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Jeff Jackson’s Unique Approach To Political Marketing

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You wouldn’t believe how many texts and emails I’ve been getting from politicians lately. Well of course you would, especially if you live in a swing state like Pennsylvania, as I do. A few weeks ago, I received an email from Jeff Jackson, who is running for Attorney General in North Carolina (another swing state). Although I can’t vote for him, I specifically signed up for Jackson’s emails because I noticed how he handles his marketing differently. For every 1,000 “I JUST GOT OFF THE DEBATE STAGE AND DESTROYED MY OPPONENT! WE MUST HIT OUR GOAL!!” messages we’re all used to receiving from most politicians, there is one politician whose messages sound different than this. That’s Jeff Jackson.

North Carolina Congressman Jeff Jackson

North Carolina Congressman Jeff Jackson (Photo credit: Congressman Jeff Jackson)

Politicians overwhelmingly rely on tactical strategy in their emails and texts. Jackson is using brand strategy.

In a recent email to his database, Jackson’s subject line wasn’t, “We’re down in the polls!” or “The other side is out to get us!” It was, “The Power of Wheel of Fortune. You Simply Would Not Believe.”

Got my attention.

Jackson begins the email by mentioning how close the polls are, but that what interests him – what really interests him – is how research shows that both he and his opponent “do not exist to the majority of the state.” Well over half of voters are not aware of either. He goes on to wonder how to go about reaching all those voters who don’t know him yet.

He says it won’t be through social media, because of his already strong subscriber base. Though he offers a video version of the email.

He says it won’t be through the news, because it only reaches people who follow politics, and he needs to reach voters who aren’t already engaged.

So, he talks about the power of running commercials on mass media, in this case, television. The email subject (“The Power of Wheel of Fortune”) makes sense. But he knows that’s expensive, so he needs to focus his message and raise enough money for a decent spot buy.

Jackson seems to have opened a lead on his opponent, but obviously anything can happen before the election. Here are a few takeaways from this email I found fascinating that you may find useful:

  • The way Jeff Jackson talks to his database is unlike most politicians I’ve seen. In a sea of sameness, Jackson’s approach and tone is a complete point of differentiation. Are you talking to your audience like you always have, and like your competitors do? Or are you real, authentic, and different from what listeners have always come to expect?
  • Jackson understands the value of Awareness. Without higher levels of Awareness, you cannot build stronger images and inspire more potential voters. Are you conducting research to understand how much of your target audience knows you exist? Or are you just counting the audience estimates you’re given?
  • Jackson understands the value of mass media. Are you falling victim to the new media PR trap in your selling efforts or are you truly selling the value of your medium?
  • Jackson understands the value of focus. In the email, he mentions how he’s got 25 things he’d like to talk about with voters, but he needs to “shrink that way, way down”. How many messages are you trying to get across? Are any getting through?

You don’t have to take a side to appreciate a fresh approach. Maybe hitting voters over the head for donations isn’t the only way, just as hitting listeners over the head for ratings isn’t the only way.

At least we can hope.

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How Should Country Radio Meet This Crossover Moment?

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What a time to program Country music.

At the time of this writing, the top two songs on the Billboard Hot 100 are “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen. There are three Morgan Wallen songs in the Top 20. Keep going to find Marshmello & Kane Brown. Dasha. Eminem & Jelly Roll. Luke Combs. Post Malone Featuring Blake Shelton.

The amount of Country crossovers to Pop is mesmerizing, bordering on a phenomenon.

Morgan Wallen himself is stratospheric. One could argue that he’s the current Country version of Metallica, so popular he’s worthy of his own category. Mandatory Morgan, every night at 9!

Morgan Wallen is a crossover hit machine. (Credit: Debbie Wong/Shutterstock.com)

All of this is good news, right? The blurred lines between Country and Pop have certainly broadened the base of the format and created mainstream superstars in a way the Country format could never have done on its own. The Wall Street Journal recently explained that the fans, not the more traditional airplay agenda of record labels in Nashville, are driving this moment.

