Rough Holiday? Nielsen and History Say You Weren't Alone

Once again the trades have been awash with news about big Holiday books for stations that went all-Christmas. 

Early on, Inside Radio reported on the impact of the over 500 stations that went all-Christmas this year: 

The Christmas format supremacy in Nielsen’s holiday ratings survey cannot be overstated, with the format ranking first in 11 of 12 PPM market reports released yesterday. Double-digit 6+ shares were the norm, as were declining ratings at non-holiday stations.  Many Santa stations doubled their December numbers and, more often than not, exceeded their Holiday 2014 performance.

Meanwhile, today, Tom Taylor at Now reported that all Christmas ruled the holiday books in 2015 and...

...broke the records for the first- and second-highest all-time high Nielsen age 6+ total-broadcast-week average-quarter-hour PPM share in any market at any time. This year AC “K103” KKCW in Portland, Oregon soared to a 21.4 share, a new all-time high in PPM. And Friday, we got the second-highest PPM share ever, Jacksonville’s WEJZ at a 19.7.

If all-Christmas wasn’t your strategy and your December or Holiday monthly looked far more like a lump of coal than a hover board, you’re not alone.

Here are five, 6+ month-by-month AQH graphs that Nielsen’s Jon Miller was kind enough to supply.

The good news for many is that your format’s peaks likely lie ahead and have at least some degree of predictability.

This allows you to get to work now on planning how you’ll capitalize on an influx of listeners in the upcoming months.

Related: Keep Summer Listeners Coming Back: 5 Retail Tactics for your Station

For Country Radio Holidays Are An Opportunity to Connect

A few years back A&O&B asked Arbitron what we could learn about July 4^th listening.

The company's Jenny Tsao was kind enough to dig into this for us and shared some information that is worth revisiting. 

From the data we learned that:

1 – Compared to a full week, 12+ listenership for the 30 PPM markets in the sample was notably lower on the 4^th and adjacent days.

2 – The drops were primarily due to lower levels of out-of-home listening (dark blue bars) while in-home listening (light blue) remained comparatively flat. 

3 – Isolating Country however and 25-54, the format's AQH ratings (pink bars) fluctuated far less across the week than for the market overall (green bars)

This year, Jenny and fellow Nielsen researcher Tony Hereau updated the data for us and again, while total market listening fell to weekend levels on the 4th and the days after, the top country stations maintained more of their audience.

Thinking about this week you might want to consider the following:

1 – Knowing that country’s audience is less likely to suffer a big holiday drop, how will you be staffed (especially if you’re in the southeast which looks like it will experience a tropical storm during this time)?

2 – How will you promote your station’s out-of-home consumption?

3 – How will you take advantage of “simultaneous homogeneity” – events that bring us together – that the 4^th provides and use it to demonstrate that you and your listeners are “on the same page?” 

Whether you consider it good programming or not, you can see what Pandora has planned here. 

And, for Independence Day inspiration, here are nine screen shots of both businesses and stations I grabbed two fourth of July's ago.

Imaging, content, social, promotions - the further your station goes beyond playing “God Bless the USA” and a couple of dozen patriotic-themed titles, the greater your opportunity to delight, connect, bond, and reaffirm that you’re the station that best reflects your listeners' values and lifestyle. 

Happy 4th!

How Your Station Celebrates Holidays; Or, Once You Get Past “God Bless the USA..."

Not surprisingly the most played gold titles on Country Radio yesterday (from Mediabase, July 4, 2013) were Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and “American Soldier,” Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America.”

While there are generally a handful of songs that can make up a limited hit category for most holidays – these are good examples – your time might be better spent creating quality, original imaging pieces to compliment these few songs rather than scouring for more musical square pegs to put into round holes.

The best holiday imaging is more localized, "personal," and "in the moment" than a library title no matter how well it may fit or how good it might (or might not) be. Imagine how different and powerful Independence Day imaging might be this year vs. years past in Oklahoma or along the New Jersey shore.

Start working on your next holiday imaging by writing how you and your community celebrate - from your market’s iconic events and places to your listeners’ voices sharing personal experiences and emotions. Localize data (like this and this).  Or create a holiday theme or spin, again with a local camera angle.

(And while you're writing fresh material please, on your website, post obviously local and not a stock photos of fireworks or whatever is the appropriate celebratory expression. And use unique shots for each station. Yes, some New York City stations should be embarrassed).

For future holidays, consider how inspired imaging  - even more than your specialty song category - can make your station stand out and engage more by reflecting the local spirit and emotions of the moment.

The A&O&B team remind you that a holiday isn't a good reason to play a bad song, but it's always an excellent opportunity to create unique, engaging, brand-boosting imaging.