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Author: Jay Nachlis

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The Value of Brand Nostalgia

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In a recent article in Adweek, “For (Re) Brands, It’s Back to the Future,” author Lee Rolston makes this important point about brand marketing:

“Being distinctive is the most important quality your brand can have. You can forget about optimizing your lower-funnel metrics if most of the content you create is not being recognized or attributed to your brand.”

Anyone who has participated in a Coleman Insights Plan Developer perceptual study knows “Fit” is our measurement of brand fit. Sure, you may call your radio station the Classic Rock station, and you may in fact play Classic Rock, but if another station is getting credit for it, the station can never fully reach its potential. Our Unaided Awareness measurement addresses the recognition part of the equation. Can consumers name your brand in the category whether or not they personally use it?

Recognition and attribution are essential elements of success.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know there are signs of nostalgia everywhere in 2023. While there are several explanations, there is comfort in the familiar, and building familiarity is no easy task. Images are like icebergs. Slow to develop, slow to erode. Brands that include Burger King, Pepsi, M&Ms, and Fanta have returned to classic-looking logos that previously went through various incarnations. Rolston offers a great line when he shows his mother some of the new “old” logos. “Isn’t that what they’ve always looked like?”

Photo credit: Adweek

Be very careful and think very strategically about brand changes. If research indicates your brand has developed precious positive imagery, it should be treasured and handled with care. If you’ve abandoned such imagery, perhaps it’s worthwhile to conduct a fresh study to determine if there’s value in bringing it back.

Brands shouldn’t be nostalgic for the sake of being nostalgic. But if nostalgia is rooted in powerful brand recognition and attribution, it should not be ignored.

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Authenticity, the Tony Bennett Way

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Tony Bennett died last week at age 96, two weeks short of his 97th birthday. There is plenty to remember him fondly for. Over his long career, he released 61 studio albums, with more than 50 million records sold worldwide. He was a painter­ – he signed his paintings with his birth surname, “Benedetto”. In the 90s, I had a chance to meet him at one of his art exhibitions. As it turns out, I was one of the last to see him perform live. It was February 9th, 2020, at Durham Performing Arts Center. They say, in spite of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Bennett’s cognitive functioning was well-extended thanks to the power of music and the ability to still perform shows. When Covid shut down the shows, it was ultimately the beginning of the end.

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Photo credit: Adam McCullough / Shutterstock.com)

Nearly a century of living the Tony Bennett way was surely a life well-lived, and he outlasted his contemporaries not just in age, but in relevance. You simply cannot understate the marketing genius of Danny Bennett, who took over as his dad’s manager in 1979. According to Danny, his father’s career followed a classic three-act structure: The early rise in the 50s and 60s, including “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”; deep explorations into jazz when his music style left the charts; and the career renaissance that included album of the year in 1995 for MTV Unplugged. That third act included appearances on The Simpsons and appearing between Nine Inch Nails and PJ Harvey at WHFS’s legendary HFStival in Washington, DC. Regarding that appearance, Danny Bennett recalls his father asking, “Do you think Frank (Sinatra) would do this?” To which he responded, “Nope. And that’s why you are.”

Bennett’s career included an unexpected fourth act, the Lady Gaga years, which lasted over a decade. Which begs the question, how did he do it? In a world where talent constantly tries and fails to reinvent themselves, why did Tony Bennett succeed for so long?

The best answer may be the one from Danny Bennett, who shuns the idea that he reinvented his father. “He never changed. That’s not reinvention. I kind of reinvented the audience, but I didn’t touch him. That’s the beauty of it.”

It’s not hugely surprising when you see which personalities resonate most in research. The real ones. The authentic ones. Don’t mistake maintaining authenticity with resisting evolution. Tony Bennett certainly evolved (he constantly took career risks, and it was his idea to get on MTV because he watched MTV), but he never abandoned what made him him.

It’s a lesson we’d all be well-served to remember.