We see fascinating changes in our research, specifically greater listenership sharing between Country and Pop and Rock radio stations.

The real question is, how does Country radio handle this moment? Just how different are the Country streamers and Country radio listeners? How different are the core and casual Country fans?

It is undeniable that older, traditional notions of what music styles many Country fans want to hear are being thrown out the window, as more and more fans grow up hearing new variations and format fusions.

But what impact will this have on the brand of Country radio stations? How can Country radio truly meet this moment, welcoming a new, different audience without alienating its core?

We believe we don’t know the answer yet, and those in the format need to keep an open mind. If there was ever a time to deploy focus groups and other qualitative research within Country, this would be it. Explore the factions, the blurred lines, and determine which approaches work and which ones don’t.

It’s an exciting time for Country Radio, and if handled properly, a potential inflection point for generational growth. No problem gettin’ tipsy on all this great new music—let’s just not get kicked out the bar!

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What Is the Purpose of Your Radio Station?

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I admit it, I am reading one of those self-help books about finding meaning in life. I just started the chapter on “finding purpose in life.” You know, find your purpose and focus on that. Stop making excuses and get to it. Oh boy, this may be a little much for me. Are you here to be a great husband, father, and community builder, or are you here to watch Netflix?

Sure, sure, maybe I should do that personally. But it got me thinking about what our purpose is as the radio industry. Do we know our purpose? Our real purpose—what we mean to consumers—or what we could mean to them?

It seemed so easy years ago. Play better records, find a more entertaining morning show, think up some memorable promotions—and good things will happen. Radio is everywhere. Turn your Cume into fans and you’ll win.

Then it got a lot more complicated. Sorry, to win today you need to do more than sound somewhat better than the other radio stations in town. I know we all spend a good part of our day trying to make our stations sound better—and I think that’s important—but it may not save the day anymore.

We need to get back to our purpose. What would make someone do anything to listen to our radio station? Hide under the sheets at night so mom and dad wouldn’t know they were listening? How do we develop superfans like the ones Taylor Swift has found a way to generate by the millions? Over the years, our programming mentors taught us how to create compelling content and bigger-than-life promotions that electrified an audience.

What happened? Did we forget our purpose? Radio is here to entertain by whatever means. To connect with an audience. Give listeners a reason to make us a part of their lives. Earn that, never assume it.

Certainly, the world changed. But what happened to the kind of radio that was so amazing that you and I didn’t want to get out of the car because we didn’t want to miss something? Please don’t tell me that all of that is only on Spotify or a podcast. There is no monopoly on great entertainment.

Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel and Saturday Night Live rely upon the same “raw material” to entertain as radio does. They have access to most of the same musical guests. They work hard every day to make magic happen. It is up to us to transform those raw elements into something that lights up a radio audience.

One of my favorite clients once asked: Can’t you include a question in your study that just answers my hardest question—what would make you listen more? My response: If we can refine your music recipe and morning show and strengthen what your brand means, won’t that make them listen more? Maybe I was a little defensive, maybe a bit stuck in one view of the world.

I think it is time to get crazy. Try things that have never been done before. Did you know they wanted to fire Rush Limbaugh when he first got started because he was the rogue newscaster who had the gall to comment on the news? Instead, he started a new format. The history of Sports Radio isn’t much different. Sure there were a few hour-long sports talk shows dating back to the 1960s on WNBC, but there weren’t any dedicated all-sports stations until the late 80s and the arrival of WFAN in New York.

You have the ideas. Let’s get crazy and try some of them. Let’s find our purpose again.

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They Tried That, and It Won’t Work

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We hear lots of memorable expressions in our client meetings. Most are axioms about how things work in radio programming. And many of them are dead wrong! “But it tests” is a perennial favorite, an argument for playing a song that is completely un-strategic because somebody put it in a music test—and just our luck, it came back strong. Look…you can test “Gangnam Style” all you like, and no matter how well it scores, I promise it doesn’t belong on your Rock station. “But it tests”—doesn’t that mean our audience loves it and we should play it? Yes, they love it, but no, it does not mean that you should play it.

