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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?

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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 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?

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Does Radio Give You Goosebumps?

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One of the best feel-good stories of the year originated in one of my favorite places I’ve ever lived and worked, Buffalo, New York.

You may recall Buffalo was blitzed with a snowstorm this past Christmastime that was massive even by Buffalo standards. When it was all said and done, the city absorbed 51.9 inches of snow in four days amongst hurricane-force winds. 36 of the 51.9 inches fell in a 24-hour period.

It was during this storm that Alexander and Andrea Campagna got a knock on their door and discovered 10 stranded South Korean tourists whose van was stuck in the snow outside their house. At first, they asked for shovels, but quickly realized there was no way to dig the van out. They called a towing company, the police, and the fire department, but nobody was going to be able to get there to help.

What followed was a beautiful act of generosity. The Campagnas invited the group to stay over two nights in sleeping bags, air mattresses, and in the spare bedroom. They cooked meals together (turned out the Campagnas were huge fans of Korean food and had many Korean ingredients and a rice cooker on hand). They watched an NFL game on Christmas Eve. They shared the unexpected experience together until the group could be picked up on Christmas Day.

A few weeks ago, the Campagnas were invited to Seoul as guests of the Korea Tourism Organization, where they were treated like heroes, receiving a 10-day all-expenses-paid vacation to thank them for their generosity.

Thinking about this story gives me goosebumps. And it got me thinking about the role radio stations can play in giving people this feeling.

We know from our research that attributes like “picks you up and makes you feel good” are often strongly desired by listeners. It’s not unusual to see attributes like this have some of the most mass-appeal measures, across age groups, genders, and ethnicities.

You may hear radio stations sharing feel-good stories every so often, perhaps in morning or afternoon show segments like “Tell Me Something Good”. But which radio stations or shows are making feel-good stories?

In a world with its share of negative news and a desire for feeling good and deeper connections, I’d love to hear about shows and stations that regularly facilitate feel-good stories in their community in different ways, from reuniting family members to supporting a local business that’s in trouble.

Let’s celebrate the power radio has to give us goosebumps. Share the stations and shows we should acknowledge in the comments.

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Renting an Electric Vehicle From Hertz: Three Lessons About Marketing Changes to Your Brand

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Introducing something new to your audience can be exciting. New features and components can invigorate and grow your brand and activate your target consumer. How you introduce something new, however, is paramount to its potential success.

In 2021, Hertz announced it would purchase 100,000 Tesla Model 3s for its fleet in an attempt to become the electric vehicle leader in the rental car category. There are many strategic reasons this may be a great play for Hertz. Some projections predict electric vehicle sales will reach at least 40 percent of the US market by 2030. Hertz can position itself as a leader in climate initiatives. As more consumers adopt electric vehicles, Hertz can potentially own the electric vehicle image among rental car companies with a “first in wins” strategy.

While all of this makes sense, when I recently visited multiple Hertz lots, it was striking how many electric vehicles were available, including a row of Polestars, a luxury electric vehicle that starts at $55,000. When I made the reservation, I discovered I could rent a Tesla for less than the price of an Intermediate sedan. While at first, I wondered how this could be, the feeling I had while I stood next to one of the Polestars thinking, “Why am I doubting getting this car” provided me some clarity.

There were several Polestar 2s available and lined up on the lot

I’m 50 years old and have never driven an electric car.

This is going to sound absolutely stupid, but when I got in the car and pressed the power button, I thought it wasn’t working because it was silent. It didn’t take me too long to realize that just putting the car in Drive made it go, but I was so used to hearing at least some engine noise in my 34 years of driving, it was confusing at first.

I was asked by the attendant, do you want to bring it back charged or pay a flat fee to bring it back at any level? This brought a new level of anxiety. Everyone knows it’s more fiscally efficient to refill the gas tank of a rental yourself instead of paying a fee, but you need to do it relatively close to the return center so it’s filled up.

Where will I charge the car near the rental center? How much will it cost? I’m sure it’s not that complicated, but how do I charge it? Again, I’ve never driven an electric car. That’s when I realized that I wanted to drive an electric car, but I wasn’t an educated consumer. Perhaps that’s why there are so many electric cars on the lot and Teslas are so affordable, due to current supply and demand. I know I’m not alone…though growing, EVs only make up about 6% of US car sales today.

I found myself having charging station anxiety

So while this may be a great long-term strategy for Hertz, it does face a challenge in the short term. And to be fair, the company is making efforts to educate consumers on electric vehicles, including in communities and on their website. But I didn’t see any of the information until researching for the blog (after my experience), and no attendant offered assistance at the lot. Ultimately, I’m sure they’ll figure it out and adoption will become easier as more consumers drive electric vehicles.

In the meantime, however, consider how the lessons of this experience can impact how you introduce new features or components to your brand.

