Archive for category: Planet Reynolds

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.

Early one morning last week, a radio friend texted that he’d just boarded a United flight in Traverse City, MI headed to New York through Chicago.  He boasted that the flight would not be delayed because he was sitting in seat 27C and the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was in seat 27E.  I congratulated him on his good fortune.

A half hour later I got another text.  The flight was delayed.  An hour after that, another text that the plane was pushing back.  My friend told me he’d make his connection.  But not so good for Mayor Pete.  He’d miss his flight and needed to find a seat on the next plane to DC.

What does this have to do with radio?  It’s the lesson learned.  How could the Transportation Secretary ever move to fix our air travel issues if he doesn’t live it like we do?  I applaud Buttigieg because he had our experience:  a window seat in coach, a delayed flight, a missed connection, and he was on United Airlines (something everyone should get combat pay for).

If you’re a talent, when was the last time you had the user experience?  When did you last review a break or two of your show to hear what the audience hears?  It would be easy to forget a show after it’s over, but regular reviews (putting ourselves in coach on a delayed flight) we can most easily learn how to be better, so we stay relevant for our fans.

To brand managers – I know you’re incredibly busy, but when was the last time you reviewed audio with your talent, so they grow?  And what exactly are you listening for?

Did we affirm our show’s plot?  Did we reinforce an image of relevancy, humor, or authenticity?  Did we accrue an image that would help us build our brand?  How did we do connecting with the audience?

Athletes do it.  Actors do it.  Those who give speeches do it.  Folks who do Ted Talks do it.

If we don’t do this, we stand a greater chance listeners will choose one of their other dozens of choices if we’re off strategy.  With one push of a button, they have another radio station, they can scroll social media, consume music elsewhere without interruption, listen to a podcast, etc.  So, let’s get better by having their experience and elevating our game.

I know it’s scary and most talent tend to hate it for what it brings up.  I did when I was on-the-air.  But there’s no better way to improve the experience than honing our art by listening to what we offer up as entertainment.

If you’re a talent and your manager is too busy to do this, I will if I’m not competing against you in the market (be in touch here).  We must help each other compete more effectively against all the other choices listeners have.

Our future relevancy is heightened by doing what Mayor Pete did by flying like we regular folks, so he experiences air travel like us.  If he feels our pain, he can fix our pain.

A simple, but epic decision so we can make things better for those who choose us.

Café Luna is a lovely Italian restaurant at the corner of Blount and Hargett Streets in downtown Raleigh, where I live.  I went there so much I was a P1.  Until that day I realized I hadn’t been in years.  Let me explain why and what that means to you.

When it opened, it was one of the few eateries in downtown Raleigh as they worked on growing that area of town.  Its food was terrific.  Parker, the host, always found you a table if you were a walk-in, and the basket of bread was to die for.  Until…

I haven’t been to Café Luna in years because they got repositioned.  A Laotian restaurant opened over here.  An upscale Mexican restaurant over there.  Just down the street there’s a place that majored in tapas.  All that delicious choice made me stray.  My A.D.D. and desire to be hip and cool made me sample other restaurants and, years later, I haven’t been back to Café Luna.  When I head downtown, I always look at the menu in their window.  It hasn’t changed in years.  That was the problem.  Over time, Luna’s dependability and predictable menu was leveraged against it by new competition.  Maybe they thought that their experience didn’t need to evolve because they were so popular.

Now let’s talk about your menu.

There have been times over the years where I have been asked to help launch a show against an entrenched brand.  Reis and Trout’s 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing says that a product’s greatest strength becomes its greatest weakness.  To start, I study the established show and try to flip all their strengths on them.  If they have been around forever, I try to turn that into them being predictable and boring.  If they are nothing more than mostly chatter or keep doing the same things over and over again, our strategy is to do different things with relevant content that positions us as fresh.  If they haven’t had any talent changes in years, I make them sound old.  You get the deal.

I hear too many shows that want to get on and do not much more than talk.  We must be strategic in choosing our content but focus more on the treatment of that content to create an experience for fans that will make them want to come back again.  That takes prep and work.  Had Luna only changed its menu to offer new things that fit, right?

So many shows are fearful of change.  They think they can’t (or shouldn’t) innovate.  Which is dead wrong.  If you’re a tenured show, the audience will trust you and be less inclined to bail if something doesn’t work.

Remember, what got you here, won’t necessarily get you there.

The great Joni Mitchell once told Rolling Stone magazine: “You have two options.  You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success.  If you do, they’re going to crucify you for staying the same.  If you change, they’re going to crucify you for changing.  But staying the same is boring.  And change is interesting.  So, of the two options, I’d rather be crucified for changing.”

Leaders make art and artists lead.

I’m not suggesting you overhaul your show if you’ve been around a while.  I am suggesting that you don’t operate in a vacuum.  If you keep doing the same old stuff, some show will come in and reposition you like Café Luna and, in the face of competition, listeners will spend less time with you.  If you’re still hanging your hat on old ideas like Two Lies and a Truth and Try It Tuesday, you face potential boredom from your fans and a vulnerability that a smarter, more innovative show up or down the dial or somewhere online could take advantage of.

Life is change.  Growth is optional.  If you rest, you rust.

Everything truly evolves.  Staying still isn’t an option.  For any of us.