Hey! Let’s put songs in our music test that make no strategic sense just to see if they test! (Photo credit: Debby Wong/Shutterstock)

The faulty expression I want to discuss today is: “They tried that, and it won’t work!” This phrase is usually the reaction to the proposal of a format that may have been tried in the market in the past—often with modest commitment and no marketing— that resulted in a quick “failure.” Relying upon this argument to reject further exploration of an idea has several flaws. First, it assumes that consumer tastes never change. Just because nobody wanted an 80s station in the 1990s does not mean it won’t work today. Second, it assumes the market never changes. What if there were already two or three players in the 80s arena back then, but now there aren’t?

Third, the “they tried that, and it won’t work!” argument assumes that the previous attempt was well-executed. We don’t really know whether the last endeavor was well marketed, described appropriately to the audience, or played the right music. All we know is somebody tried it, and it failed.

This flawed logic applies to both format positions—and station names. Sorry, nobody remembers that there was once a station called “Mix” in this market (except a few insiders/nerds in our building). Just because there was a station called Mix in 2006 that eventually changed formats does not mean that name is a bad idea for your new variety station.

Think about all the great products that we would never have if a failed attempt in the past scared off a company ready to try again. Thomas Edison had thousands of successful inventions, and quite a few “failures”. One of the most notable was called “The Home Delivery Service” designed to deliver music and other entertainment to your house. In the 1920s, this club mailed subscribers 20 sample records each month and gave them a few days to order what they wanted.

Sound familiar?

It “didn’t work” back then, but it certainly did years later for Columbia House, Netflix and others.

Columbia House was a membership subscription program that delivered music to your house after hooking you with an introductory offer.

Similar stories could be told about the early space program, the airplane, the microwave oven, the smartphone and so many other successes. History is littered with ideas that failed at first and then became wildly successful with improved execution.

Don’t believe it when someone tells you that something won’t work in your market. Just because a format “failed” in the past, don’t be so sure it won’t work today.

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Advertising is More Valuable Than Premium Subscribers?

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I read an article recently that surprised me. It explained that Netflix’s “Basic With Ads” subscribers are more valuable to Netflix than ad-free subscribers who pay $15.49 a month. I always thought the streaming business model depended on us all paying higher and higher subscription fees. Turns out, all these services want us to watch ads instead of paying higher fees.

Why? Because these companies learned that getting us to watch “premium ads” generates more revenue than monthly fees.

Photo credit: Koshiro K/Shutterstock

I personally love the ads. They give me a chance to get another drink, explain the show to my father-in-law, and use the bathroom. Plus, I’m learning about all kinds of new medicines that I didn’t even know I needed.

Now let’s consider the radio industry, which continues to rely on the ad model DSPs find so valuable, yet we seem to despise so much.

An unhappy program director may say “The commercials are killing the station!” But do listeners really feel that way?

We can argue another time about the legitimate issue regarding the quantity of commercials, but I have learned that commercials are expected on the radio—and maybe even quietly enjoyed by people like me.

So, what if we embraced the commercials? Worked hard at making them premium. And recognize that they are more valuable than any “subscription fee” we might someday be able to extract from an audience through our apps or other means.

When launching a new station, one of my mentors would include dummy commercials, mainly for concerts and new releases. He did this for two reasons: first, it gave the station credibility. Second, it created an expectation for commercials. Premium ones at that. Of course, he controlled the production and spent the time making them sound great.

I’m not the world’s biggest sports fan, but I have been enjoying the commercials I see during the baseball playoffs. Who doesn’t love a winged talking/singing Buffalo with his hooves on the bar? And it won’t be long until we have another round of Super Bowl ads to talk about.

There will always be advertising that radio stations are asked to run that is out of their control. But there are plenty that are within their control. Rather than focusing on how to not run them, maybe the focus should be on how to run and present them in a more appealing way.

Ads can be great if we make them great. And, as streaming services have learned, with the right ad structure there is real value to the bottom line.

