(By Marc Greenspan) In the world of transactional business, it is all GRP, CPP, and Gross Impressions. In new business development, most salespeople rely on their station or cluster Cume to show how many consumers they have the potential of reaching.
While Cume is an effective sales strategy, it leaves out one of the great elements that makes radio an effective advertising outlet – station loyalty. Many listeners have an emotional relationship with their station, and this needs to be exploited in the sales arena. This is an important and effective element in pitching non-radio advertisers.
Talking about how your listeners feel about your radio station is valuable, yet a good sales rep should be ready to translate this passion into facts and figures. How do you do that? In most markets, three elements can illustrate your listener’s loyalty. Let’s explore this:
- First Preference: In non-research language, first preference (also known as P1) is a listener’s favorite radio station. In reality, it represents the station a listener spends the most time with. Since they spend more time with that station than any other, one can easily assume it is their favorite. Therefore, they have an emotional relationship with the station, and an advertiser’s message will be most effective with them.
- Time Spent Listening: How long the average listener spends with radio is an important selling point. Long time spent listening results in a higher likelihood that the advertiser’s message will be heard, which leads to higher frequency. This is typically very impressive in diary markets. While PPM often reports lower time spent listening than diary, and since all listeners do not listen the same way, it can be advantageous to outline the time spent listening of your first preference listeners. Show the advertiser that your listeners are spending most of their time with YOU.
- Duplication: Duplication analysis can show an advertiser that your listeners cannot be reached on other radio stations. By showing low duplication (audience sharing), you can say “the best place to reach your desirable listeners is on my station.”
While any one of these can be used to differentiate your station from other advertising outlets, the right combination of all three is powerful. If you can document that you deliver an audience with high first preference, high time spent listening, and low duplication, you are showing the advertiser that the best place to reach these consumers is on your radio station.
This column is part of a series titled “Growing the Radio Pie.” To view past articles, visit The Ratings Experts at Research Director, Inc. online here.
Marc Greenspan is CEO and a founding partner of Research Director, Inc. He can be reached at 410-295-6619 x11 or by email at [email protected]. Research Director, Inc. offers consulting services to media companies to help them grow their audience/ratings and their revenue.