 

  1. Explain in clear terminology. Is your radio station playing more Hip Hop every hour? Is your podcast now available on YouTube Music? Is there a new way to ask for your show on a smart speaker? Don’t be cute about it, make the change clear.

 

  1. Consider every possible marketing channel. This is a big one in the Hertz example. Yes, Hertz has something on their website about electric vehicles. Yes, they are planning outreach programs. But at the point of purchase (when I was selecting a car) and at the point of retrieval (the lot), I could not find the information and service I needed to give me the confidence to rent an electric vehicle. I’ve since discovered apps like PlugShare and ChargeHub to help find charging stations, which I may have known about if I was an EV owner but didn’t as a renter. It sure would have been nice if nearby charging stations were available in the Hertz app. Consider all the points of customer contact for your brand where you can educate them about the change.

 

  1. Utilize Outside Thinking. Inside Thinking is the perspective of the business. Outside Thinking is the perspective of the consumer. When making changes, remember that the consumer doesn’t know or understand the brand on as deep a level as you. Think about how the customer will perceive the change and what questions they will ask when considering how to communicate.

 

While I usually stick with gas-powered cars, I did end up driving the Chevy Bolt and enjoyed the experience.

But worrying about charging up before returning the car still kinda freaks me out.

 

Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything – Episode 3: Music Testing

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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 “Music Testing”. Watch the 15-minute video below:

Questions We Answered:

1:28 – Why is conducting Perceptual Research before a music test so valuable?
3:48 – What are Fit and Compatibility and why do they actually matter?
6:43 – How do you select which songs to test?
9:06 – Why is accurate Sound Coding essential for a successful music test?
10:29 – How do Oldies and Classic Hits get the right male/female balance and is there a special challenge to selecting the right balance?

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Janet Jackson, YouTube, and Serving an Unfilled Need

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If you’re old enough, you were probably watching the Super Bowl on February 1st, 2004. You would have seen Justin Timberlake pull down part of Janet Jackson’s bustier during the halftime show, which revealed her nipple.

Because of the controversy, it was the most-searched event in the history of the internet. It was the most watched and replayed moment in TiVo history. Remember going to YouTube to see the video online?

Nope, you don’t. YouTube’s first video, “Me At The Zoo,” wouldn’t be uploaded until April 23, 2005.

What you may not know is that the Janet Jackson video not being available online inspired YouTube’s creation.

As the story goes, Jawed Karim saw the halftime performance and when he couldn’t find footage online, brought the idea for a video site to his fellow PayPal colleagues, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Within days, Hurley designed the site’s interface and logo, while Chen and Karim split technical duties. It had a failed first attempt as a dating site. They registered the name YouTube on Valentine’s Day and had the tagline “Tune In, Hook Up”.

Fortunately, they didn’t stop there. Ultimately, YouTube morphed into the video-sharing site they sold to Google in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

It’s a reminder that the best ideas often come from simply serving a need that hasn’t been filled. The dating site angle reminds us that strategic experimentation is healthy, but the first try isn’t always the winner. Use strategic thinking and research to deploy ideas, but be prepared to pivot when the larger opportunity presents itself.

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The Extraordinary Podcasting Opportunity: A Conversation with Hetal Patel

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Hetal Patel is the Executive Vice President of SmartAudio Intelligence at iHeartMedia. In a conversation for this week’s Tuesdays With Coleman blog, we discussed her recent talk at the Audio Intelligence Summit, “Podcasting Trends & Mythbusters: What to look forward to in 2023.”

That turned into a wide-ranging discussion on generational differences and habits in audio consumption, how to connect on a deeper level with younger consumers, an untapped opportunity in podcasting, and our mutual adoration of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” a Netflix show from South Korea featuring a lawyer with autism in the lead role.

A PODCASTING MISCONCEPTION

The Audio Intelligence Summit, a conference focused on how audio and audio advertising can be utilized effectively, was held in New York in February. Of the myths surrounding podcasting she covered in her talk, I asked Patel which myth bothered her the most. She described the lack of education surrounding platforms and publishers.

For example, iHeartRadio is a podcasting platform, but it is also a publisher. Stuff You Should Know and The Ron Burgundy Podcast are published by iHeart, but you can hear them on Spotify, Apple, and “wherever you get your podcasts.” On the one hand, it’s a somewhat unique dilemma to podcasting. Patel offers an analogy: “If you watch a video from a publisher like Vox, CNN, or Fox on Facebook, you know the content belongs to those publishers. But many people who listen to an iHeart show on Spotify may think it’s a Spotify show. Other publishers probably feel the same thing when consuming content on the iHeartRadio app.” This poses a challenge on the advertising side, when buyers don’t necessarily recognize that their ads travel with the content to each platform.