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Think Strategically Like Meghan Trainor Thinks About TikTok

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Meghan Trainor is not the biggest Pop star on the planet. Her 28 million monthly listeners on Spotify aren’t in the rarified 80 million plus numbers claimed by artists such as The Weeknd and Taylor Swift, but sharing a similar ranking with Nirvana, Flo Rida, and ABBA isn’t too shabby.

From a radio standpoint, it would be easy to dismiss Trainor as a fringe artist. Three of her four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 were released on her debut album nearly a decade ago. The other, “No”, appeared on 2016’s Thank You. “Made You Look”, from her most recent album, peaked at #11.

And yet, Meghan Trainor has nearly 18 million followers on TikTok. That’s way more than chart-toppers The Weeknd (7.6 million), Morgan Wallen (4.4 million), and Luke Combs (4.7 million), and just behind Miley Cyrus (18 million) and Taylor Swift (19.2 million).

How she did it is no accident. Meghan Trainor thinks strategically about how she uses TikTok to her advantage.

During the pandemic, when she was unable to go on tour to support her new music, Trainor performed covers and participated in dance challenges on the platform. But in late 2021, she noticed older songs of hers going viral including “Title”, a previously unreleased track from her debut album. She wisely created a video and a dance, which helped boost her exposure. But Meghan Trainor’s super-secret weapon is Chris Olsen.

https://www.tiktok.com/@meghantrainor/video/7041724809218100486?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7137652826649871915

Chris Olsen is a social media celebrity, made famous by his TikTok videos (he joined the platform, like so many others, in March 2020). One night in 2021, he posted that he was thinking about Meghan Trainor. Trainor reposted it, saying she loved his content. About a year ago, she invited him over and asked him to bring “some TikTok ideas”.

Trainor and Olsen hold “content days” twice a month, during which they record 10 videos at a time. They share an iCloud album with video drafts. They dissect minutiae that includes which emojis to use, captions, video length, and notifications. Her most popular video on TikTok, an a capella version of “Made You Look” with her and two friends in a marble bathtub, has over 100 million views. Seems informal and casual. Like, let’s hop in the bathtub and sing!

Chris Olsen, TikTok celebrity and Meghan Trainor’s secret weapon (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

Great content should feel that way, even though there’s intense preparation and strategy going on behind the scenes that the consumer is rarely privy to. Trainor’s TikTok “rising tide” content strategy lifts all boats. It benefits her numbers on other platforms like Spotify, boosts her personal brand, and increases her awareness.

Meghan Trainor’s strategic approach to TikTok is a timely reminder that talent alone is not enough to build a strong brand. In our line of work, we hear and see countless numbers of talented individuals and audio brands. Almost all of them trust their talent and their instincts, as they should, to be successful. A select few think highly strategically about their brands, using an effective combination of art and science.

Ultimately, these are the brands that will survive and endure.

Press Releases

Coleman Insights Launches Pod Predictor, a New Concept Testing Service for the Podcasting Industry

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RALEIGH, NC, JULY 12, 2023 – Media research firm Coleman Insights announces the debut of Pod Predictor, a new service for podcasters to test concepts pre-launch.

Pod Predictor surveys 1,000 18- to 64-year-old podcast listeners in the United States and Canada to determine how appealing a podcast concept is. Podcasters test a show title along with a one or two-sentence elevator pitch, which respondents rate on a 1 to 5 scale. Additionally, they will indicate their interest in downloading the content based on the title and description.

According to Coleman Insights Vice President/Consultant Jay Nachlis, Pod Predictor is a game changer. “So much money and time is invested in the launch of new podcasts without any intel as to how that content will be received. Now, with Pod Predictor, podcasters can determine how appealing their concept is at an affordable price point, allowing them to refine their marketing message before launching it to the public.”

Pod Predictor is now available to individual publishers and networks, with the ability to test one or multiple concepts. Results will be delivered with total results, as well as breakdowns by age, gender, ethnicity, geography, and category interest.

