Ad Timing

[Lightning]

I do not work in the radio industry, but I am curious to know how does one particular station decide when to put their commercial blocks in an hour and why?

What I mean is, why does one station have a commerical block at the top of the hour and the middle of the hour 00 and :30) and the other at :15 and :45, and so forth.

Is there any research that has been done on this?

Thanks

 

[bturner]

In the days before People Meters, there was research that showed the following:

More people listen to radio in the first 15 minutes of each hour
The second most listened to time is 30 to 45 minutes past the hour.
Third is 15 past to 30 minutes past the hour
The fewest listeners is between 45 minutes past and the top of the hour.

Some listeners hate commercials. Some hate news. Thus commercials get placed in the least listened to quarter hours. This is why news is normally in the final quarter hour on music stations.

Arbitron rated listening in 5 minute increments. Get a listener for 5 consecutive minutes and on paper you get credit for a listener for 15 minutes.

Now, let's look at this: If I have a listener that turns off my station when commercials begin but I can 'tease' them by giving them a reason to come back, I can really manipulate the ratings for my station.

If the listener tunes in from :10 to :20 past the hour (that is 5 minutes in the first and 5 minutes in the second, so on paper it is 30 minutes). Now, I play commercials at 20 past the hour and my listener leaves but comes back when I start music at :24 past. This listener stays tuned from :25 to :35 past and I play commercials at 35 past. Again I have the listener from :25 to :30 and :30 to :35 which equals another 30 minutes on paper. Thus, in 25 minutes I got credit for a listener (on paper) for one hour.

Thus, commercials and news are stretegically placed to maximize the number of listeners for your station. The more listeners, the more money you can get for your commercials because most buyers look at the Arbitron figures and desire to target their demographic or the stations with the most listeners.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lightning]

Thanks for the informative post. How does the listener demographic affect when the advertisements are placed in an hour?

For example in the New York City market, ill pick 2 stations: the Top 40 Now 92.3 has commercials around :15 and :45, while the Rhythmic/Urban Hot97 at the top and the middle of the hour.

 

[bturner]

You bring up an interesting point. New York City is a People Meter market (PPM) which logs actual listening versus counting on someone making an entry on a form in writing.

Even more important is the number of signals in the market. Chances are there are several stations after the same group/demographic. If all stations after that one group did commercials at about the same time, there would be no competitive edge. However, moving commercials to different times, designed to attract the other station(s) listeners, give you an edge. In one market I worked, I moved our breaks up 5 minutes so we would always be back to music when my direct competitor went to commercials. For example, I moved my :22 past commercial break to :17. My competitor did their break at :20.

This might be the reasoning behind the non-standard times for commercial breaks.

There are always exceptions. At one station we did 10 in a row starting on the hour. Our first commercial break was about :40 and we had another at :48 and :56...4 minutes each. I even worked a station that ran 6 breaks an hour 08, :20, :25, :38, :50, :55) but only ran one commercial per break. They actually made lots of headway because they broke the habit of listeners tuning to another station when the commercials came on. The regular listener knew we would be back to music in 30 or 60 seconds so they'd stay with us.

I would say most all demographics are pretty much slaves to the clock in some form. Most events begin on the hour and the goal is to arrive with minutes to spare. Almost every activity is scheduled around the hour or half hour. If you are heading somewhere you tend to leave on the hour and half hour. The point I'm trying to make is no matter the demographic, people are stuck with a clock and set times, leaving radio to do better in number of listeners at certain times in the hourly clock. I don't know the demographic changes that.