Stuff You Should Know is published by iHeartRadio, but is available on multiple platforms

To me, it’s a classic example of Inside vs. Outside Thinking. Inside Thinking occurs when you’re too close to the product, and you make assumptions about consumer behavior based on your own experience. Outside Thinking is adopting the mindset of your target consumer (in this case the buying community).

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN PODCAST LISTENING BEHAVIOR

Patel is struck by the primary reasons people listen to podcasts, and she shares the differences between Millennials and Gen Z. “Millennials listen to podcasts for productivity. They listen to learn something. Gen Z seeks companionship, which makes sense. The levels of loneliness are highest in America right now. While digital media was made to keep us together, it has done the exact opposite.”

This led to diving into a startling statistic from a 2021 study by the Survey Center on American Life on the state of American friendship. In 1990, 27% of Americans said they had three or fewer close friends. In 2021, nearly half—49%—claimed to have three or fewer close friends. The percentage of Americans that said they had no close friends quadrupled, from 3% to 12%.

Percentage of Americans that say they have (x) number of close friends. Source: Survey Center on American Life

When you begin to consider several pieces of information together—younger consumers choosing podcasting for companionship, the decline in the number of close friends, and the increase in the mental health category in podcasting—the role of companionship to reach younger listeners is evident.

PODCASTING’S WIDE-OPEN OPPORTUNITY

When talking about the diversity of younger consumers, Patel mentioned that over 50% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are non-White, meaning an opportunity exists to deliver content targeted to these consumers. She believes earlier assumptions within the industry that Black and Hispanic consumers aren’t interested in podcasting were fundamentally incorrect. “When we launched the My Cultura network, a slate of Hispanic-targeted podcasts, we learned one in three Hispanics who had not given podcasting a shot said it was because there wasn’t content relevant to their interests. It wasn’t a discovery problem, it was a content problem.”

THE INTIMACY OF AUDIO

Ask Hetal Patel about video’s role in podcasting, she’ll tell you she certainly sees one, but what you’ll really unlock is her love of audio. The key for the industry, she believes, is recognizing what makes it so special.

She asked me, “When was the last time you watched TV without a cell phone in your hand?” Long pause. “Point made.”

“When was the last time you listened to a podcast while focused on your cell phone?” “Point made.”

“The engagement, the curiosity, demands the listener commit to it.”

AN EXTRAORDINARY SHOW

When Patel told me that she started watching Korean TV and cinema during the pandemic, I had to ask if she’d seen “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” a Netflix show I happened to have just started watching a few weeks ago and am in love with. Her face lit up.

We love the show for similar reasons. The South Korean show is about an attorney with autism but connects on several deep levels. At its core, it is a show about inclusivity, kindness, warmth, and respecting others. It’s one of the only shows she’s comfortable watching with her 7-year-old, and we agree there’s nothing like it on American television.

As she puts it, “When you see someone different, it’s human nature to distance ourselves when we should be warm.”

Funny how the conversation all fits in. Companionship, inclusivity, intimacy = extraordinary.

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12 Hour Sound Machines: A Podcast Success Story

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A couple of weeks ago in the Tuesdays With Coleman blog “Brand Growth Inspiration from Lofi Girl,” I mentioned 12 Hour Sound Machines, a podcast created by a father who couldn’t get his son to go to sleep. The podcast, which he simply created for himself to play on the smart speaker in his son’s bedroom (“If there was a private toggle, I would have turned it on”) now gets 300,000 listens a day and is approaching 80 million total downloads.

I spoke with Brandon Reed, the creator of 12 Hour Sound Machines, who shared lessons from his launch for current and aspiring podcasters.

12 Hour Sound Machines podcast

12 Hour Sound Machines creator Brandon Reed

 

The genesis of 12 Hour Sound Machines was a need based on what was currently available. To help his crying child, he first tried an air filter. It wasn’t loud enough. He looked online and found the sounds he was seeking either weren’t long enough, were multiple tracks put together that faded in and out, or he could hear clicks when they looped.

And so, he made his own 12 hours of brown noise. No fades, no loops, no clicks.

The night he posted it online, he needed a name and was exhausted. So he came up with, as he puts it, “the most straightforward thing imaginable,” 12 Hour Sound Machines. He made a thumbnail in three minutes and turned it on.

In the beginning, Reed says people started finding it organically (about 30 downloads a day) and he wondered why people besides him were listening.

Even though he made it available on all podcast platforms, it was Spotify where the magic happened. Here’s his explanation:

“My offering is pure utility value. People don’t care that it’s a podcast. They don’t treat it like a podcast. They just need white noise to help them sleep. People were already using Spotify to get sounds and noise. So they type in “sound machine”. Because I was first in, I had an algorithm advantage. They see 12 hours in the name, and they click.”

And so, 12 Hour Sound Machines grew and grew, mostly on Spotify, almost entirely organically. It wasn’t until it crossed the 50,000 daily downloads mark that Reed started thinking about it as a business. He was a podcast consumer but didn’t know the industry side. So, he started learning and studying.