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What’s Your Pivot?

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For every Netflix that adapts from DVDs by mail to streaming, there is a Blockbuster that fails to evolve. For every Google that sees a chance to dominate the online maps business, there is a MapQuest that had the brand name, yet failed to create a great mobile app in time. Every company, every brand must pivot at some point, and usually many times over its lifespan. Sometimes the pivot is short-term. Many businesses were forced to pivot during the pandemic, such as restaurants that shifted into a curbside/delivery-focused model. Many times, the pivot is absolutely necessary for survival. According to the Harvard Business Review, three conditions are required for a business pivot to work:

  1. A pivot must align the brand with long-term trends
  2. A pivot must be a lateral extension of the brand’s existing capabilities
  3. A pivot must offer a sustainable path to profitability, that preserves and enhances brand value in the minds of consumers

Here’s a look at two brands that made significant pivots from their initial core competencies, and one that is currently attempting to do so.

Garmin:

In October 2007, 75% of Garmin’s revenue was generated by sales of GPS devices for cars. The company did $2.5 billion in sales. The stock was at $120 per share. But four months earlier, Apple introduced the iPhone. GPS was now available for free on your mobile device. Within three years, Garmin lost 90% of its value.

By the early 2010s, wearables were in their infancy.  Fitbit and Jawbone were early leaders in the category, but no brand owned the high-end fitness enthusiast market. Garmin identified a new long-term trend (not a fad), was already in the electronics device business, and saw a path to winning market share. Incredibly, Garmin sustained only three periods of negative fiscal growth and is thriving.

Garmin successfully pivoted from in-car GPS devices to high-end smartwatches (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

Twitter:

Twitter was originally called Odeo, a service for discovering podcasts. When Apple added podcasts to iTunes in 2005, Odeo’s leadership decided they couldn’t compete and asked employees for ideas. An engineer named Jack Dorsey proposed a microblogging site where users could share short updates in real-time. The completed version of Twitter debuted in 2006, and Dorsey became the company’s first CEO. Odeo saw social media and messaging as a long-term trend, it already offered an internet-based service, and rebranding ensured the opportunity to build sustainable images. It met the three conditions required for a pivot to work.

Peloton:

Peloton has made its share of mistakes, from faulty treadmills to producing too many bikes during the pandemic, demand that was almost sure to taper off. Peloton stock, which peaked at $151 per share on December 1, 2020, sits at just under $8 as I write this.

And yet, Peloton has an incredible vault of content from its roster of fitness instructors, and a core of passionate fans. Though Peloton has always generated impressive content, it focused on the hardware. It marketed the bike, and opened stores where you can demo the bike. But as Pelton learned the hard way, bikes are expensive to make, expensive to deliver, and demand is fleeting. The profit margin on content is way more appealing.

Peloton has recently put more focus on its app, making the content available to those who don’t own Pelton equipment. Can Peloton successfully pivot perceptually from a bike company to a content company? It likely better aligns with long-term trends and is within its existing capabilities. That path to profitability part…we’ll have to see.

Peloton is attempting to shift from a device-focused strategy to a content-focused strategy (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

Consider your brand’s position in the mind of the consumer. Is it thriving? Has it evolved at the appropriate pace? Or does it need to pivot for future success? And if the answer is “pivot”, does it meet the criteria?

Consider these challenges thoughtfully and strategically, ideally utilizing perceptual research to clearly understand strengths and weaknesses to craft a profitable strategy moving forward.

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The Strategic Reason Why Bed Bath & Beyond Struggled and Failed

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In the Coleman Insights presentation “The Urgency of Branding” that Jay Nachlis and I first shared at Morning Show Boot Camp in Chicago last year, one of my favorite points highlights this image on a slide:

Bed Bath & Beyond coupon

The classic Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupon. We think it demonstrates a classic marketing blunder, putting all your focus on a promotion, not your product benefit. Last Wednesday was the last day Bed Bath & Beyond accepted coupons, shortly following the announcement that the store will go out of business for good on June 30th.

