In his first Programming To Win column for FMQB, Arbitron SVP of Digital Media & Analytics Paul Krasinski tackles the expanding digital world. Krasinski discusses a number of ways that programmers can bring their stations’ brands into the digital realm, with better audience data and multimedia options now available.
Paul Krasinski
By Paul Krasinski
As program directors are tasked with reinventing and establishing deeper relationships with their audience, they’re coming to grips with radio’s new reality – programming is no longer secluded to the radio dial. It’s everywhere and consumers are embracing it. Let’s look at the facts: Radio reaches 92% of the US population, 39% of consumers still turn to radio to discover new music, online radio posts 3x the time spent as online video, and weekly online listening has doubled every 5 years since 2001. Radio is expanding and online and mobile radio offers program directors a very unique avenue to further engage listeners with one-on-one interaction, whether it’s via Facebook, email, texts or Twitter. The challenge for the industry is: how are PDs going to leverage these new distribution platforms and create an integrated approach to radio programming?
In order to develop a winning strategy, it is paramount to truly know the consumer…not just how many you have, but their ethos with your brand. While this sounds obvious, the audience has many choices when it comes to accessing audio content (on-air, on-line, in-game, in-home, in-car or internet connected device), articulating their feelings for your brand in real-time and the ability to influence others’ feelings about your brand – today’s approach requires a fresh and critical perspective.
Data driven decision making will drive successful programming models in the future if PDs also remember to incorporate that information with listener feedback and their own hearts. While the consumer is often evasive and difficult to pin down, they are very obvious and not shy about articulating what they want from the brands they love. Successful radio brands have begun to master the monitoring of the ebbs and flows of their audience. They have formal and informal feedback loops that provide additional insights into their brand. This will continue to be more important as more data becomes available. The programmer will have to be an artist and establish their own method for filtering information quickly and reacting to the consumer needs as they evolve.
With a firm understanding of the audience and the consumers that make up the brand, the programmer can now begin to chart a strategy of which outlets will be ideal to catalyze conversation. Often times, the program director is presented with so many sales ideas and/or tools that may seem to be the latest trend, but may not be relevant for the audience. If implemented in a piecemeal fashion, the brand may see short term revenue lifts, but long term brand erosion. Thus, having a strong understanding of the audience serves as the cockpit and blueprint for assessing ALL opportunities. The decision making now becomes focused on exhilarating the audience that you know so much about…and this, is where the real fun begins.
We have positioned internet radio as a blue ocean (an untapped market opportunity) for broadcast audio, and it is. However, it is not mystical in any way and in fact, operates very similarly to how program directors have done for decades. The only difference is there are very few rules. Picture a boundary-less ability to reinvent the content the way your consumers would if they were in the booth with you. There is no clock, the concept of a :30 or :60 is not required and video could be integrated with audio to create a truly multi-media experience. And I don’t just mean a pre-roll, but video, audio, ads, sponsorships, call to action…all in one, a kaleidoscope of content. It changes everything. Isn’t it amazing to think that there are thousands of people who want to get into your brand and influence success through collaboration? This can facilitate the process and alleviate the burden on the program director, who can focus on channeling this feedback and delivering an experience that captures the best ideas and innovations from the audience. It is this approach that has made Facebook so successful. The social network provided a platform for people to articulate their feelings and opinions about their life, brands and one another. I still believe that radio was the initial social network that brought people together and models like Facebook have emerged on the backs of the learning from radio broadcast.
There is an incredible opportunity and prospect to redesign the lines for radio broadcasts and question that the future can be very bright. The proliferation of mobile devices, internet connected media outlets will only expand audio’s influence in the media landscape. However, in order to truly capture the opportunities and to develop the market, it is imperative that we continue to evolve our mindset around the broadcast brand and the power of the internet to expand this brand. Programmers will need to leverage the unique assets that their brand has that others do not: a broadcast media to promote their brand, drive audiences to the various content assets and deliver offers/incentives to their audiences in a new way extend their brand influence on consumers.
This is not easy. Yet, the successful programmers will be bold, innovative and relentless in their pursuit of knowledge about their brand. This will require sophisticated ability to be open and vulnerable, yet the entrepreneurial spirit to try new things (e.g. running a viral video for an advertiser over an entire commercial pod and using the programming to drive the audience to this video as a main stage feature every Monday at 12noon). This cutting edge perspective will provide valuable insights and gain reactions, positive and negative from the audience. However, if you don’t try, you won’t know…and, without audience and information about them it will become increasingly difficult to engage advertising spend due to their desire to know more about your audience and have you tell them the story of why their brand is LUCKY to be interfacing with your brand.
My hat is off to you, as you have the most challenging and most rewarding position in radio. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Be bold, be innovative, even fail if you have to…Lead us.
Paul Krasinski
SVP, Digital Media & Analytics
Arbitron Inc.
Paul Krasinski is the Senior Vice President, Digital Media and Analytics at Arbitron Inc., a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, broadcast and cable television, online radio and out-of-home – as well as advertisers and advertising agencies. He is responsible for leading Arbitron’s service development efforts in the continuously evolving digital space. He works closely with the company’s product, sales and IT departments.
