As the new year begins, many people will make personal resolutions to do more recycling in 2013. Recycling is good for the environment and is also good for station ratings.
A recent study looked at audience recycling patterns for the five top-rated stations in the 10 largest markets. The results show that, just as there are many different rules and regulations for recycling your household waste, there is also more than one way to bring listeners back to stations during the course of the day or week.
Vertical recycling is a fancy name for enticing listeners to tune back into stations later the same day. If they listen in the morning while they are driving, it’s about getting them to tune in at their desk during middays or to check back in when they drive home.
Convincing them to come back might not be easy, but the results of success are worth the effort. Listeners who tune to only one daypart only account for 11 percent of a station’s total week ratings, while those who tune to three or more dayparts make up nearly 60 percent.
| Top 1- Stations | One Daypart | Two Dayparts | Three+ Dayparts |
|---|---|---|---|
| % of Full Week AQH | 11% | 31% | 58% |
| AQH--Average quarter hour . |
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Remembering that occasions of listening are one of the keys to ratings success in the portable people meter (PPM), these findings reinforce the importance of bringing listeners back throughout the day. Those that do make a habit of tuning three, four, or five times a day have a huge impact on the station’s overall numbers regardless of which dayparts they tune into.
If vertical recycling is the art of attracting listeners back later in the day, horizontal is getting them to come back the next day and the day after that. Helping listeners build habits that bring them back day after day is another powerful ratings driver. Fifty-eight percent of top rated stations’ total AQH for adults 18-34 comes from listeners tuning 4-5 days a week and for adults 25-54 the number rises to 66 percent.
| Demographic | % of Daily Cume tuning 4-5 days/week | % of AQH tuning 4-5 days/week |
|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-34 | 23% | 58% |
| Adults 25-54 | 27% | 66% |
Radio programmers should consider different strategies to try to get listeners to come back just one more time today, or one more day this week. The results will be more than worth the time and energy put into it.