|
SLEEPLESS...............................in Springfield!
Some of you have heard this
story, cept none of you have heard the recent happy ending……………or
should I say beginning. As PD of Active Rock WJJO/Madison, Glen Gardner became
THE first PD in the nation to totally abandon WIN contesting and adopted an on
air loyalty program. Time and again research had always shown him that he was
throwing money away on traditional contesting. And from here on out, whether he
was giving away a T-shirt or a hamburger, he was going to quantify it.
He adopted the same mindset
a year later when he was appointed VP/GM of the Springfield, Illinois cluster.
Rock, AC, Modern,and News talk staff’s were about to get a wakeup call. The meeting went like this.
“Listeners are going to Earn(not Win) around here. We’re going to
incentivize behaviour in a different way. And oh BTW…………………we’re
dropping Arbitron……………………for ALL the
stations”. Glen explained that it was far more important for Joe’s
Fish market or the local Ford dealer to know just how many people visited, who
they were, and what email offers to the database worked. Those were the most
important numbers they could have, since this was how the client would measure
them. Those were to be the new metrics that this cluster would live and die
by. Two years later, Saga and
Clear Channel are reading Miller Kaplan reports showing the #1 billing cluster
in the market doesn’t subscribe to Arbitron. Saga then decides to unsubscribe.
And last week almighty Clear Channel waved a white towel as they informed Arbitron
they would no longer be using the service. As a result, Arbitron ratings service
has shutdown the entire market. In one swift slash, Glen cancelled his $35K
perceptual study, Fall billboards,and a host of other expenses that a ratings
subscriber is forced to incur. Did a loyalty program undo
Arbitron in Springfield, Ill? You be the judge. It’s hard to believe any
newly crowned GM, would have undertaken such a strategy with traditional radio
tools. Rather a smart, proven strategy, that could be formatically tweaked for
maximum advantage…………………. turned a ripple
in a pond, into a Tsunami wave. Stay tuned as Glen and Loyal
Ears take loyalty to the next level with a points program for advertisers ONLY!
|
| « back to news stories |