The fact that many headlines of Bed Bath & Beyond’s demise actually mentioned coupons—“Bed Bath & Beyond, facing bankruptcy and string of store closings, stops accepting coupons”, for example—makes complete sense for a store that was known more for a tactic than its brand.

That’s the lesson in “The Urgency of Branding”, and it’s one that bears repeating here.

There are many hot takes that attempt to explain the reasoning behind the store’s failure. They opened too many stores. They didn’t adapt to online shopping. They made too many stock buybacks. All may be true on some level. But at its core, the problem was deeper.

Throughout its long history, I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Bed Bath & Beyond without a 20% off coupon. That coupon, delivered regularly to seemingly every mailbox in the United States, was so iconic and representative of the company that it became a dominant brand image.

And thus, it became one of the first things that came to mind when you thought of it. Say Bed Bath & Beyond, picture a 20% off coupon.

Rather than, for example, say Bed Bath and Beyond and think of the destination for furnishings for my kids’ college dorm. Say Bed Bath and Beyond and think of the largest selection of shower curtains anywhere. Say Bed Bath and Beyond and think, “That’s the comforter store. I’ve bought every comforter I’ve ever owned there.”

Nope, you think of a tactical discount.

Just as, as explained by our Image Pyramid, radio listeners need to clearly understand and be able to communicate a stations’ Base Music or Talk Position (i.e., “The Hip Hop station,” “The Relaxing station,” “The Sports station”) consumers need to clearly understand and be able to communicate a store’s base position.

The Coleman Insights Image Pyramid

Technically, the position is in the name—they are a bed and bath specialist—but they didn’t reinforce the position in their marketing, instead they allowed the tactic to overwhelm the brand.

This is a dangerous path. Dominant personalities and forefront contests can be hugely beneficial to a radio station, providing brand depth on their Image Pyramid. But if tactical efforts come at the expense of the brand, rather than in support of it, you risk overwhelming the base position.

Fortify and focus on your base position and deploy marketing that reinforces the image.

That’s the key to surviving to infinity…and beyond.

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How ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence May Impact Media

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If you haven’t yet heard about ChatGPT, let me be the first to let you in on the little tool creating all the buzz. Or…is this ChatGPT that’s telling you about all the buzz right now because I’m not actually writing this? Once you learn more about ChatGPT in this blog, that will make more sense to you and you can decide for yourself.

One thing is for certain. ChatGPT has wildly positive or negative implications for just about everyone on the planet.

How’s that for a teaser?

ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by Artificial Intelligence. How you feel about AI will likely drive your initial thoughts on the product. My son Ryan is taking a coding class at Columbia and completed an assignment over the weekend. Just for fun, after he finished his coding, he gave the same assignment to the ChatGPT bot.

It completed it correctly in 2.3 seconds.

The same task took Ryan six or seven hours.

Ryan went to his professor and showed both versions of his work, which inspired a lengthy discussion in class.

Imagine the implications of this thing on the teaching profession alone.

Right now, ChatGPT is offering the bot to try for free to show what it can do. Is it like Google or Alexa? In that it can prepare a custom shopping list and explain Newton’s laws of motion, sure. But if you ask Google or Alexa to write your term paper on US History in a sarcastic tone, and then ask it to expand on the Civil War parts and provide an alternate viewpoint, you won’t have something ready to turn in to a college professor. But with ChatGPT, you could.

So…how about the way media brands may use ChatGPT?

I asked the bot, “Write me a news report about the hottest new trends” and here’s what it wrote:

The hottest new trends for the season are starting to take shape, and there’s something for everyone.

In fashion, sustainability and comfort continue to be major themes. Brands are increasingly offering eco-friendly options, such as clothing made from recycled materials or natural fibers. Comfortable and practical clothing, such as loungewear and athleisure, are also gaining popularity as more people work from home.

In the beauty industry, natural and minimalistic looks are on the rise. This includes a focus on skincare and using fewer, but higher quality, products. The “no makeup” makeup look, which emphasizes a natural and youthful appearance, is also becoming more popular.

