Archive for category: Planet Reynolds

A couple of weeks ago, former Coach Tim Walz asked me to sit next to him at a high school football game in my hometown of Raleigh – he bought me popcorn.  JD Vance stopped over last week to see if I owned any cats.  Kamala’s coming by on Thursday for coffee (I hear she likes a splash of hazelnut).  Trump wants me to stop by the Applebee’s on Hillsborough Street next week to look at some discounted watches.

I live in one of the seven purple states that will decide who the next president will be.  They are here All.  The.  Time.  Asking for my vote.  It’s powerful to be a purple person!

Retail politics (showing up and asking for the vote) is something we’ve gotten away from in radio.  It’s now a powerful differentiator for shows and stations that truly are live and local.  Having actual eye contact, shaking the hands of fans and asking those who aren’t to try out your show.

If you’re a talent who desperately wants to win even more, create space with your competitor with a year-long commitment to meeting fans and would-be listeners in your market.

Here’s what I’d love you to consider:  develop a 2025 campaign to do just that.  Maybe call it One Hundred Thousand High Fives or Fifty Thousand Fist Bumps.  Or come up with your own name.  Then bring it to sales to find a title sponsor so they can make some money (you’ll be more valuable to the cluster if you do).  Then commit to do it twice a month.

Do you need to actually fist bump 50,000 people?  Nope.  But craft in-person appearances to meet as many people as you can.  Your competitor won’t and it will be a difference-maker for you.

Hint:  don’t ask them to come to you.  The “I’ll be at Jiffy Lube this Saturday from 9-11” won’t work.  Ain’t no one going out of their way just to meet you.  Instead, where are people you can go to?  Set up outside an arena before a big game or concert.  Find the busiest intersection with foot traffic and go there at lunch for a half hour.

I know we ask a lot of you as talent.  And I also know what you’re thinking.  You won’t be paid for this. But meeting as many people as you can (wherever they are) and asking them to give you a shot works.  That makes you more powerful as a talent because of the higher ratings and revenue opportunity you created.  Those will be your wins.

I’m not sure who’ll get North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes.  But whoever does, it’ll be because they were here a lot paying attention to us purple people.

You do that, too, and watch what happens.

Apple has new devices for sale.  Even though they’re one of the world’s most recognizable brands, they’ll still market the hell out of them.

This week, let’s tackle marketing your morning show.  No, I’m not gonna suggest you buy a TV campaign and billboards (even though they could probably use them).  You don’t have the resources, and I know that.  So, I’ll save the space.

But let’s engage on how you use your station to promote your premiere talent and their shows.  Namely, promos.

I love when brand managers decide to run promos.  The question I always ask is:  what are you going to promote?  What’s our marketing message?  I tend to get back a mish mash of everything:

“Let’s promote their next day’s content.”  Or “we’ll talk about the prizes they have to give out.”  Or “we should do some character development outside the daypart, so the audience knows who’s on the show.”  I get several other suggestions.  None with a strategic theme that helps the show win.

I’ve learned much over the years about show promos.  My thinking on this has evolved more than anything else associated with its success.  Let me wade through all the options.  Most of them are promo no no’s.  I’ll land on the one I think is most viable.

1. Let’s promote the plot of the show. This is a “promo no” because this is too esoteric for the audience to get.  It’s just words to those hearing it.  They must consume the plot in action to feel it.  Think:  if you saw a promo that Seinfeld was “the show about nothing” you’d scratch your head.  But watch it and you get it.
2. Let’s promote our characters. This is a “promo no”, even with clips.  It’s so hard to feel someone in the short time allotted to promos.  How can I get what you’re all about in a 20 second clip from the show?  I really need to hear the story or break in real time to get a sense of who you are.
3. Let’s have the station voice tell the audience how fun and real the show is. This is a “promo no”.  I worry all the audience hears is hype and hyperbole.
4. Let’s tell the audience the content they’ll do tomorrow. This is a “promo no” because free flowing content breaks are not appointment listening.  One minute after you’ve told them, thousands of other messages bombard their brain and they’ve forgotten what you said.  And anyway, it’s not likely I’m coming back tomorrow because you’re doing a phone topic at 7:30 or will read that letter about the relationships drama at 8:15.  If you’re really, really, really doing something unique and special tomorrow, this doesn’t apply – promote that!
5. Let’s promote the prizes you can win tomorrow. This is a “promo definitely no”.  That promo talks to only contest players, which is about 2% of your audience.  We need to worry about earning images with the other 98% and that’s about content.
6. Let’s run clips of the show to reinforce images. Hmmm…I’ll take it.  Any promo that proves via clips how fun things are, how real the talent is, how relevant the content is, or how unique/different the show is will work.
7. Let’s promote the show’s signature feature – the guaranteed moment everyone loves and is entertained by. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.  We have a winner!  Every show needs to be known for something.  If your signature feature works then promote the hell out of it every hour.  Burn it in further.  Make sure 100% of your cume knows of this fun daily benchmark.  The more who know, the better your images, the more tune-ins.