Learn more about Pod Predictor by Coleman Insights at ColemanInsights.com or by clicking here.

Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything – Episode 5: Personality/Show Research

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Welcome to our new Ask Me Anything webinar series!

Each month will feature a different topic, as we cover questions related to research, branding, and marketing strategy in audio entertainment – all in just 15 minutes!

In this episode, consultants Jay Nachlis and Meghan Campbell, along with moderator and Director of Client Services Kimberly Bryant, discussed Personality/Show Research. Watch the 15-minute video below:

Questions We Answered:

1:22 – What are some of the most important things you can learn from Personality Research and how exactly do you arrive there?
4:13 – What are some of the most important/specific questions you should ask?
6:19 – How long should you wait to include a new Personality/Show in a study?
8:46 – What is the best way to truly measure Likeability of a talent?
10:12 – How much of this is unique to Radio vs Media (Websites and Social Media)
12:50 – Are there bits or features that should be buried forever that rub audiences the wrong way?

Blog

All the Content You Generate Is a Marketing Decision

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Trying to select a favorite Jon Coleman quote is a near impossibility. For over 40 years, our founder has imparted pearls of wisdom to the industry, to our clients, and indeed, to us. So, while picking a favorite may be somewhat akin to picking a favorite child, there is one Jon Coleman-ism that encapsulates much of the core philosophy of our company.

“Every song you play is a marketing decision.”

That one sentence makes it clear that content isn’t everything. Sure, you can play any song on your radio station. But should you?

That logic extends well beyond song exposure. Every piece of content you generate, in addition to how you verbally communicate it, reflects your brand. Whether you’re playing a song, an imaging piece, an interview, or a contest, what you play sends a message. Those messages build images. The images can be positive or negative, crystal clear or confusing. That’s why it’s helpful to think strategically about every content decision.

This past Saturday night, I saw Tears For Fears in concert, with Cold War Kids opening. From the moment the show was announced, the oddity of that combination struck me. Tears For Fears had their last Top 10 hit in the United States in 1989. Nathan Willett, the lead singer for Cold War Kids, was eight years old at the time.

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears For Fears Credit: DFP Photographic/Shutterstock

If you strategically consider why a band best known for 80s Pop might choose a band best known for newer Alternative to open for them, consider Tears For Fears’ setlist on the tour. Six of the ten songs on their new album, The Tipping Point, are played, comprising a third of the total songs on the list. By including a younger contemporary band on the bill and including a large percentage of newer songs in the show, Tears For Fears make a statement: “We’re not a nostalgia act.”

Would the show (which had many layers of empty seats) have sold better if Howard Jones, The Human League, or A Flock Of Seagulls opened? Maybe. Will a large number of people ever see Tears For Fears as anything but an 80s band? Maybe not. But selecting Cold War Kids as the opener was almost certainly no accident or afterthought. That’s a strategic decision, designed to project an image.

Tears For Fears is hardly the first band to adopt this strategy. The Rolling Stones have been doing it their entire career. In the 90s, when Mick Jagger was in his 50s and the band attempted to stay relevant, opening acts included Stone Temple Pilots, Lenny Kravitz, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Black Eyed Peas opened in 2005. Kanye West opened in 2006. Nathaniel Rateliff in 2019.

U2 was seemingly obsessed with not being seen as a nostalgia band until recently, when they warmed up to a Joshua Tree anniversary tour and upcoming Achtung Baby anniversary series of shows in Las Vegas.

On the other hand, Seal is on tour with The Buggles, selling a “Greatest Hits” setlist. Barenaked Ladies’ umpteenth version of their “Last Summer On Earth Tour” features openers including Del Amitri, Semisonic, and Five For Fighting, all bands that had hits around the same time as BNL, with similar sounds and higher potential fan compatibility.

Unlike Tears For Fears, Barenaked Ladies tend to tour with artists from the same era. Credit: Bruce Allen Bennett/Shutterstock

This isn’t to say any one of these strategies is better than the other. It is to make the point that, as Jon says, “Every song you play is a marketing decision.” Every content you generate is a marketing decision. Every message you promote is a marketing decision.