In terms of technology, virtual and augmented reality are gaining traction. Virtual reality headsets are becoming more affordable and accessible, allowing users to experience immersive entertainment and educational content. Augmented reality, which overlays digital information onto the real world, is being used in a variety of applications, from gaming to interior design.

Overall, these trends reflect a desire for more practical, sustainable, and natural products and experiences.

I asked the bot if it could make it longer.

“Sure, here is a longer version”

As we enter the new year, it’s time to take a look at the hottest trends that are shaping up for the season. From fashion and beauty to technology and entertainment, there’s something for everyone.

One of the biggest trends in fashion is the focus on sustainability and comfort. With more people working from home and looking for clothing that is practical and easy to wear, brands are offering more options in the loungewear and athleisure categories. In addition, there is a growing demand for eco-friendly clothing made from recycled materials or natural fibers, as consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of their fashion choices.

In the beauty industry, the minimalistic and natural look is becoming more popular. This includes a focus on skincare, with people using fewer, but higher quality, products to achieve a healthy and radiant complexion. The “no makeup” makeup look, which emphasizes a natural and youthful appearance, is also gaining traction. This trend reflects a desire for a more natural and low-maintenance beauty routine.

Technology is also seeing some exciting new developments. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are becoming more mainstream, with VR headsets becoming more affordable and accessible. VR allows users to experience immersive entertainment and educational content, while AR overlays digital information onto the real world, offering a variety of applications, from gaming to interior design.

In the entertainment world, streaming services are continuing to dominate, with new content being released all the time. However, there is also a trend towards more interactive and social experiences, such as live-streamed concerts and virtual reality gaming.

Overall, these trends reflect a desire for more practical, sustainable, and natural products and experiences. Whether you’re looking to update your wardrobe, improve your beauty routine, or try out the latest tech, there are plenty of exciting options to choose from.

How long would it take someone in the newsroom to write this? (It took ChatGPT about five seconds).

There are already options to use AI for the narration, which will continue to improve.

As an aside, when I asked ChatGPT to write me a news report about Volodymyr Zelenskky, it glossed over the war with Russia and focused on peace talks. When I asked it to write a news report about Taylor Swift, it wrote about the release of Evermore, not her latest album. So, it’s certainly a work in progress.

Taylor Swift news

ChatGPT’s usefulness is a work in progress, as it referenced outdated Taylor Swift information when writing a news story. (Credit: Brian Friedman, Shutterstock)

Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster wrote a piece on ChatGPT, positing how, despite the fears of AI replacing human jobs and the work they do, tools like ChatGPT can play an important role in helping humans do their work better.

Generally, I buy that. There are pretty cool implications for amplifying search for life hacks. Instead of Googling the generic “Questions to ask in a job interview,” I asked ChatGPT “What are good questions to ask an interviewer for a TV anchor job?”

Its response was impressively focused on the position:

  • Can you tell me more about the specific responsibilities and expectations for this position?
  • What is the company’s vision for this role, and how does it fit into the overall goals of the organization?
  • Can you provide more details about the team I would be working with and the support that would be available to me in this position?
  • What opportunities for professional development and growth are available for anchors at this company?
  • Can you tell me about the typical work schedule for anchors at this company?
  • What is the company’s approach to news coverage and storytelling, and how does this position fit into that approach?
  • How does this company support anchors in maintaining a work-life balance and managing the demands of this job?
  • Can you provide more information about the equipment and technology that anchors at this company use to produce their segments?
  • How does this company support anchors in staying current with industry trends and developments?
  • Can you tell me more about the opportunities for on-air and off-air collaboration with other members of the news team?

When we consider how it will change jobs in media, you can imagine how it could speed up show prep, help write commercial copy, and yes, write news stories.

But what we can never lose sight of is the personal human touch that can only come from a human’s tone of voice.

I asked ChatGPT to write a blog in the tone of Sam Milkman, and it told me “As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I don’t have the ability to write in the specific style of a specific person.”

