First January Nielsens Bring Holiday Hangover Relief

The first ratings of 2016 are rolling out and - at least on the first day - it’s “thank goodness!” for Country.

While a number of formats are no doubt looking forward to a ratings period that does not include Christmas music, probably no format is more excited to turn the page than country which lost more November-Holiday audience than any other major format.

Here’s how Nielsen trended the 6+ November-Holiday book change-in-share; this includes record 6+ and 18-34 shares for AC (12.9 and 11.5 respectively) as well as a 4-year tie for highest shares 25-54 (12.1).

For country, the first 6+ PPMs that were reported Tuesday (2/16/16) were like a double dose of aspirin and prickly pear extract.

15 of the 21 measured country stations were up (5 were flat and one HD2 channel was off). 

Country, while taking the biggest November/Holiday audience ‘hit,’ is also the major format that tends to ride its January increase the longest increasing shares from the first of the year well into the summer and, last year, to September.

As I posted in an earlier blog, a number of formats see post-holiday increases that begin with a January "build."

Certainly country has challenges ahead. However history suggests that the calendar isn't one of them.

Can I get an “Amen” from country and formats that show steady growth with the start of the new year?

Chris Stapleton: Winner. Country Radio Haters: Losers

Taylor Swift is right: the haters gonna hate.

For the haters of mainstream country radio, Chris Stapleton’s wins Wednesday night at the CMAs provided them an unfortunate and inappropriate opportunity to turn trophies into missiles and launch them not only at country radio but also at some of the format's biggest stars - the ones who sell out shows in minutes, who frequently top sales charts, and who release the biggest hits as determined by fans.

Like any current-based music format, country has cycles of sounds and styles, and certainly over the years mainstream country radio has incorporated them to a greater or lesser degree depending on their popularity and sticking power.

The latest boom characteristically began with a change in the pop and traditional center of the format. Subsequently rock, ‘party,’ ‘spoken word,’ and ‘cool twang’ have been absorbed into the current mix.

Along the way, the format has hit ratings highs.

Chris Stapleton of course is a part of this success having co-written such wonderful and incredibly popular mainstream songs as “Never Wanted Nothing More” for Kenny Chesney and “Drink A Beer” for Luke Bryan (whom many haters seem to associate with everything they consider wrong with country music radio – how’s that for being hypocritical?).

He also co-authored Thomas Rhett's "Crash and Burn" and "Something to do with my Hands."

Unfortunately, rabid or causal fan, songwriters’ identities on even the biggest hits aren’t generally top of mind - if they are in the mind-set at all.  

The percent of people who know Cole Swindell as an artist is no doubt significantly greater than those who know him as a co-writer (along with Florida-Georgia Line and Luke Bryan) on last year’s #1 song of the year on Billboard “This is How We Roll” or on Luke Bryan's "Roller Coaster."

Or that Florida-Georgia line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley were co-writers (along with Rodney Clawson and Chris Tompkins) on the number two song from last year, Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down.”

Or that last month the prolific Shane McAnally had writing credits on four songs that were in the top 30 at the same time!

While Chris’ career of writing, producing, playing and performing has spanned 15 years,“Traveler” is his solo debut.

If Chris’ wins help elevate the profile of songwriters that would be tremendous. Their contributions to the format's successes are undeniable.

If Chris’ CMA performances and album spawn the next big thing, then that’s awesome. Every format should be excited about their next big thing.

Whether these things come to pass or not, country radio should continue to: 1) embrace music discovery – artists and genres - and 2) research and play the music that listeners are passionate about and reflect that enthusiasm on air.

And oh yeah, regarding the rhetoric from the haters of one of America’s second most popular music format who want us to "save us from ourselves?"

“Shake it off.”


Related: "Back When Radio Was Good: A Week With Beats 1"

And the Winner Is… A&O&B’s Quick Online Poll of Listener and Industry 'Takes' on the 2013 CMA Awards Show

Blake, Taylor, and Florida-Georgia Line were among those who took home multiple CMA  trophies this week, but the show itself was a winner too with listeners and the industry in our quick and admittedly unscientific post-show online poll.

And, just as I blogged  in our post-ACM Awards Show poll earlier this year, listeners were more passionate as a whole in their evaluations than the industry (radio) participants who weighed in.