Promos can play to one’s head (“we’re going to do this thing tomorrow at this time”) or one’s heart (I have an emotional reaction).  Play to their hearts with promos.  Make them feel something so it resonates:  I don’t like the brand of car I drive.  I love it.  My laptop doesn’t just get the job done.  I love my MacBook Pro.  Go for that.

Human beings are not logical creatures.  We are emotional beings.  Emotional attachment forms relationships. Continue to build your one thing and make me feel it.  I promise it’ll work.

Number seven is the smartest route because every positive image earned from a signature feature transfers to the show.  If the feature is fun and relevant, so is your talent.

Good things come to people who focus.  If we do a combo of the above, none of it will stick (and much of it is non-strategic).  But if we put all the klieg lights on one thing (your big thing), then it stands its best chance of cutting through, being remembered, and having a positive impact for you and the show.

I live in a house addicted to Penzeys Spices.  At last count, we have 193 of them.  A dedicated drawer for spices with the overflow on several shelves in the pantry.  Just when you think you have all of them, four more show up in the mail.

One of the things that draws us to the Penzeys brand is that the owner (or marketing people) send funny emails centered around topical news items in their effort to sell us more spices.  Almost all of them make us laugh.  The most recent, seen here, is titled “’C’” Is For Cat Lady”.  Any spice starting with the letter “c” is on sale.

It’s a simple, but brilliant marketing move that places staid, boring spices into the national conversation.  It cost nothing more than a creative mind to conceive and put together.

How about your radio show?  How do you do there?

Great radio is about whatever is going on right now.  I listen around the dial and hear way too much evergreen radio.  Topics that could work as well next Wednesday as they do today.  Stuff that feels like it’s mostly from a prep service.  And all of it is a C+ to me.

When Leno and Letterman were in reruns, they’d air a show from years prior.  Until they realized two things:  the comedy and conversations on those shows were very dated (and it stood out).  They also got that the typical viewer didn’t watch every program.  So, when in reruns, they started airing shows from a few weeks before.  Because those topics, guests, and comedy pieces were still relevant.

If we air the show you did today in two weeks, would it feel “dated”?  If so, it really, really work today.  Go for that.

Be about right now in your topic choices.  This blog is about right now and that’s the sweet spot.

We have way more cumin in the house than we know what to do with.  If you need any, let me know?

We all have a dreaded disease Big Pharma has yet to bombard our TV with ads.  IBS is Instant Boredom Syndrome.  We get bored quickly with everything.

The most critical part of a content break is its start.  In its first few seconds, listeners are making conscious and unconscious decisions:  is this topic interesting to me?  Do I care about it?  Is it entertaining?  Yes, and they stay for a few.  No and we lose them in some fashion.  Each of us do, too, when consuming content.  Which brings me to Wheel of Fortune.

It’s the most popular game on television whose ratings have not eroded over the years.  This, in part, was due to the affable Pat and Vanna but also because of its design.

It’s highly familiar, which plays in its favor.  It’s mind-candy, too (not very taxing after a long day at work).  But over the years, it’s evolved.  Because we have changed as viewers.

I talked about this in the blog I Learned How to Do Radio From Pat Sajak and Porn.  In it, I note how Wheel re-designed the beginning of the game years ago to hook us more quickly because we all have IBS.  Once the letters start appearing on Vanna’s board, that’s when we’re in as viewers.

Need proof?  Here are two video clips.  The first is an early Wheel when they started the program by showcasing the prizes to win (not the prizes I couldn’t win as a viewer, of course), then an intro of Pat and Vanna, then the worst part, the interview with the contestants.  Watch this and see they don’t make this about us (we want the puzzles, the puzzles!!) until 3:01.  I don’t care about any of this as a viewer.  They’re giving me many reasons to depart.  All of it delays my win, which is guessing the puzzle before the three contestants.  Then watch the newer show after the redesign.  The first letter in the first puzzle appears at :31.