Yet.

AI tools like ChatGPT will disrupt our world. They will make your job easier in some ways, but have the potential to make us lazy and miss our very specific individual voices and attitude. So perhaps we should use it as a tool, but not the tool.

Back to the original question posed at the top of this blog. Did I even write it? Or did ChatGPT?

The answer: I did. I don’t think ChatGPT has the ability to write like someone on my level – ha ha.

At least, not yet.

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How Demographics Impact Contemporary Music Tastes

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Coleman Insights is releasing findings from its Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4 in a three-part blog series, followed by a free webinar on Wednesday May 11th at 2PM EDT/11AM PDT, in which the findings will be covered in greater depth. Details to register for that webinar are below.

In last week’s Tuesdays With Coleman blog, Warren Kurtzman examined Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4’s differences by genre, including how different types of music vary based on where listeners live and their political affiliation. This week, we’ll look at how age, gender, and ethnicity affected contemporary music appetites in the latest edition of our benchmark study.

As John Boyne and Warren Kurtzman have pointed out in previous blogs, the big story of Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4 is the lack of newer music among the best-testing titles. Although we see quite a lot of older material among the most popular songs of each age group, the past year’s music is a little more represented among the Top 100 titles with 12- to 24-year-olds (37%) than with 25- to 34-year-olds (31%), 35- to 44-year-olds (29%), or 45- to 54-year-olds (29%). More pronounced are differences in the genres preferred by each age group. While Pop music is well-represented among the Top 100 titles of each age group, Hip Hop/R&B and Country vary dramatically by age. 12- to 34-year-olds have more Hip Hop/R&B than Country, while 35- to 54-year-olds have more Country than Hip Hop/R&B. This is not a new development; previous SuperStudies have shown a similar pattern.

Men and women agree on one thing completely, and you don’t hear that very often. Pop represents 43% of the Top 100 songs among men, the identical percentage of the top songs among women. But just as Country leans much older, it also leans heavily Female, making up 22% of the Female Top 100 and only 5% of the Male Top 100. Meanwhile, Hip Hop/R&B, Alternative/Rock, and Dance/Electronic are more popular among men than among women.

“Believer” from Imagine Dragons was again the top Alternative/Rock song, a genre that was more popular with men (Photo credit: Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock)

Genre tastes also vary by ethnicity. Among Black consumers, Hip Hop/R&B is by far the most popular genre, with 67% of their Top 100. The Hispanic Top 100 includes a lot of Hip Hop/R&B (41%) as well as a lot of Pop (33%). Among everyone else, Pop (40%) and Country (32%) have the biggest shares of Top 100 songs.

Next, we’ll examine how consumption habits might have affected contemporary music tastes. While there were some differences, the hierarchy didn’t vary a great deal. Whether you were a daily streaming service listener, AM/FM listener, podcast listener, or smart speaker listener, you were most likely to prefer Pop first and Hip Hop/R&B second. That said, podcast listeners were more likely than the other groups to listen to Hip Hop/R&B, and AM/FM listeners were more likely to prefer Country. Also of note: Apple Music listeners’ tastes are more Hip Hop/R&B-oriented than the tastes of listeners to other streaming services, and those who use TikTok for new music discovery also have an above-average quantity of Hip Hop/R&B among their favorite contemporary songs.

Registration is now open for the Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4 Deep Dive webinar, which takes place next Wednesday, May 11 at 2PM EDT/11AM PDT.

 

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The Urgency of Brand Building: A Conversation with Pierre Bouvard

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Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media and Westwood One, worked with Coleman Insights in the 90s and was instrumental in the growth of our company. Recently, Pierre and I have had discussions about long-term brand building strategy versus short-term activation tactics. We’ve talked about how favoring short-term strategies over brand building has become something of an epidemic in most advertising. What’s striking is just how similarly many radio stations are following the exact same short-term playbook, often to their peril. I spent an hour with Pierre to dig into the reasons why brand building is not just a good idea, it’s urgently required. While it applies to nearly every brand, he specifically covers why and how radio should pay attention.

