When it comes to how spend advertising dollars, it always seems to come down to research. When it comes to research, it all comes down to definition and methodology, doesn?t it. And when it comes to publicity, it?s all about headlines -- how can you get the biggest gasp. Radio Ink's article Wednesday is a pretty good example of that.
As you note, there are little liars, there are big liars and then there are statisticians. Anyone can make numbers say anything. So let?s look at methodology and conclusions -- and let's look at reality.
The Media Audit?s first mistake was to classify Pandora as a radio station. No one else does ? not the analysts in their blogs, and not the users themselves if today?s article by Mark Kassoff http://kassof.com/?cat=6 is accurate.
Pandora is a collection of individual playlists, it?s not Radio. When asked, users consider it to be most like other internet music playlist sites, then comparable to private collections on iPods, MP3 players, etc. Users have a different expectation of an entertainment experience when they turn on radio vs when they use a music playlist site. When people want control over what they hear, they go to their music collection (think stacks of 45s, then cassettes, then CDs, ipods, MP3 players programmed or on random, and now playlist services, etc) to escape from the world.
The problem is that people don't want advertising running in their music collection. Think about it: if they did, the record companies would have put ads between tracks on albums long ago. In fact, the newest Bridge Ratings LLC survey of Pandora users shows that commercials are one of the primary causes for growing user dissatisfaction with Pandora over time. (see charts below) Listeners go to radio not to escape, but to be part of the world, part of a social experience, and that experience includes the information that comes from commercials and the messages they hear from their favorite DJs and personalities.
The Media Audit's second mistake was comparing the aggregation of Pandora?s individualized streams to individual local radio stations. That's just silly ? not to mention a really misleading comparison of apples and oranges. The idea that a combination of individual hip hop, classical, rock, contemporary hits, classic hits, or comedy playlists with no local or personal connections could ever deliver the same audience environment as one single, focused local radio station is absurd. To come even remotely closer to an apples to apples comparison, Pandora should compare its numbers to an entire station group, say CBS or Clear Channel. But of course they don't, because they would be crushed. And if Pandora uses geographic or any other targeting refinements for an advertiser, those purported ratings would be even more invalid.
The Media Audit?s survey in October 2011 was a phone poll ? self reported estimates of what people did without benefit of notations or passive measurement concurrent with their actions. Advertisers have long regarded phone polls as informative but not accurate enough to use as a basis for buying. That?s why a coalition of advertisers and agencies pressed Nielsen and Arbitron into adopting passive electronic measurement systems years ago.
The differences become quite clear when we compare The Media Audit?s data from last October with Arbitron?s data for Los Angeles last October. When one measures what people actually did vs what they say they did, the results, as those advertisers and agencies were well aware, are markedly different. In a story in today?s Los Angeles Times, The Media Audit reported that Pandora reached 1.9 million people 18+ and that KIIS-FM by itself reached only 1.45 million.
When compared with Arbitron?s reported measured reach of Adults 18+ for KIIS-FM of 2.9 million, The Media Audit has understated the PPM measurement for KIIS by an astounding 100%.
If we were to compare the Pandora data to aggregations of radio stations by group or an advertiser?s ability to buy stations with a single order through Katz Radio Group Sales, we?d find that just the top 3 groups alone would deliver 9.2 million individual listeners, 500% more listeners than The Media Audit attributed to Pandora?s combined streams.
People like Radio for reasons that are quite different from why they like music playlists or collections. And the facts are that the average person listens to Radio 17x a week, at least 5 days a week and that 85% of listening to any given station is deliberate, for an hour or more. More than 60% of their listening time is spent with just one radio station, making them easy to find, build a rapport with, and advertise to. Radio reaches about 95% of people in Los Angeles ? really reaches them. Not because people say it does. Because Arbitron?s passive measurement knows that it does.
Listeners measure Radio by how much they like a radio station. Considering that 70% of people in Los Angeles who have a favorite radio personality follow them or their radio station on some social media service and how much time they spend listening to Radio, I?d say Radio?s listeners are engaged and connected. And that that delivers the best environment for commercials to work. It may not make for the most dramatic headline ? but it has the benefit of actually being true.
Mary Beth Garber is the EVP/Radio Analysis and Insights for Katz Radio
(4/26/2012 5:26:16 PM)
Still paranoid I see Mary. I think you've lost all credibility as this point.
(4/26/2012 2:11:22 PM)
It's amazing they let such an uneducated POV continue to post things.
Doesn't she understand its not 1972 and that advertisers and marketers are buying audience and not RADIO. All Marketers want is to reach a certain target market, they don't care if it's called radio, personalized radio, or streaming. The reality is that the Pandora delivery system reaches $1.9M listeners in LA - good for them. If CBS or CC wants to add all their stations to get a reach # good for them. She doesn't get i
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