Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Lund Letter

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   Sexy promos
>   Debug your music clocks
>   Fall ratings countdown
>   And the latest media trends

Lund Management Alert: Making Your Promos More Effective 

friendstalking18.jpgThe All-Access job ads often say, “No liner card readers.”  So what’s an air talent to do?  Merely reading the promo verbatim is due to lack of preparation and the fear of leaving something vital out.  Promos can extend Time Spent Listening and secure additional Listening Occasions.  Consider these promo goals when coaching talents:

1.   Relate to the listener like you are talking to a friend; speak one to one.

2.   Achieve the purpose of the promo – to get them to tune in at another time, attend an event, play a contest, etc.

Delivering live promos effectively is an art.  Here are our guidelines:

Prepare and edit.  Read pertinent details, but eliminate statistics.  Numbers add verbiage diluting the main point.  Edit out generic phrases like “prizes,” “giveaways,” “tickets,” “passes,” “Family Four Packs,” “gift card,” etc.  The event or feature needs a strong description; research the event or contest.   Don’t assume listeners know what the fancy name is – like “Fifth Annual International Festival” or “$5000 ATM” giveaway.   Unless required for sales, eliminate lists.

Perk attention in the first few words and start with the benefit.  Avoid starting with phrases like “we have,” “I got,” “Q102 has,” “your morning show will be” or the name of the event, “it’s the Tenth Annual Festival of the Woods.”  It’s much more effective to begin with “you,” like “you and three of your friends can be sitting in the front row to see Drake.”  Those initial words are more effective than “Q102 has a Four Pack of Drake Front Row Tickets.” Your opening line is the hook designed to engage your audience rapidly.

Keep it short; 10 seconds is a good copy length.  Retention is more difficult when copy extends beyond 15 seconds.

End with the call to action; don’t start with it.  End with listening at a specific time, going to the station website for more info, or the date and venue of an event.

Don’t just read the promo; sell it – like you’re endorsing it to a friend.  Enthusiasm goes a long way in engaging the audience.  If your delivery shows the message will be beneficial to a friend, you’ve achieved the two goals outlined at the beginning.

nebraska18.pngWould you like to know more about managing programming?  Whether you are the GM, Market Manager, or Program Director, John Lund can create a workshop for your group or broadcast convention.  If you are with a radio station in Nebraska, John Lund is a featured speaker today at the Nebraska Broadcast Convention in Lincoln, and looks forward to meeting you!  Sessions include “Radio’s Newest Trends” and “Changing Consumer Media Habits for TV and Radio.”  For more information, contactJohn Lund.

Lund Programming Clinic: The Music Tune-up

hotclock2105.jpgMusic is the #1 reason people listen to FM music stations.  One place to improve your music is the actual clocks you assemble for each hour in your music software.  The hourly clock represents how listeners “sample” your station.

>   Look for obvious problems like a cluster of all current or all older music.  Each 15 minutes should be representative of your format.

>   Fill songs should be in drop positions.  You want to lose the weaker songs, not the best-tested titles.

>   Are some clock hours overfilled with songs you will never play?  Drop them!
Prime hours deserve prime songs.  Take your lesser songs to the hours with less critical mass.

>   Use proportional and random positions to break predictability.

>   Look for any hidden clock rules that may be leftovers from past PDs, like specific artist, era, or tempo filters.

>   Stopset markers can reset rules in scheduling.  You can control tempo more effectively with the first song after each stopset or an hour-opening song.

>   Check clocks against each other for balance and consistency of your sound.

Coming next week: Controlling Music Rules and Policies

How’s Your Music?  How’s Your Software?

tuneup18.jpgPlaying the right songs and managing your music software controls are vital to a station’s success.  Lund Media can assist you with a comprehensive music review and software tune-up.  We’ll conduct a complete analysis of your active playlist along with every aspect of your music software – rules, clocks, and rotations.   We also provide a quick turn-around.

Capitalize on the very thing listeners want most – the best researched music played in the best rotation for your target demo.  Email John Lund for details and timetable, mention you saw this in the Lund Letter, and receive $500 off the cost of a one-time music review and follow-up service.

Promotion of the Week: $1,000 Workday Payoff

workdaypayoff18.jpgListeners enter their names in the contest (and join the station’s listener club – database – if not on it already).  Entrants listen every day from the beginning of the morning show to the end of the workday for their name to be called.  Once it is, they have ten minutes to call in and win the $1,000.

The best radio contests of all time include Secret Sound and Hi-Lo, and they are detailed in the Lund Contest and Promotions Guide, along with 200 more contests and sales promotions.  This is the most comprehensive radio contest collection ever published.  Click here to order your copy.

Lund’s Top 3:  Fall Ratings Insurance 

ThTop3B.jpge fall Nielsen diary sweep begins September 13 (five weeks from tomorrow).  Here are a few programming strategies to help your station expand listening this fall.