Overall, 41% of listeners gave the show the highest score (5 on our 1 worst to 5 best scale) compared to 28% in the industry. That’s not to say radio wasn’t positive; they rated the show an average of 4.0 vs. 4.2 for listeners. Still, 88% of listeners rated the show a 4 or 5 vs. 72% of the industry. 

There was a good-sized gap in the desire for more performances on the show too, with about 1 in 8 listeners wanting more performances vs. 0% of the industry.  Meanwhile13% of listeners and 17% of the industry wanted more awards and less music.

There was complete agreement however on Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood as hosts. The pair scored extremely well with each group. 76% of listeners gave the hosts the top score compared to 72% of the radio panel.

When asked about specific high points on the show, 64% of radio cited the Alan Jackson/George Strait Tribute to George Jones. Other top moments (in order) were the Taylor Swift “Red” performance (29%), Brad and Carrie’s hosting abilities and content (21%), the Kenny Rogers Tribute with Jennifer Nettles (21%) and the Kacey Musgraves performance (21%).

Also receiving multiple mentions were Zac Brown both for the Luke Bryan hug as well as his performance with Dave Grohl, and Little Big Town for their performance of “Sober.”

The most negatives for radio (21%) were related to winner selection.  The show also got dinged for audio issues, length, some of the presenters, and execution.

Listeners agreed with radio regarding the top highlight; the George Jones Tribute was mentioned by 33% of the respondents. Other stand-outs for listeners were the Opening Monologue (24% with 5% mentioning the "Obamacare" piece by name), Carrie and Brad as hosts (17%), George Strait’s Entertainer of the Year Award/Speech (16%), and Taylor Swift receiving the Pinnacle Award (14%).

The positive comments outnumbered the negative ones though 10% of listeners reported not liking Eric Church’s song/performance, the George Jones Tribute being too short (7%), there being too much pop/rock on the show in general (7%), audio issues (6%), and disagreement over some of the winners (6%).

Overall our industry participants reported the feedback they received from listeners about the show was 83% positive (56% “very positive”).

That appeared to be supported by the TV ratings as USA Today reported that the Awards show averaged 16.3 million viewers which was up by nearly 3 million viewers over last year.

But back to the overall scores and the passion gap between listeners and radio - and the reminder to us that in our "been there/been backstage" world it's important not lose sight of the level of passion listeners have for country music and the artists that make it, and about the excitement that can be generated by three hours of TV that puts their favorite songs and singers front and center.

Have some personal thoughts on the show or feedback from your listeners you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment!

(Thanks to A&O&B's @BeckyBrenner for the photo)

Country Artist Discovery Matrix: Who’s “New” Varies by Demo

Scotty McCreery didn’t win Top New Artist at last night’s Billboard Music Awards (Wiz Khalifa did), but his nomination was appropriate enough (Scotty of course was the ACM Best New Artist winner this past April while The Band Perry was the CMA’s New Artist winner in November).  

One of the questions we ask in Albright & O’Malley’s annual online perceptual study ‘Roadmap’ is, “Is there a new country singer or band you’ve discovered in the last 12 months that’s becoming one of your favorites?” This year, 59.9% of respondents answered “Yes” (up from last year’s 56.7%).

Those who answered “Yes” were then asked to name the artist(s) in an open-ended question (top 7 results below).

Not surprisingly, “discovery” varied by demo. 

 

Also not surprising, these ‘discovered’ artists varied by demo as well.

Here are Roadmap 2012’s most frequently mentioned ‘new’ artists by 18-54s with the top demo for each artist highlighted (we asked this question in January of 2012 so the respondents’ frame of reference would be 2011).

Artist	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	18-54
Band Perry	12.4	17.9	13.9	13.1	14.3
Jason Aldean	5.3	11.1	11.8	6.1	8.4
Zac Brown Band	3.2	4.8	10.5	6.9	6.8
Brantley Gilbert	13.4	8.5	6.5	2.9	6.4
Luke Bryan	6.0	6.1	10.5	3.8	6.2
Lady A	5.3	6.5	5.9	5.7	5.9
Scotty McCreery	9.2	5.4	5.5	4.2	5.4

Other artists like Thompson Square and Eric Church had their highest discovery scores 18-24 while the Eli Young Band’s was split 18-24 and 25-34.

