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July Book….Where’s KIRO-FM
- Thread starter RadioRon
- Start date
Usually if there's a zero it's an encoding issue.
Maybe to you, but not to ad agencies who matter.
That’s what my wife says. 🤣
But that's after you've taken the little pill, right?
Not yet. Still got a little lead in the pencil.
Ya….but so little of their business comes from traditional agencies. It’s all about overall Cume. Can’t see that number, but assume it’s up.
Wait, KIRO doesn't have national advertisers? Bonneville International doesn't have a national sales office? A station lives off of cume?
What world are you living in?
Not for a whole month. Nielsen has a system if suddenly a well rated station disappears. And the encoders have alarm functions.
Stations don't sell cume. Advertisers base rates on how many people hear each spot, not how many hear a station in the course of a month.
As someone who directly benefits when people listen to KIRO, I can tell you anectdotally that lots of folks are listening. We just had one of the biggest weeks in terms of new "leads" since we started the ads 7 years ago. I am exhausted TBH.
(My company is one of the local advertisers on KIRO-FM. We are now also on the AM side and keep a good track of how folks are finding us.)
(My company is one of the local advertisers on KIRO-FM. We are now also on the AM side and keep a good track of how folks are finding us.)
Interesting story! How do you track responses? I know some businesses have different online and phone addresses for different stations and media, and others ask "how did you hear about us?" when registering on a website or calling for information or pricing.
Another question: have you tried measuring response difference with increased and decreased numbers of spots in a week? Are there days of the week where response is better, even with the same number of ads on the radio?
When folks go to our web site, there is a drop down where they can indicate the referral source. If they call in, one of the first questions we ask is how they heard about us; that data is compiled in our contact management system. We also track total number of inquiries day by day and week by week.
Busiest day by far is Monday, no matter when the spots run. This just due to the fact that lots of folks don't have time during the weekdays to fill out our online forms- people are busy. We call all the weekend leads on Mondays. Fridays are the next busiest, likely because some folks work 4 day weeks and have that day off.
When we were only on the FM, we would have "rest periods" of 2 weeks or so, where the spots wouldn't run. This to prevent spot/listener burnout. We would see a gradual dropoff in lead generation. Now that we are on both AM and FM, and the AM syndicates their morning show to other sports stations around the PNW, there really are no "dead" periods anymore. We also run on a local podcast that generates a fari number of leads, and of course since that is on demand we cannot control when those spots run.
Supposedly it takes 40 impressions to get the phone to ring, so really our success is about a simple message, consistently repeated over and over. If someone is buying media and expecting immediate results, they are going to be disappointed.
Busiest day by far is Monday, no matter when the spots run. This just due to the fact that lots of folks don't have time during the weekdays to fill out our online forms- people are busy. We call all the weekend leads on Mondays. Fridays are the next busiest, likely because some folks work 4 day weeks and have that day off.
When we were only on the FM, we would have "rest periods" of 2 weeks or so, where the spots wouldn't run. This to prevent spot/listener burnout. We would see a gradual dropoff in lead generation. Now that we are on both AM and FM, and the AM syndicates their morning show to other sports stations around the PNW, there really are no "dead" periods anymore. We also run on a local podcast that generates a fari number of leads, and of course since that is on demand we cannot control when those spots run.
Supposedly it takes 40 impressions to get the phone to ring, so really our success is about a simple message, consistently repeated over and over. If someone is buying media and expecting immediate results, they are going to be disappointed.
All News stations (such as KNWN), need to be driven by cume, as TSL is generally hard to come by given the highly repetitive nature of the format. During the peak of Covid, I recall that KOMO Newsradio was #1 for a few months. It was a unique combo of strong cume and TSL, given the thirst for news and information. It was rare and hasn’t been achieved since. So yes….for an All News format, success = cume. Don’t get too focused on the demos….more than likely to be 35+.
Additionally, if you’re worth your weight as a sales organization, you’re not allowing advertisers to set your rates….a quick path to disaster. Rates are dictated by supply and demand as well as an efficient pricing model.
Chico, without revealing any more than you're comfortable with - can you tell me what category of business you are in?
Good point. But the idea of building cume is to get an adequate AQH level that will get them on the buy. This is, in fact, a big part of why all news does not work in smaller markets: not enough potential cume to create an AQH that is competitive (the other big reasons are, of course, cost of operating that format and the lack of enough interesting breaking news in smaller markets).
The PPM data proved that nearly nobody listened for hours and hours straight through. If they listened a lot, it was in a dozen or more 15 to 20 minute spurts, interrupted by other things human beings do in life. So news stations began promoting the idea that "you need to check back several times a day to keep up with breaking news" and they were right. The only way to get TSL with news is to get repeat incidents.
This reminded me of one of the early sales concepts of Dr Pepper, the soft drink. They even had on the label "10 - 2 - 4" suggesting having a bottle three times a day (instead of coffee, I guess). They knew that nobody would drink two or three bottles at one time, but they might take to the idea of having a nice refreshment several times each day.
A lot of stations today think that the PPM "knows" who they are and they don't have to promote. I think that, with what we know about "scattered listening incidents", stations need to constantly invite, incentivize and appeal to return listening events.
Just because the meter knows who you are listening to does not mean that the listener will be motivated to keep coming back. Heck, I don't go to parties unless I am invited!
But ad agencies buy demos and when it comes to ratings, you sell based on how well the station performs in-demo. For news stations, TV, and radio, the demo target is 25-54MF, so 35+ is right in the sweet spot.
I don't doubt that some stations will crow about a weird cume bounce, but as you mentioned, cume is so significantly up and down so you can't always hang your hat on any consistency. That's why you don't bother mentioning cume.
My guess is mail-order supplements.
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