CLIENT BULLETIN: St.Cloud............Moral of the Story!

"Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable! The leader is the leader........... because he did something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is NOW TAKEN-so it's no longer remarkable when you decide to do it. Seth Godin/Purple Cow.

In February/02 Regent St. Cloud took a bold step in a Country radio war that had been raging for years. 98 Country, the perennial #1 station, had been in a 1-2, 7 share, horse race for 2+ years. Hand to hand radio combat at it's finest. Regent GM, Cal Hall reshuffled the deck and installed a points for behavior program on Ctry/WWJO and Hot AC/KMXK, and strategically (if not, bravely) eliminated the WIN aspect from both stations. A bold strategy for an institution that has lived and died by 'register to win' and '9th Caller' antics, for 50+years. When the competing country signal became aware of the program, they countered with the usual cliched, pedestrian maneuvers. The first ratings book of the program found furrowed brows at 98 Country, as it netted no relief and yet more tsl slippage..........yet the program took hold where it's designed to. At the sales level. Local client, "Hank's Spa and Gazebo" fully bought into the frequency of the idea and became a Title Sponsor for 12 months. Isn't business soft? Will discretionary dollars go for these products? Hank sold MORE hot tubs in 2002 than any previous year. So the ratings number for 98 didn't reach expectations, but in the race for ratings, Regent/sales found a clear vision for a new non spot revenue tool and the database opportunities it afforded. Then of course, when least expected, it became 'rear view mirror' time once again in St. Cloud, Mn, as WWJO simply TORPEDOED the country competitor for Fall 2002. This was one of the best bloody noses' I've ever witnessed in a radio war. WWJO goes 7.1-9.7 and the clear cut #1 across the board. More importantly a 2+ year tsl decline was OVER as every demo (persons/male/female) went up. The other country's tsl? Static to DOWN in every category. Persons 18-49, 25-54(where 81% of the loyalty database lies), went up substantially in every daypart to 7pm, where oddly enough, the last keyword is given. IS WWJO a great Country Radio station? Without question. Were they as good in the down book? Probably. Did some diaries fall into some loyalty database laps? Of course. It's happened many times before, although NEVER a given. Those database laps will change next time, which is why constant db recruitment is imperative. Rating's is NOT the moral of this story. The growing number of title sponsors that buy into this because your creativity makes it works for them, is the bedrock of your program. In this environment, a client cares less about smiley/sad face books. Rather this client will measure you by foot traffic and sales. That Regent St. Cloud successfully applied a creative flexible science, in place of trad contesting, is entirely the moral here. Don't forget how you became remarkable! Congrats to a killer staff! jimmy risk LoyalEars.com 586.771.7449 jimmy@loyalears.com