An ‘Artist Discovery Matrix’ like this is a good reminder of country’s idverse audience.  

It’s also useful as you consider your overall music-to-target relationship.

Spot Controversy? A Low Profile May Be Your Best Strategy

If you’ve been on the receiving end of emails and phone calls threatening protests and boycotts of your station because of allegedly controversial spots, it’s easy to envision the worst and want to respond on air with a disclaimer or something similar.

But assuming we’re talking about spots and not something grossly offensive your talent did or said (you need to take immediate action), taking a low profile may be your best strategy. Here are three reasons why:

1. Many listeners listen with half an ear and will miss the message entirely unless you draw attention to it.
2. Your target demo might not be offended at all; complaints may be coming from people you’re not targeting or from people who don’t even listen but have been encouraged by other non-listeners to make negative comments. 
3. Your particular ratings math could suggest little or no impact on your numbers. While it’s easy to imagine hundreds of people stopping listening, consider that a meter may represent 1500-2000 individuals making the value of a single meter significantly greater than the number of people claiming to be offended.

Instead of taking on-air action, draft a short, thoughtful and sincere statement with your GM so staffers will have a single, appropriate response should they be confronted.

No one wants a spot controversy (of course you can say “no” to a buy – see this week’s poll at Sales Café). But if you get one, be prepared to tell your side of the story – off the air.

Twelve Tips from the World's Most Innovative Companies

If you could ask Google’s Johanna Wright for some business advice, she might suggest, “Constantly seek new ways to delight your users.”

According to Ms. Wright, Google adds “about 100 quality upgrades to the search engine each quarter” and notes that any time the company could be running between 50 and 200 experiments.

Here are some other tips from businesses featured in Fast Company's "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies."

 

• Never lose sight of the customer experience. Empower employees to be creative in their goal to create addictive products.  “One of our core values is that everyone is the CEO of the thing that they do,” says Mark Pincus, Zynga founder and CEO of social gaming company (think Farmville).

• Be genuine and real (Andrew Mason, CEO, Groupon)

• Make the commonplace sexy (Groupon, Trader Joe’s).

• Recognize opportunities in trends (as in “sustainable” and Nissan’s Leaf)

• Redefine how you communicate (Twitter)  

• Use mobile to increase engagement says eBay’s VP of mobile platforms Steve Yankovich. “We want consumers to engage even when they don’t have a purchase in mind.”

• Use creative copy to get attention. DonorsChoose.org is headed by a Bronx science teacher who uses “catchy headlines” as part his fundraising efforts that have raised roughly $30-million for needed schools.

• Grow your user base (Facebook)

• Create communities among your fans (Reddit, Awl Network)

• Reward loyal customers (Foursaquare)

• Find creative ways to extend great campaigns. Over two days, Wieden + Kennedy  shot 200 videos of the Old Spice guy who responding to tweets in real time.

You can read about these companies and see the full list as it appeared in Fast Company here.

Inspired? Want to add your own ideas? Leave a comment.

Airline Safety Briefings and Imaging: The Challenge to Capture Attention

Fly the same airline enough and you can pretty much recite the pre-flight safety briefing from memory. It’s easy to tune out because it rarely changes.

Recently though, the new United has given their safety briefings a lot of creative attention. Now, when the screen drops down, you could see any number of different versions of the safety briefing.   

While United President and CEO Jeff Smisek casually updates fliers on what the airline is up to, there are multiple messages. The update may have been recorded in a control tower or while walking a concourse in O’Hare. 

Different hubs are featured which adds to the visual interest. 

Embedded videos could show the painting of an airplane at warp speed or feature employees in a spirit of cooperation. 

There are a variety of cabin shots that accompany the traditional copy.   

This safety briefing is no longer the easy-to-ignore, same old thing.

Probably inadvertently, the pre-roll to the video I watched (yes, watched) this afternoon was shown. "March 1-15." An expiration date on an airline safety briefing video? 

I’m impressed.  

I don’t know what percent of their fliers United projects will see any of these videos more than once or twice but I’m guessing it’s a pretty small number which makes this initiative all the more noteworthy.

