(By Marc Greenspan) How does an advertiser pick the right radio station for their ad campaign in today’s media landscape? You will get different answers depending on who you ask. How can you improve your chances of being picked? There are a few things a radio station can do to improve the odds of their station being included. One of the best ways to do accomplish this is to demonstrate that your station can reach their target consumer through composition reports.
How do you show that your station can deliver their target consumer? The easiest way is by showing that the characteristics of your listeners match the characteristics of the ideal consumer. You can accomplish this quickly with a few composition reports. If you are a Nielsen Tapscan client, run a few IQPs – Instant Qualitative Profiles. Composition reports can provide additional aspects of profiling your listeners.
What characteristics are best to show an advertiser? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, home ownership, employment, occupation, household size, education, and household income are found in the Instant Qualitative Profile. Run reports for your station as well as the category for the advertiser (example: furniture buyers). How does your station compare to the target consumer? Where do you match? Where are you different that could provide additional reach outside the target?
- Lifestyle characteristics such as activities they participate in, where they go, entertainment, travel, etc., can be found in Tapscan’s Target Profile reports. Again, run these reports for both your station and the target consumer (category). How do you compare? Are you matching most of the characteristics? This will also give you some great promotional ideas.
- Consumer behavior characteristics show what your listeners are buying. For the furniture buyer, you might run a report showing plans to buy other household items, electronics, landscaping, etc. Is your station a good fit for the target consumer?
By now you can see a theme with how to best use composition reports. It’s all about showing that your station is the perfect match. Think about matchmaking. If you are setting up two people on a blind date, you want to ensure they have a lot in common so that they get along. They do not need to match on everything (that would be boring), yet they should match on the important aspects. The differences provide growth opportunities for the advertiser.
Radio is a great medium for targetability. Show advertisers that your station is the perfect match to help them grow their business and your sales will soar!
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 the CEO and 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 revenue. Read Marc’s Radio Ink archives here.
