Arbitron's First PPM Ratings Ever

Mediaweek's Katy Bachman reports:

Arbitron made radio history Friday, releasing the industry's first currency ratings from the industry's first electronic measurement system. From this point forward, there will be no more diaries and no more quarterly measurement. Ratings will be delivered monthly for persons six and older.

“This is an important day for the American radio industry. Radio advertisers have been united in their desire for radio to enhance its accountability by adopting electronic measurement of radio audiences,” said Steve Morris, president and CEO of Arbitron.

The March Portable People Meter survey covered the period March 8 to April 4.

The top-10 stations (in Philadelphia) by average quarter-hour rating for persons 12 and over were: WBEB-FM; KYW-AM and WMMR-FM (tied for No. 2); WOGL-FM; WDAS-FM, WMGK-FM, and WXTU-FM (tied for No. 5); WBEN-FM and WPHT-AM (tied for No. 8); WHYY-FM, WIOQ-FM, WIP-AM, WISX-FM, WPHI-FM, WRDW-FM, and WUSL-FM (tied for No. 10).

The top 5 stations (in Philadelphia) by average-quarter-hour share for persons six and over were: WBEB-FM (9.2), Adult Contemporary owned by Jerry Lee; KYW-AM (8.4), News, CBS Radio; WMMR-FM (7.9), Rock, Greater Media; WOGL-FM (7.4), Oldies, CBS Radio; WMGK-FM (5.7), Classic Rock, Greater Media. Arbitron plans to roll out the PPM ratings service to the top 50 markets by 2010.

The next PPM market scheduled to go live is Houston in June, followed by New York in December and Chicago and Los Angeles in March.

The PPM has been in market trials since 2001.

More from Mediaweek here.

The Brand Formula

What is a brand?

According to Seth Godin, it is a product of two things:

[Prediction of what to expect] x [emotional power of that expectation].

Seth goes on to say...

If I encounter a brand and I don't know what it means or does, it has zero power. If I have an expectation of what an organization will do for me, but I don't care about that, no power.

Seth's advice (and I agree):

If you want to grow a valuable brand, keep awareness close to zero among the people you're not ready for yet, and build the most predictable, emotional experience you can among those that care about you.

Consider this: Does your station consistently deliver on listener expectations? Is your content engaging and emotional at all times? If not, the only thing you will deliver with inconsistent programming and non-compelling content is low ratings.

Click here to read Seth's entire post.

Jack Trout On Branding

Jack Trout, the prolific branding, advertising and marketing author, comments on branding in the latest Forbes:

"The last time I looked, there were over 2,000 books covering some topic related to brands or branding. What used to be just the logo and the name of a product or company has now become this almost mystic creation that encompasses unique identities and qualities separate from the product names. There is an army of consultants trying to sell you some branding system or another. Forget all that. Let's begin at the beginning. As Walter Landor once said, 'Products are created in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.'"

Fast and Furious Formats 2012: Demographic Shift and Internet Drift

Bridge Ratings released their format trends study, which projects with audience growth/loss by format into 2012.

According to the study, the top 5 terrestrial formats based on audience growth through “Demographic Shift”:

1. Country +24%
2. News Talk +20%
3. Urban +15%
4. Spanish +14%
5. CHR +3%

The formats projected to be the hardest hit by audience attrition through demographic shift: Oldies, Adult Contemporary, Classical, Rock and Adult Hits.

Although the Adult Hits, Adult Contemporary and Rock terrestrial formats will suffer audience declines, these formats are among those that will benefit from the migration of listenership to the internet.

The top 5 formats that will gain the most from “Internet Drift”:

1. Rock +45%
2. Adult Contemporary +38%
3. Alternative +35%
4. Adult Hits +30%
5. Smooth Jazz +30%

Click here to see more on the Bridge Ratings study including “Youth Inclusive” and 2 other youth-oriented formats that tested most positively with 15-22 year olds.