1.   Be the listener’s best friend and deliver improved engagement.

2.   Always contemporize your brand to get younger listeners and to generate more buzz and social media attention.

3.   Talk to a listener who is at least a decade younger than your target. Older adults will listen to a younger sounding station, but when you sound older, the opposite is not true.

Continues next week in the Lund Letter.  Visit www.lundradio.com for more Top 3’s!

Are you marketing to General Managers or Program Directors and want to reach the 9,400+ readers of the Lund Letter? Email John Lund.


This Week’s Music:

brettyoung18.jpgLast week’s chart leaders are holding on to the top spots again this week.  The top hits: Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” (CHR and Hot AC), Brett Young’s “Mercy” (Country), Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” (Bright AC) and Weezer’s cover of “Africa” (Alternative).  Lund clients receive weekly music research information on current music plus regular updates on the best-testing recurrent and gold titles.


Lund Trend Watch:


Millennials Boost Best Buy

bestbuy18.jpgMillennials spend more of their shopping dollars online than any other demographic, according to Bloomberg.  This young demo is more likely to buy “gadgets” via Best Buy’s online store than Amazon’s.  Best Buy’s online revenue was 16% of its total in 2017, up from 7% in 2012.

Brick-and-Mortar Bed-in-a-Box

casper18.jpegTraditional mattress sales have been suffering (Mattress Firm has been in the headlines lately, and not in a good way).  Online bed-in-a-box startup Casper is doing great, however.  The popular mattress and bedding retailer allows purchasers 100 days to test their mattress with purported no-hassle returns for those who don’t like it.  This and temporary pop-up stores where people could see the company’s products (which now includes dog beds) have made Casper one of the most popular online mattress sellers.  The company recently opened their first permanent physical store in New York City and plans to open 200 more around the country.


Programmer’s Planner:
Here is a list of actions this week for the proactive program director:

Today, 8/15
crazyrichasians18.jpgWebsite Wednesday.  Make sure all your talent pages are up to date.  Make it easy for listeners to find their favorite personality: list all daypart info including days and exact times.
Movie Premiere – Crazy Rich Asians.

Thurs., 8/16
Summer diary ratings week #9 begins; four weeks until the start of the fall diary ratings (and the October PPM; 9/13).  The first week of the September PPM starts.
Confirm marketing schedules and placement to get exposure and inspire new tune-in.

Fri., 8/17
Meet with department heads; discuss programming goals for fall.  Identify and resolve potential conflicts.
Facebook Friday.  Does your page include exclusive content?  Do you use a benefit to link back to the station website or the stream?
Streaming Premieres – Netflix has a full slate of premieres, including special Magicalpha18.jpgfor Humans, documentary Minding the Gap, returning kids animation Spirit: Riding Free, new adult animation Disenchantment from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, and movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Movie Premieres – Alpha and Mile 22.

Sat.-Sun., 8/18-19
This weekend, scrutinize weekend programming, features, and voice-track shows. Schedule a review with each talent next week.
Labor Day Weekend in the US is in two weeks (8/31-9/3).  How are you working it?
TV Premieres – Saturday, HBO expands its children’s programming with new educational series Esme & Roy.  Sunday, Showtime debuts music documentary Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow.

Mon., 8/20
Make this “Combat the Competition” Monday!  Conduct a thorough competitive review, noting changes in the market (and their effect on your station) and any weaknesses you may have noticed.

Tues., 8/21
Today’s programming meeting… How to write and deliver an effective station promo…using the suggestions in the article above.
mtvvmas18.pngTwitter Tuesday.  Are you replying to tweets?  Requests for info should be fulfilled, inflammatory remarks should be ignored (and the commenters blocked).
TV Specials – CBS has Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool.  The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards air on that channel.

Important Upcoming Events: Back to School, Hurricane Season, and the fall ratings sweep

Marketing Builds Audience, But Doesn’t Have To Be Costly

NoCost18.pngT
he Lund No-Cost Marketing Guide provides over 200 ways to build audience for no cost.  Want to grab a bigger share of remote dollars?  Want to generate revenue while marketing for more listeners?   Put these tactics to use at your station…and provide a big bang for no bucks.  Get our No Cost Marketing Guide.


Thanks for reading
The Lund Letter
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About the Lund Media Group:

For over 20 years, the Lund Media Group has provided programming, music consulting, operational guidance, and research to commercial and public broadcaststations throughout North America and overseas. Whether you program all sports, all tjclforLL.pngalk, or all music, the Lund Goal is to help stations get more listeners and keep them listening longer. The Lund Consultants are a multi-format custom programming and management consultancy. 

C
all John Lund for more information about how the Lund Media Group can help your stations achieve more listeners, higher ratings, and more revenue.
Phone: 650-692-7777.
Email john@lundradio.com