At 75,000 downloads per day, he started looking into monetizing. His hosting platform at the time, Anchor, released a subscription model. He kept a free level of sounds but added 25 additional sounds for 2.99/month to see if people would pay.

They did.

Last Summer, Brandon Reed turned ads on for the first time, recognizing it had to be pre-roll (it wouldn’t be on brand to interrupt a 12-hour sound machine with a commercial). Despite some initial angry responses from a few listeners, it hasn’t stopped the growth.

He hasn’t left his day job working on apps for Disney, but he’s sure got one impressive side hustle. What he’s learned provides a valuable road map for anyone looking to create and monetize a successful podcast. Here are three takeaways:

  1. Find an unoccupied lane and fill it. Blue Ocean Strategy (finding unoccupied market space in the clear “blue ocean” rather than competing in the shark-infested “red ocean”) worked in this case, even if it was by accident. Reed identified a need and served it. Everyone needs a good night’s sleep.

 

  1. KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). He says coming up with the name of the podcast quickly was the result of exhaustion, but “the most straightforward thing imaginable” is usually the right thing. Find out what consumers are searching for (i.e., sound machines) on what platforms (i.e., Spotify) and name it the way they would search for it and describe it.

 

  1. Don’t try to do it alone. Reed recognized early on that his podcast couldn’t scale and be successful without help. That meant bringing on a support team that included a website developer and audio engineer so he could focus on business development.

I’ll leave you with his perspective on a mistake he often notices people and companies make.

“What so many people do, with any idea or product they’re trying to build, they think, if I build it, they’ll come. If I just build the coolest widget, the most awesome service, the most unique and innovative product. Then they give it to the world, and it doesn’t catch on. So, they say, “nobody wants it.”

It’s not that nobody wants it. It’s that nobody knows about it, or the wrong people know about it.

What this showed me is that if product market fit is right, if you just give people what they need, then they will come. And they will buy.”

Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything – Episode 2: Podcasting

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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 “Podcasting”. Watch the 15-minute video below:

Questions We Answered:

  • 03:19 – What’s a podcasting strategy you’d recommend?
  • 06.46 – What’s the most important think for a podcast to present in the first five minutes?
  • 09:18 – Should radio morning shows upload their entire show or create an after-show podcast?
  • 13:02 – What kind of podcast research do you recommend?

 

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Brand Growth Inspiration from Lofi Girl

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What (or who) is your competition?

Thinking of battles only in terms of radio station vs. radio station, streaming service vs. streaming service, or podcast vs. podcast significantly limits the scope (and reality) of the landscape. In fact, thinking in terms of platform vs. platform misses the point entirely.

Entertainment is entertainment, and well-developed entertainment brands are thriving across multiple platforms. If you aren’t paying attention to how YouTube operates in your universe, you’ll a) be oblivious to content that highly engages today’s consumers; b) miss out on opportunities that offer inspiration for your own brand.

I recently blogged about YouTube’s significant impact in podcasting and the company’s plans moving forward. Additionally, I’ve highlighted a few of YouTube’s brightest stars like Mr. Beast and Rhett & Link, the “morning show” my 19-year-old son never ever misses (and doesn’t exist via a radio transmitter).

Ask a college student what music they use for studying, and don’t be surprised if they answer “lo-fi beats.” Further exploration may lead you to a YouTube channel called Lofi Girl which boasts over 12 million subscribers.

At any given time, tens of thousands of consumers listen to Lofi Girl’s 24/7 live stream of soothing music and beats built for background, work, studying, or relaxing (I’m listening to it right now). A live comment thread scrolls on the channel.

Could these same beats exist as simply a stream? Sure. But a YouTube channel and a constantly playing video of an animated image of the Lofi Girl character studying inspired internet memes, copycats, and even a Disney lo-fi beats album with artwork inspired by Lofi Girl.

Lo-fi beats are the channel’s product. Lofi Girl turned it into a brand.

The music you play won’t make you memorable, the way you present it will. And sometimes, it’s the simplest ideas that make it stick.

Ever listen to white noise to help you get to sleep? Playlists of white noise on Spotify are everywhere, similar “disposable” pieces of content.

Until a father who couldn’t get his son to sleep through the night created 12-hour playlists of sleep sounds, called it “12 Hour Sound Machines,” and started getting 300K downloads a day and 1.3 million unique listens a week.

Sleep sounds are the product. 12 Hour Sound Machines turned it into a brand.

Consider how you can present your product differently and then consider how to present it on other platforms. YouTube in particular can play an impactful role in your brand growth strategy.

Don’t miss Coleman Insights’ next Ask Me Anything webinar Wednesday, March 29 at 2PM EDT, when we address questions related to podcasting. Registration is open here.