Always think strategically about your music. Your content. Your messaging. Is it consistent with what you want to communicate about your brand and the images you want to build? If it is, move forward. If not, take a step back and evaluate.

Utilize research to determine which images you own, and track perceptions as you build the ones you want and attempt to shed the ones you don’t.

Blog

What Makes a Personality Memorable?

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I listened to a radio station recently with my 19-year-old son in the car. There were two air personalities co-hosting a “Free-for-all” feature during which they played songs that worked within the format but aren’t typically part of the rotation. Two moments that occurred during my quarter-hour of listening stuck out.

First, they played two 90s boy bands back-to-back. Because they added context and an anecdote, it was fun, and it worked.  Second, they played a song they didn’t intend to play (or at least genuinely made it seem that way). They stopped the song, talked about the mistake and laughed about it, and played the song they meant to. It was fun.

I enjoyed it.

My son, who always seems to have pearls of wisdom in moments like this, says, “Radio stations don’t sound like that anymore. Usually, they just sound pre-recorded. They don’t make any mistakes. It’s too perfect. It doesn’t sound any different than a podcast.”

Oh, man.

Now, this isn’t another blog on the benefits or perils of “AI Ashley” or Artificial Intelligence’s potential effects on the radio industry. It is, however, an important reminder of the crucial importance of listener perceptions of personalities.

Consider the Coleman Insights Image PyramidSM. After a radio station has established its Base Music or Talk position, personalities are the most important factor in building brand depth. The caveat is that the personalities that build brand depth are the memorable ones. The ones that listeners actively think about, relate to, and listen to the station for.

The Coleman Insights Image Pyramid

This is why personality and show research is particularly critical for your brand. By measuring which personalities and shows are cutting through, brands can focus their energy on building the brand of the talent alongside the station. Meghan Campbell and I will dive into the topic of personality and show research in our next Ask Me Anything webinar on Wednesday, July 12th at 2P EDT/11A PDT and we hope to see you there. Registration is now open.

There are plenty of things that make a personality memorable. I’m not sure “perfect” is one of them.

Blog

Will Radio Take Big Swings Like Major League Baseball?

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Our company has season tickets to the Durham Bulls, the iconic minor league baseball franchise fictionalized in the 1988 box office smash “Bull Durham”. The team, the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, is almost always good. They’ve won the division in three of the past five years, six of the past ten years, and 12 of the past 20 years. They’ve claimed the league championship in four of the past six years. It’s a great team that plays in a great ballpark.

And yet, every single year, when I’m picking out which games to attend, I end up having versions of the same conversation with members of my family and several friends.

“I like going to the ballpark and having a hot dog and a beer, but baseball is so boring.”

Major League Baseball was clearly aware of this perception. What’s somewhat startling is that they did something about it. They did something big.

The most dramatic of baseball’s changes for the 2023 season was the universal adoption of a pitch clock. When there are no runners on base, pitchers have only 15 seconds between pitches to throw the next one, 20 seconds with runners on base, and 30 seconds between batters. In the past, it wasn’t unusual to see pitchers touch their cap, kick some dirt, chat with the catcher…pretty much take their grand ol’ time. Now by attaching penalties to pitch clock violations, the game should, in theory, move much faster.

And it is.

Pitch clock at Citi Field (credit: D. Benjamin Miller, Wikimedia Commons)

The average game time is 2 hours and 39 minutes, about a half hour shorter than last year. The games aren’t just shorter, they move faster. As a fan, your mind has less time to drift to…oh, I don’t know…your phone? You’re more engaged in the action. And though one might think baseball was always exceptionally slow, game lengths are more in line with where they were in the 1980s.

