9-26-13
When WBLS/New York GM Deon Levingston speaks, what rolls off his tongue is nothing but honesty. And he let it roll Thursday at an audio forum during Advertising Week. Levingston was interviewed by Arbitron's Bill Rose (more on his PPM feelings tomorrow in our headlines). Rose asked Levingston, if he could change one thing about the industry, what that would be. Levingston said, "The industry is challenged right now in getting accurate numbers. We have to have accurate and reliable cross-platform measurement. We're not getting the numbers right. The numbers would be amazing. It's hurting us with the client." Levingston then joked, "We should make up the numbers like some of our competitors do." The assumption is that Levingston was talking about Pandora -- he added, "The metrics they use are absolutely ludicrous."
In a panel that followed the Levingston interview, it seemed clear that reliable cross-platform measurement for audio is a long way off. The panel included George Ivie from the Media Rating Council, Josh Chason from comScore, Larry Rosin of Edison Research, and John Rosso from Triton. Levingston pressed the group for an answer about one currency the radio industry could take to clients, but nobody could answer Levingston's question, and, in fact, cautioned him not to look for one service to provide that measurement. They spoke about trying to combine such things as user logs and tagging, but also admitted every company doing measurement has its own agenda. The bottom line is when a radio salesperson walks in to see a client, he or she needs to be able to accurately tell that client exactly how many listeners the station has over the air and online. And, as of today, and looking into the near future, it can't be done.
(9/28/2013 3:04:12 PM)
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(9/27/2013 4:20:34 PM)
"Golly gee willikers! We need more whiz-bang tech that suggests we are viable after all!"
Nein. Nein. What we need is to do a better job. Besides, nobody can produce numbers for any medium that demonstrates the level of attention or interest being afforded to this or that medium.
An astute individual (below) suggests our job is "move product". Yes. That, and/or: generate interest, create an emotional attachment to the product/service/brand. Stir up some traffic - walk-in or online.
Plus, we are obliged to maintain listener interest in the process - so we can go again.
With the DASH Conference coming up, it highlights how current and emerging technologies can be used to determine who is listening at a given time. Cars with this infotainment dash, and new radios, should be "net enabled" to send feedback to the stations about listenership. Perhaps there could be a clearinghouse for the data, or individual stations can set up a feed-back link that accepts incoming reports and writes that to their own database.
(9/27/2013 8:51:11 AM)
Richard, would you share the formula you use to calculate your "Listener Engagement Ratio"? It sounds interesting.
(9/27/2013 8:50:27 AM)
Numbers will always be manipulated and put through the 'spin-cycle' of those presenting them. What we need is to focus on getting our clients results. 10 or 1 Million - it's not about hearing a message: it's about moving product.
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