What If The Ratings Disappeared?

The big story at the end of last week raised interest from the audience acquisition and retention community. Cumulus Media is taking Nielsen to federal court, claiming the ratings giant has been using its grip on radio audience data to squeeze out competitors and jack up prices.

This post isn’t about the lawsuit. This is a What If? blog.

What if all ratings analysis for Radio/TV/Podcasts, heaven forbid, even social media, were paused for a season? You know, kinda like a government shutdown. How would you know if someone is listening or watching your content?

How would the sales and donor-development departments pitch potential clients and supporters? “Crunching the numbers” wouldn’t be available to tell your story. It’s a fantasy because anything involving commerce has an analysis component.

However, let’s play in the imaginary space for a moment and ask these questions about our brands:

If you’re at a party and someone asks you what do you, can you explain it? The test isn’t when you divulge your title or industry. The tough part comes when your new friend holding a plastic plate of air fryer appetizers asks my favorite follow-up question: “I don’t know much about that. Tell me more.”

Radio colleagues, can you explain how your stations and the digital assests are different? Can you explain why the morning show is fun or entertaining? How would you explain your music format? Country, Classic Rock, Christian, Hip/Hop and Top 40 are easy to explain. But how do you describe the wide variety of music genres and decades played on a Mainstream AC, Rhythmic AC, Adult Hits, or Americana station?

Does your staff really know the genre differences? Do they know the Top 5 most played artists? The Top 3 songs you’re rotating this week? All staff. Programming, Sales, Promotions, Engineering, even HR.

Spoken word formats can be explained easily if it’s conservative talk programming or sports. But can your staff explain why those hosts are different, compelling, controversial and entertaining? What about all that block programming on the weekend?

It seems obvious, but we often assume the obvious.

There’s a difference between knowing a product and closing the deal with ratings information versus understanding the product and closing the deal or gaining a new listener with our passion.

I’m certain the display of passion, real or imagined, would increase immediately if we were selling a product’s effectiveness without ratings information. Therefore, it makes sense right now, when you have all the tools, to empower your teams with the knowledge of why a brand is special or unique.

If we wouldn’t recommend a station, a stream or a podcast to the person at that party, then we haven’t effectively studied the benefits of our products. You don’t have to like Country music to know why someone who enjoys Country music should listen to your station. However, you should know when something sounds great and is creating an experience for the listener.

This may be the most important question, and the least fun, for the leaders. If they traded me to another team tomorrow, what would I tell my new team about my former team’s weaknesses? It’s easier when you’re rebuilding. “Hey, we’re 15th. Give me a moment to fix it.” You know what’s wrong, or hopefully you do. You just need some time to research and rearrange.

It’s tougher when you’re winning, but that’s the time to ask, “Where are we weak?” What happens when you lose the highly rated morning show? Is the brand strong enough to endure the revenue setback while you’re building a new show?

Has your strong heritage position gone unchallenged? Sit on the other side of the table. How would you compete against your music or spoken word format? If you can’t find anything, you’re not asking the right questions.

Ratings and data are essential, and it will always be contested and commoditized. But imagine…use your movie trailer voice here… In a world without ratings, you have to tell the story based on what comes out of the speakers and devices. If the ratings go away tomorrow, the thriving brands will be the ones who know their story… and tell it with conviction.

It starts with finding the story. Who knows, maybe the story would get more interesting. We might be more concerned about the impact of the storyline’s effect on creating fans and followers.