There is no shortage of people who take credit for trends that become part of our cultural lexicon. From the coining of the ?70s phrase ?Have a Nice Day?? to predicting the plight of ?Evening News with Katie Couric,? there?s a long line of pseudo soothsayers claiming they uttered the words first.
So it is with the statement, ?Data is the new oil.? Even Forbes magazine spreads the credit around for this one. The bandwagon is full because the potential for mining this largely untapped natural resource, data, has caused a modern day rush reminiscent of the frenzy aroused by its subterranean predecessor. Like oil, the rewards for successful extraction, refining, and sale are huge. But in another parallel, the data radio mines is often dirty and devoid of meaningful use.
Radio station ownership believes the buzz it hears about the importance of data, so it invests significant funds in developing a policy that addresses the collection and use of the information it acquires. This blueprint is most often created by a recently hired ?new media expert,? who has enjoyed a successful run at an Internet start-up, or a leadership role at the defunct Lycos, or who was responsible for a state governor?s campaign e-mail effort that went well a decade ago. But the rules for collection, processing, use, and sale of data change as frequently as the most-viewed YouTube video. The blueprint must live and breathe, just like the radio stations that they serve. Yet, the blueprints stagnate as they make their way down to the trenches. Ultimately, many of these plans arrive on the desk of an overworked, downsized promotions or programming office that is ill prepared to capitalize on the original investment.
Operational excellence, then, gets lost on the implementation of the plan, while the plan itself can become obsolete before it?s adopted at the station level.
In today?s world, data mining is not the first step to successful consumer ?touch.? It?s about understanding what data to mine. Before we can employ advanced analytics that allow us to understand our listeners? and advertisers? needs, we have to learn to extract the correct data from them. Only then will we program effectively and enjoy a significant return on investment.
Today?s data mining is the result of the natural evolution of information technology and our need as an industry to transform that information into useful knowledge and value enhancing actions.
Consider this hypothesis: We are data rich and information poor.
What do we know about our listeners and advertisers, and what do we really want to know? Is it enough to archive a name, address, email address, telephone number, and birthday? No way. If you want to really impress your teams, above and below your level of employment, engineer deep relationships with your listeners and advertisers to collect a few of the following profound data touch points. (Imagine the resulting consumer profile as the tip of the knowledge iceberg):
- Name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Mobile telephone number
- Age
- Gender
- Marital status
- Number of children at home and away
- Occupation
- Listening platform ? primary and secondary choices
- Primary reason for engagement with the station (music, personalities, contests, etc.)
- Level of engagement (How often does the respondent listen, and for how long?)
- Outside forces that compete for the time and attention of the subject
- Moods associated with content consumption
- Extreme likes and dislikes regarding your content and others?
- A hierarchy of personal preferences that you can match to similar life groups and clusters.
Obviously, your organization is unlikely to extract all these answers at once. The questions posed are similar to those researchers ask in paid focus groups. But as engagement and kinship build through carefully planned contact with the listener, your information ?database? becomes a vast and morphing library of knowledge about your consumers? habits, lifestyles, acquisitions, and personal wants and needs. As your relationship grows, so does the depth to which you may mine this kind of invaluable personal data. Soon, you will own curated and carefully designed profiles of a huge number of people with whom you do business on a daily basis. Then, of course, the task is to determine how best to translate it into revenue.
Think Facebook. No other organization in the history of the world has so freely and openly been awarded information about individuals and companies. The Facebook platform is ubiquitous and its stated plan to ?Change the World? has happened because its clientele unashamedly trades its privacy for entertainment and emotional involvement, two key elements in the success of radio. Facebook is an ice cream social, singles bar, game room, church, and TV show, all rolled into one. Its users gave Facebook its power. This is the same power that we must access through radio?s similar core strengths.
By formulating algorithms and interpreting data in ways we mere mortals can only imagine, Facebook knows how we view ourselves. More importantly, Facebook knows how we want to be viewed by others. And that is the key to the Facebook phenomenon. Facebook gives us what we want, by observing our data bursts, applying them to the Facebook site (even if it seems counterintuitive to the analysts the company employs), and by taking calculated risks that assess just how far they can advance the corporation?s data gathering goals. Facebook uses our information to constantly make the product so important to us that we carry it on our computers, iPads, and mobile phones. We report our status and check those of friends we hardly know, before we drink our morning coffee each day.
Remember when listeners used our morning shows like that? They will again, if only we acquire, process, and apply the information they are used to giving to others, to our own brands. But remember, the rush is on.
Facebook is unafraid to ask for information that its users are willing to give up, and radio should be no different. In the interest of enhancing the listener consumption experience by providing better and more personal programming for more individuals, we owe it to our fans, and ourselves, to ask tough questions about the people for whom we care the most.
John D. Rockefeller didn?t have an oil fortune drop in his lap. He became America?s first oil tycoon by identifying the strength of the future market for oil, and by risking his most valuable resources to look in the right places for what was even more valuable. In doing so, he profited wildly and ensured the continuous flow of a raw product that, when refined by others, changed the world. First Rockefeller, then Marconi, then TV, and then Facebook by using the principles that radio has always known: Know your listener. Serve your community. Give them what they want and constantly reinvent. It?s time for radio to change the world of its listeners and advertisers one more time.
As a radio executive, you have the equivalent power of John D. Rockefeller in your reach. Don?t miss the opportunity to grasp it and acquire new knowledge where some see only random pieces of information.
Bill Pasha is President of Dallas, TX based MultiBrand Media International, LLC and MBMI Cover America, LLC. The companies create value for clients on four continents by providing hands-on business solutions to international and domestic media concerns, companies that engage media to promote their businesses, and individuals who work in media and media-related industries. Contact: bpasha@multibrandmedia.com, or call 469.362.1423
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