The pitch clock isn’t the only major rule change. The bases are larger, meaning the edges of first and second base are closer, meaning there’s more stolen bases and better odds of making it without getting thrown out. The number of stolen bases per game is the highest since 1999. A ban on crowding infielders on one side of second base has increased the batting average for balls in play for left-handed hitters. More hits=more exciting, right?

This is a lot of change at once for an organization (Major League Baseball) that was founded as the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs in 1876 and has a lot of tradition.

Although it’s early to be making profound proclamations, attendance and viewership are up.

It took Major League Baseball a very long time to take a good hard look at what likely was coming up in its perceptual research: “Baseball is boring.” As we often say, images are like icebergs. Slow to develop, slow to erode. The only way to change an ingrained negative image is to take big, bold swings that everyone will notice. Small fixes will not move the needle.

Baseball won’t fix the boring image overnight, and they may never do so. They’ve taken the big swings and made the changes, but now they must tell everyone about it or only the loyalists will notice. At least they’ve now got a fighting chance.

Just two years before Major League Baseball was incorporated, Gugliemo Marconi invented the “wireless telegraph” in his parent’s attic, an invention we all know led to what we now know as radio.

A form of entertainment with deeply ingrained perceptions, many of them negative, steeped in tradition, with new entertainment options swirling all around.

Taking a deep dive into perceptions of the medium would be a great first step.

Then, take big swings and tell everyone about it.

Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything – Episode 4: Qualitative Research

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Welcome to our new Ask Me Anything webinar series!

Each month will feature a different topic, as we cover questions related to research, branding, and marketing strategy in audio entertainment – all in just 15 minutes!

In this episode, consultants Jay Nachlis and Meghan Campbell, along with moderator and Director of Client Services Kimberly Bryant, discussed “Qualitative Research”. Watch the 15-minute video below:

Questions We Answered:

1:09 – What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?
2:36 – When should you use qualitative and quantitative research?
4:14 – What are the benefits of pairing qualitative and quantitative research and is there an order you should conduct them in?
7:21 – What are the differences and benefits of an online discussion group vs a traditional focus group?
11:40 – What is an IDI?
13:46 – What are some themes seen from qualitative research in the past few years?

Blog

What You Can Learn From the NHL’s “Paint The Ice” Events

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The Seattle Kraken is the newest member of the National Hockey League. Beginning play in 2021, the team is a success by most measures, including selling out each game and making the playoffs in year two.

At the conclusion of its season, Kraken season ticket holders and VIP club members are invited to Climate Pledge Arena, given cups of Earth-friendly paint, and instructed to paint the ice. Want to write your name? Cool. Inspirational messages? Sure. Love notes for your favorite player? Absolutely. It’s your canvas for the day.

The Seattle Kraken’s Paint The Ice Day. Photo credit: Come As You Are Hockey

The Kraken isn’t the only NHL team to invite their most loyal customers to paint the ice. The Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, the Colorado Avalanche, and my hometown Carolina Hurricanes are among the other clubs that provide this unique, intimate experience.

In 2018, the year Toys R Us closed its doors, I wrote “Why Radio Stations Are Like Toy Stores”. I suggested that Toys R Us had become a commodity and was missing the experiential element. Radio, like toy stores, is at its best when it is experiential, magical, fun, and memorable. And it must do those things for today’s listeners that still care about them on a deeper level than the average consumer.

Loyalty programs are fine (I love banking Delta points as much as the next guy), contests are fine (they can help build images and fill a tactical need), but when it comes to building real authentic emotional loyalty, experiential is where it’s at. It’s where it’s always been at.

All these hockey teams need to do to create a magical experience just for their fans for one day is open their doors to their arena, buy some paint (or get a sponsor, hi there, barter!), have some great team ambassadors and players on hand, and go.

When was the last time you pulled back the curtain of your radio station? Are your most loyal listeners just consuming the brand from the outside looking in or are they experiencing the brand in different ways throughout the year?

The strongest brand images in research are built through lasting emotional connections because those are the brands they remember.

To paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, have your listeners been experienced? Have they ever been experienced?