Here’s Wheel of Fortune from yesteryear with a whole lot of This Doesn’t Matter to Me.  IBS is killer.  Take note of when your Instant Boredom Syndrome kicks in.

Now here’s Wheel of Fortune today, with a much faster start and hook for those of us watching.

Some radio shows continue to put listeners through process and promotional stuff at the beginning of breaks, delaying the actual content (whether a story or game or interview or other substantive content), eroding listeners’ interest and inviting them to stop paying attention.

Listeners come for content so let’s engage them there almost immediately, before their IBS kicks in.  In your prep, spend the most amount of time figuring out how to engage the audience the quickest so what you do in your first twenty seconds makes them want to hear the twenty seconds after that.

When airchecking shows, I sometimes play “The 20 Second Game”.  We listen to just the first twenty seconds of a content break and for one purpose.  Is enough done to hold on to the listener for another twenty seconds?  Don’t be version #1 of Wheel above.  Be version #2.  Your fans will renew their interest for more of that content and stick around.

Show these videos to your talent to help them get to it quickly so fans don’t mentally drift.  We are given precious few seconds to grab the audience.  Let’s not disrespect that lest their IBS appear and they move on to another available choice for connection, content, and entertainment.

Some stations launch new shows and get themselves into trouble from Day One.

The show or management believe the show needs to start with a big giveaway and trumpets blowing announcing that a new show is in town, and they immediately set themselves up to fail.

You start a new show like it’s a new restaurant in town – soft launches with no attention allow everyone to get comfortable, develop chemistry, and not highlight there’s a change.  Listeners don’t like change – that disruption in their expectations and routine should be done with lots of handholding to help listeners through the newness.  A managed opening strategy and patience work in your favor short- and long-term to hold on to the audience.

My phone tends to ring in only two scenarios:  there’s a new show about to launch and it must be started strategically.  Or the show is in the latter stages of its life cycle, and it needs to be re-invigorated.  Let’s talk in this Planet Reynolds how to do the former.

Your primary goal upon launch is to endear yourself to the cume already there.  Losing them is expensive to get back.  Here are nine guidelines as part of a strategic plan I share with new teams just starting on the station:

1. Topics (and music) should be familiar because the talent isn’t. Nothing unfamiliar for content. Topics come from:  local (if you are a live and local show), pop (popular) culture, stories from your life that prove you’re just like them, and music/artist-based content.  We all wake up and want to be around what we know.  Because you aren’t familiar, drive that through your topics. If not, the audience will have to put in effort and that rarely works out.
2. Affirm and earn images that you’re fun, genuine, friendly, and authentic in every break. They know if you’re faking it.
3. Character development is very important. Here’s where all your connection points are.  Introduce yourself by being honest and sharing the parts of your life that help you connect.  Letting them get to know you helps form that connection which leads to becoming familiar.  Can the audience relate to the story you’re telling because they’ve had a similar experience?  We like to be around people just like us.  Feed that desire.
4. Be interested in them so they’re interested in you. Lots of phones, lots of storytelling. But land on putting the focus on the audience.  You will never lose being more interested in their story than you hoping they’ll be interested in yours.
5. Avoid the point-of-fatigue that happens in breaks by under-staying the welcome. Shorter breaks lead them to wanting more. Longer breaks test the patience of those there, heightening the chance they’ll bail.  This is worse with breaks that are just chatter and have no destination or payoff.
6. Music is your friend right now. Lots of music holds their hand through the transition. It also folds you into the brand of the radio station.
7. Be careful how you do your strategic content, so listeners don’t think, “They’re trying too hard to impress me.” Ever see someone at a party trying to prove how funny or interesting they are?  Don’t be that guy.
8. Respect the past. What expectations did listeners have of the previous show and what fits given that? Meet those in every break.
9. No promotion of the show just yet (on or off the air) because promoting something heightens expectations by users. This is a soft, quiet launch. Elevate expectations by telling listeners how great/funny you are, and the audience will say, “Not as good as they tell me they are.”  Lower expectations and there’s a much better chance they’ll warm up to you faster.

We often want to call attention to change.  But when we add in the hype machine in a world where consumers are skeptical of all that, we set ourselves at a deficit.

While there are exceptions to the above, the game plan for me on stuff like this is to start quietly so we tee the show up for longer term image building and success.