Cumulus Media/Westwood One Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard

“The job of brand building advertising is to be known before you’re needed.”

This was the line that began our conversation. Creating awareness and good feelings about your brand is, by far, the most important thing you can do–whether it’s a radio station or a furniture store. We talked about two common marketing tactics: sales activation and brand building.

SHORT-TERM SALES ACTIVATION STRATEGY

For a retailer, a sales activation strategy manifests itself as a sale/event. It may include price drops, promotions, and giveaways. The goal is to get the consumer to do something quickly. Radio stations deploy this strategy all the time in the form of contesting. Calls to action. Listen and win. Text for concert tickets. What is the effect of the sales activation strategy?

Generally speaking, it works…which is why marketers keep doing it. But how it works, and the net effect is important.

Pierre outlines the work of Les Binet and Peter Field, who he calls the “godfathers of marketing effectiveness.” Binet and Field showed that when the sales activation strategy is used, though it can show great ROI, brand perceptions are unchanged. Additionally, there is actually no long-term increase in sales.

You can see a parallel to the way many in radio see the world through “this quarter” or “the next book.” An attempt to justify ratings in the most recent period based on generally inconsequential effects such as some bad weather or a jock being on vacation is pure folly. The reality is your current performance is reflecting things that happened in the past year or a year ago. Focus on the short-term and you get intoxicated with doing promotions or finding a meter. That does nothing to build who you are and what you do long-term.

This is validated by research from marketing consultancy Gain Theory, demonstrating that only 18% of the impact of marketing communication is immediate. 58% of the impact is realized six months or later.

BRAND BUILDING STRATEGY

Just as brand building builds sales over time, at a higher level than the sales activation strategy, radio stations with strong brands build stronger ratings over time.

And, it starts with something that affects how consumers choose your brand and is perhaps more important than anything else…”mental availability.”

Pierre shared a quote from Les Binet and Sarah Carter that he feels is immensely important for radio stations:

“The single most important factor driving brand preference is mental availability. How well known a brand is, how easily it comes to mind. Brands with low mental availability tend to struggle in favor of more familiar rivals or are not considered in the first place.”

If you really think about it, this is contrary to how many programmers think about their radio stations. Are you thinking about extending the amount of time someone listens every day or week? The reality is their lifestyle and habits very well may not permit them to give your station more listening. That’s why the answer is to expand the pie and bring more people into the station. The way to do that is building awareness. That’s done through brand building.

When focusing on brand building, Pierre points to the use of “fluent devices,” and he wishes more radio stations would use them. Exhibit A is a new segment that has become a significant radio advertiser–online sports betting. Almost all advertising for these companies is sales activation: “Download our app, get a $50 bonus”; “Get a free play for signing up,” and so on. But one company has chosen the brand building route.

Featuring comedian JB Smoove as Caesar, commercials for Caesars Sportsbook have featured everyone from Halle Berry as Cleopatra to football’s Manning family. They are unique, funny, and fun. The offer isn’t the star. Caesar is the fluent device.

A fluent device can be a memorable slogan, like Snickers unleashed for years with “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” It’s the lonely Maytag repairman. It’s memorable and fun, and it builds the brand.

Brands shouldn’t employ only a brand building strategy, just as they shouldn’t only employ a sales activation strategy. In fact, Binet and Field themselves say the typical brand should do about 60% brand building and 40% sales activation. The problem is that most are way too heavy into the short-term camp.

Pierre suggests radio stations perform a promo inventory analysis. Determine how much time is being spent screaming about concert tickets and how much time is truly being spent explaining what the station does in a fun way. It’s not about losing the contesting, which serves an important role. It’s about finding the right balance and recognizing the patience required to build a brand is well worth it.

“Imagine I have a lawn that needs work. I watered and fertilized it this week and nothing happened. It didn’t work! That’s the danger of short-term thinking. If we treat building brands the way we treat growing our lawn, you’ll love the end result.”