:00 pm. Albright & O’Malley Consulting partner Jaye Albright says stations can minimize switching by placing drivers of listening occasions during those peak switching times.

The session also reiterated a strategy presented in December at Arbitron’s annual Fly-In: two stop-sets an hour, each straddled across adjacent quarter hours, appear to maximize AQH performance. Placing commercial breaks at the top and bottom of the hour (or at 15 and 45 minutes past) would minimize temporary listener bounce and reduce missed quarter hours. The average station could increase its AQH performance by 35% by getting credit for all the quarter hours in which listeners heard the station.

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