Moneyball: Opportunities in the Ratings Methodology Changes
• We’re getting out first glimpses of the impact of Nielsen’s three-minute qualifier in PPM markets. Remembering that the real purpose of the ratings is to sell advertising, we can hope that the larger AQH numbers, the lift in adults 25-54, and the growth in afternoons and weekends will bring good news for sellers. There will be some great stories to tell about our medium. Though the question remains whether advertisers will pay commensurately higher rates justified by the better ratings.
It has been suggested that the shorter three-minute threshold could allow music stations to move away from the usual configuration of two commercial breaks per hour, distributing the inventory across three or even four shorter commercial breaks. Listeners would enjoy the shorter breaks, and a cluster of fewer commercials would be a benefit to advertisers. In the words of one of the respondents we interviewed for our recent Country Radio Seminar study, “You get, like, two songs and then you get three commercials.”
Listeners are not going to think about it in terms of the way clocks are really constructed. They’re going to think about it in terms of what they experience when they tune in. Often, they’ll tune in during a music set and hear a few songs before the eventual commercial break (“like, two songs”) and then hear a few spots before tuning out or ending their listening (“then you get three commercials”). It’s not surprising that when we talked with one programmer about experimenting with shorter, but more frequent commercial breaks they quipped, “You first.”
Meanwhile, broadcasters in diary markets face on-going changes in 2025 as Nielsen transitions from paper diaries to the online “mSurvey.” They’re also phasing out the portion of the sample recruited via random-digit dialing as they transition to their goal of 100% address-based samples. They stress that mSurvey is not an app — but it makes sense that if listeners are interacting with your station app while they’re filling out their mSurvey each day, you’ll have a leg up in terms of being top of mind.
Additionally, they’re phasing out the time-honored practice of sending crisp paper currency through the mail in favor of gift cards from major retailers or cash transmitted via PayPal or Venmo with the new mSurvey — much as NuVoodoo research respondents are compensated for their participation. If your station contest is trying to connect to the same psychographic as those most likely to participate in the ratings, it makes sense to move to online platforms to distribute contest cash.
The Spring Book is less than a month away. NuVoodoo would love to help your stations stay ahead of the competition with our effectively priced offerings for both marketing and research. Effective online marketing campaigns can be conducted starting at around $4000 and library music tests start under $10,000 (as do tactical perceptual studies). An email to tellmemore@nuvoodoo.com will get quick attention from the right member of our team.
Additionally, NuVoodoo marketing guru Mike O”Connor is publishing important marketing insights from our latest general study, NuVoodoo Media and Marketing Study 25, twice every week at nuvoodoo.com/articles. — Leigh Jacobs
