Arbitron Director of Programming Jon Miller contributes this week’s Programming To Win column, taking a look at different programming benchmark elements. How does your station create successful benchmarks? And then how do you measure their ratings success in the PPM world? Miller explains how to best analyze and evaluate such benchmarks.
By Jon Miller
Director of Programming Services. Arbitron Inc.
Jon Miller
As far back as we can remember, stations have established programming benchmarks – special contests, music features and unique content aired at specific times throughout the day.
These compelling and consistent elements can be quite valuable to a radio station. In addition to providing the sales team with a sponsorship opportunity, they can create habitual listening and reinforce a station’s brand.
If a listener loves Led Zeppelin and associates your station with airing “Get the Led Out” each day at 4 p.m. you have a great opportunity every time the feature airs to capture another occasion of listening. This is significant because Arbitron’s PPM™ ratings service has taught us that generating more listening occasions is one of the keys to ratings success.
It can also further establish you in that particular listener’s mind as the best rock station in the market because you play more Led Zeppelin than your competition.
Building a successful benchmark requires commitment to both executing the feature on a consistent basis and promoting it so that it registers with your audience. Awareness influences perception, and perception can dictate habit.
That’s a big commitment and, at some point, you’ll want to evaluate whether the benchmarks you have put in place are driving tune-in, building brand awareness or, hopefully, both.
While Arbitron can’t tell you how a benchmark is affecting your brand we can help you evaluate whether it’s attracting more listeners.
First, a few suggestions for undertaking any type of programming analysis:
• Always try to look at a minimum of three months of PPM data. That will keep you from being thrown off by a short-term spike in the ratings that could be caused by something other than the benchmark you want to evaluate.
• Familiarize yourself with the PPM Analysis Tool software including the shortcut features. It’s a standard program that all subscribers can access that can take a standard ranker or trend report and break it down to the day, hour or even quarter-hour; allowing you to view the flow of audience on your station at a highly detailed level.
Now here’s an example of how you might evaluate the “Get the Led Out” feature mentioned previously:
Start with hourly (or half-hour if you prefer) numbers. Take a 3-month or 6-month average of the data and examine how your audience flows over the course of the weekday.
At this level you’ll be able to see your ratings moving up and down like a stock ticker as the day goes on. You’ll see if the 4pm feature spikes listening and, if it does, by how much. Be sure to note if the increase is 5% or 20%.
Once you’ve looked at your station, run the same report for your competition to see if they are gaining or losing audience at 4pm when your feature airs.
At this point you know what “normal” is for your station and the competition. That baseline will help you track the effectiveness of the benchmark going forward. You’ll be able to tell if “Get the Led Out” is doing a better or worse job of attracting listeners as time goes on.
Lastly, remember that while this kind of analysis will help you evaluate the ratings impact of your features, there are other benefits to benchmarks. Building and reinforcing your station’s brand sometimes is equally, if not more, important than in-the-moment ratings success.
As an example, think about a feature that showcases new music. It’s entirely possible you will check the data and find it actually hurts your ratings as listeners hear unfamiliar songs. But, by sticking with this feature, you are building an image as the best source in the market for new music discovery, a position that may be worth more than any short-term ratings setbacks.
As a programmer it’s your job to determine the value of each benchmark for your station by taking all factors into account…and the first step in that process is taking a detailed look at the data.
If you’d like to learn more about evaluating your benchmarks using the PPM Analysis Tool, watch this short training video that will guide you through the software.Follow the Arbitron Programming Services Team online at www.arbitrontraining.com/programming and on Twitter at @ArbProgramming. Contact Jon Miller at Jon.miller@arbitron.com.
