I’ve cracked it. The thing we’ve all be searching for, for all this time. It’s called “How to increase your ratings in one easy step!”
Here is the step.
1. Announce that the station may be closing
2. Err... that’s it!
There will be outcry that the much beloved ‘jewel on the radio dial’ would be sorely missed. Campaigns will be started, Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags will be in surplus and all the kerfuffle will cause a massive surge of interest in your station.
Economic theory shows us that often when something is in short supply, then demand increases. So, more and more people will then tune in to see what they’re about to lose, and hey presto... ratings increase by 50%!!
‘Surely some sort of drug fuelled fantasy caused by an overload of rolling news and too many late nights Nik’... I hear you say? Well – no... not really. Look at the following graph I borrowed from the lovely Media UK.
Here is the step.
1. Announce that the station may be closing
2. Err... that’s it!
There will be outcry that the much beloved ‘jewel on the radio dial’ would be sorely missed. Campaigns will be started, Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags will be in surplus and all the kerfuffle will cause a massive surge of interest in your station.
Economic theory shows us that often when something is in short supply, then demand increases. So, more and more people will then tune in to see what they’re about to lose, and hey presto... ratings increase by 50%!!
‘Surely some sort of drug fuelled fantasy caused by an overload of rolling news and too many late nights Nik’... I hear you say? Well – no... not really. Look at the following graph I borrowed from the lovely Media UK.
Those of you not familiar with BBC 6 Music, it’s a national DAB station playing an eclectic mix of new music and cooler classics. The BBC have threatened to close it as I’ve talked about it on this blog before. And hey presto... after the announcement, the latest figures out this week, show a huge rise is both listening share and reach. The ratings have rocketed!
So there we go. How to increase your ratings in one easy step!
**Disclaimer – Do NOT try this at your radio station. Your radio station may be at risk if you do not keep up investment in content or fail to apply appropriate levers to generate audience.
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3 comments:
Shame Pennine FM followed through with the threat before they could reap the benefits.
What's even more interesting about 6Music's figures is that the survey period was January 4th to March 28th, yet the announcement about 6M's possible closure wasn't made until March 2nd.
So if all those extra 328,000 listeners and 4 million hours have been because of the threatened closure then they've been gained in just under a month.
Taking into account these figures are averaged over the 3-monthly period the actual number of listeners could be much higher.
I think we'll get a more-accurate figure next time around (4th August).
Shame it didn't work for Asian Network...
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