As you can gather from the not-so-subtle, cheesy title of this post, holiday music is in the air, it is already impacting PPM ratings, and it’s just a matter of weeks before the industry trades and Nielsen glowingly report on the stunning story that this end-of-year stunt was wildly successful once again.
But what does success look like when it comes to radio’s obsession with the All-Christmas format?
Last week, Country guru Jaye Albright posted a not-so-cheery message on Twitter that included this chart of PPM markets published in Inside Radio about the impact of holiday music on other formats. Lamenting that Country radio endured an average of 13% lower ratings in both 2012 and 2013 during this festive season, Jaye stated that “For us, it’s not ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’”
No kidding.
And the format roster clearly shows why. While most formats are flat to down, Country appears to have been especially hard these past two Q4s by Burl Ives, Brenda Lee, and The Chipmunks.
Like Jaye, Christmas music stunting is on our radar screens as well, as many rock formatted stations end up with lumps of coal in their ratings stockings. So we devoted a question to holiday music in last year’s Techsurvey10 to gain a more global perspective – the audiences of 199 stations across North America in both PPM and diary markets weighed in on this same issue. Now keep in mind that we’re measuring the audience’s recall of how they listened to in the past season.
Our data shows that nearly a third of our overall sample tuned in Christmas music on the radio at least half the time or more often at this time last year. And the biggest swell of listening occurred among those who are fans of Contemporary Christian Music, as well as Adult Contemporary partisans – the stations that most likely played holiday music to begin with.
Other formats fans that say they spent mass quantities of their radio listening time tuned into seasonal music offerings include Hot AC, Variety Hits, Country (there you go, Jaye), and CHR.
But listeners to all formats – including Active Rock – are impacted, whether it’s the actual listeners who participated in our survey or someone else in the household or the office tuned into holiday music.
So that begs the question about what constitutes success during the December ratings period – or in the case of diary markets, a large chunk of the Fall Book. The industry trades continue to show us ratings results, but isn’t the true measure of an annual mega-event – think the Super Bowl or a major election – a station’s ability to cash in on this annual ratings bonanza in real time when the stunt is taking place.
Unlike a snow storm or an emergency situation that often strikes a market without warning, the impact of Christmas music is predictable. Stations like WNIC in my hometown of Detroit have been presenting wall-to-wall holiday music for many, many years, with consistently strong audience numbers.
And as the data clearly shows, this temporary format flip destabilizes ratings across a wide swatch of formats – including the other stations in the cluster who occupy the same building space. And while the AC and Soft AC stations that go “All Christmas Music” are drinking their egg nog, donning their party hats, and dancing around the conference room in December, what defines a win? In the meantime, the rest of radio is hustling to make up for the losses, while buys in January and February are going to be placed on these seasonal numbers.
Maybe we can learn a little something from brick and mortar stores as well as ecommerce sites during the holiday season. For them, November and December produce an expected and necessary windfall. The National Retail Institute reports that department stores, as well as outlets that specialize in clothes, electronics, and sporting goods, glean an average 13%-15% increase in December business. For jewelry stores, it’s more like 24%. And for all retail stores, the last month of the year shows an average gain of about 10%.
But they never take it for granted. And in fact, most retailers work extra hard to ensure their optimal success during the holiday season. They market, promote, offer deals and specials. They totally redecorate their stores, hire more staff, and gear up for the expected throngs of customers, old and new. They know that it’s crunch time, and they have to do everything they can to get every dollar in their cash registers during this short period of time.
It’s not about January – it’s about generating mega-sales when shoppers are hitting the stores, malls, and ecommerce sites in November and December. That same yardstick ought to be applied to All-Christmas music stations, too.
But are holiday music stations going all-out to lock in revenue during the season? How many actually invest in their famous, end-of-the-year stunt, gearing up by adding staff (especially sales support), offering new packages and ways that retailers and community organizations can participate, and marketing this spiritual steroid in the hope of not only boosting ratings, but adding much-needed revenue to the books?
That may be the true spirit of radio Christmas – not turning markets upside-down for a couple months with ratings that really aren’t reflective of the norm, but delivering the dollars during what should truly be “the most wonderful time of the year.”
You may call “Bah! Humbug!” on me, but if the radio industry at large is going to experience widespread losses because of a six-week stunt, companies and clusters who make that happen ought to have the onus of delivering the dollars when it counts – when credit cards are being swiped billions of times in November and December.
Christmas Post Script: In surfing around station websites for this post, most digital and promotional treatments were pretty typical – gift wrapping in the margins and ornaments on the station logos. But More FM (WBEB) in Philadelphia was doing something very interesting and community-spirited – the Christmas Choir Competition, showcasing school choirs in two different divisions with cash prizes. Think of it as a bracket contest for school children who typically aren’t honored because they’re not playing football or soccer but are making a cultural contribution to their communities. BTW, it’s sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. Bravo, More FM.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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In the midst of doing some off site planning meetings recently, someone said to me “Radio thinks long term is March 2015”
You post expresses that feeling perfectly.
And in fact, Dave, that is part of the problem. There are long-term ramifications to all of this, including those troubling RAB numbers which continue to tell a gnarly quarter by quarter story. Thanks for the comment.
The Choir Competition is a great promotion for a Christmas music station. We just executed our first one on Classic Hits 94.9 WOLX in Madison. Ours culminated with a concert featuring the final four choirs with the best performance winning cash for their organization. It was huge success and is now the signature event of the holiday season.
Dave, thanks for the heads-up on this. I know many other Xmas music stations are doing more than just jamming the top 200 holidays songs ad nauseam, and I applaud you guys for making it a great community effort.
Well said ! While it seems out of the norm to have that perspective in the radio world lol… It makes business sense to execute it that way , and I’m sure there are some smart GMs and Sales managers that do . Hopefully more could use that opportunity down the road because after doing this programming now for a bunch of years it almost seems like an old tired benchmark to sales who would rather leverage it because it’s not a”new fresh “idea”
Maybe internal marketing and selling the sales force could help… Sometimes as you know that’s all that is needed 😉
Have a great holiday Fred !
Frank, thanks for the perspective. In radio, we so often internally tire of things that fans continue to enjoy. The reason that features become iconic, annual events is that they’re popular and fill a need. Now we have to do a better job of sharing these successes with advertisers, and letting them participate in their value. Appreciate your comment.
Next year and beyond, might we see a lot of country stations (unless they’re owned by a company that already has an AZll-Christmas station in that market) go to an All-Country-Music version of the All-Christmas format??
For example, here in Boston, iHeart Media recently launched a country-music station (WBWL/”The Bull”), and while iHeart owns a lot of all-Christmas stations around the nation, they don’t have one in Boston (but Greater Media’s WMJX is all-Christmas during the Holiday season and has been for a couple of years).
Could iHeart next year decide to flip WBWL to a Country version of the All-Christmas format, and perhaps to do it as early as November 1 to get a jump on WMJX or anyone else doing any sort of All-Christmas format in town??
Joseph, interesting questions best left to Country experts, of which I am certainly not one. Jaye Albright is one of the nation’s leading consultants, and I know she’s going to weigh in on this topic in her blog tomorrow. Let’s see how that turns out. Thanks for commenting.