Could any of your station imaging be minimally effective (particularly for heavy users) because it’s been running unchanged for a long time?

Could a change in style or voice or copy recapture attention?

Could setting a start and stop time for each piece of imaging help it stay fresher and more effective – even something for you own ‘frequent flyers’ to look forward to?   

Quick Marketing and Promotional Checklist

As you finish putting together your spring marketing and promotional plans, try running your ideas through these eight filters:

You know exactly who are you trying to reach (you may have multiple targets) and what the desired outcome from your efforts is for each target.  

All aspects of your plan have a positive (or at least neutral) effect on your overall brand strategy; any aspects that could have a negative impact have been reworked or eliminated. 

From your target’s perspective, you’ve identified your most powerful attraction(s) and that what you’ve chosen has the greatest chance of stimulating the desired behavior.

From your target’s perspective, your product and message are perfectly aligned. 

Your efforts are brand-saturated. That is, your marketing/promotional effort won’t easily be confused with a competitor and thus benefit them as well. 

Your efforts have ‘stand-out-ability.’

You have multi-platform exposure and, if necessary, a calendar for launching different efforts at different times.

The staff is fully informed of your plan, goals and, if applicable, their role.

Have some additional filters you’d like to share? Love to hear them.

A Very Worthwhile Way to Spend Four Hours this Tuesday

“What is important to a radio station in 2012?”

That was the key question we used for building Albright& O’Malley’s annual pre-CRS seminar which happens Tuesday, February 21 from 12:30-4:30 at the Country Radio Hall of Fame’s Ford Theater in Nashville (get a last minute invitation below).

This year’s conference is called “Winning Tactics and Truths” and there are plenty of both.  Here are the topics we have in store for you:

Mapping the country audience

For seven years, A&O’s online research study “Roadmap” has been trending listeners’ music lane preferences, format and station satisfaction, social and competitive media usage, and more. This year’s data from nearly 6,000 country listeners includes a shift in music lane preferences.  We’ll share that and a whole lot more.

Differentiating your brand

We’ve got a musical take from the BDS team and a non-musical look from the incredible Tim DuBois who speaks about unique brand characteristics that can inspire brand loyalty and passion.

Making digital dollars

A programming and sales win-win with members from the Federated Media/Ft. Wayne team presenting two turn-key events that you can take home.

Growing ratings with social media

The team from DMR Interactive shares a remarkable case study.

Talent development

Cliff Dumas and Randy Lane from the Randy Lane Company share the three universal principles that great shows have in common and the two words that will transform any show tomorrow.

Online Analysis

Becky Brenner reports on social media as a business model and radio’s advantages.

Another A&O conference tradition is an ‘up close and personal’ performance and meet and greet with a hot new performer. This year we’re thrilled to have our sponsor, Broken Bow Records, present the terrific Dustin Lynch who’ll perform at 2pm.

To those who have already RSVP’d, we are so looking forward to spending a great afternoon with you. Feel free to Tweet your experiences #aopcrs.

If you haven’t reserved a seat yet, please email Jaye, Becky or me. There’s no charge and the sessions are open not only to clients but also to stations in non-competitive markets.

And if you need info on CRS 2012, you can get it here.

Can’t wait to see you Tuesday afternoon!

The "Super Gesture" and Your Station's Content Filters

Yesterday my partner Jaye Albright wrote a timely piece about the M.I.A. “Super Gesture” on Sunday and the number of country songs with PG13 lyrics (20+ according to her Google search).

A number of readers weighted in (accurately) on "the way it used to be" in country.

But Country’s cume composition is dramatically different than in our not too distant past. Anecdotally A&O sees many markets where 18-24 or 25-34 is the top cume cell – even if 45-54 is still the top AQH cell.

The "safe for the whole family" position belongs to Contemporary Christian radio and has for years now. If you're trying to "out-safe" that format, you really need a new filter.

Filters ('tests' that content has to 'pass through' before getting on the air) will vary by station of course, but one you might consider is, “Would this make it to network TV before 9pm?” Or maybe you prefer multiple demographic filters like "What's the appeal for both 18-34 and 35-54?"

And of course one of my favorites, "Who will care about this?"

What are your filters?