Making Christmas Last

How To Extend The Great Ratings From December Into The Rest Of The Year

When the all-Christmas music tactic is done correctly, it draws thousands of new listeners to your radio station. For many, all-Christmas results in a lucrative #1 ranker in the month of December-and if you're lucky, the month is successful enough to cause a #1 ranker in the overall Fall Arbitron.

The challenge for most programmers who play all-Christmas is how to extend the success they experience in December into the rest of the year.

Christmas Doesn't Have To Be The End Of Your Big Ratings

Christmas music has wide appeal, and the idea of a radio station playing 100% all-Christmas music is extraordinary to most listeners. As a result, holiday programming lends itself to "mind equity" with listeners. It stands out as different, and it is easily recalled when the time comes to fill out diaries.

If you can achieve high ratings in December, it is possible for you to achieve high ratings the rest of the year too. Make your programming just as remarkable all year as it seems in December, and you'll have remarkable ratings all year just as you do in December.

Go back to the basics and identify what truly makes your radio station distinctive.

What Makes Your Station Famous?

If you were confident in your station strategy prior to Christmas, your plan for post-Christmas/2006 will be easy to define. If you are not confident in your station strategy, your station has some soul searching to do before December 26.

What do you have that makes your station special? What is your "stationality" all about? Whether your offering is a distinctive group of personalities, music that is exclusive to your station, or a feel/essence that can only come from your brand, it's your job to shout this distinction from the mountaintops. Make known what your station is all about. Find creative ways to weave this message into your programming without sounding like just another commercial.

Sell your "stationality" from the listener's perspective. If you were to ask your audience why they would tune into your station over all others, what would they say? THAT is your calling card.

Using Christmas As A Springboard

Now that you have so many new listeners in the door, and your station is #1 for the month, how can you maximize your performance and extend it beyond the holiday season?

Some stations that use the all-Christmas music tactic in December introduce up to 45% new cume to their radio station inside of four weeks. This is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen your brand identity. While trial listeners are "in the store," spend time efficiently re-introducing your radio station. What will your station be after Christmas?

If you are an Adult Contemporary station all year, air promos that reintroduce you as the "at work" contemporary music station. Invite people to meet the personalities on your station-or rekindle a relationship with a personality to whom they formerly listened.

In most markets, Arbitron will show you that the 12PM hour has become one of the top five highest "Persons Using Radio" (PUR) hours. The noon hour represents an opportunity to catch abundant dial traffic. One of my clients with a well-loved local morning show has the morning show hosts on during the lunch hour with a "Christmas Shoppers Lunch."

During this hour of commercial-free Christmas music (all spots underwritten by a local advertiser), the morning show hosts introduce listener-requested Christmas songs. In a subtle way, they are also reintroducing and reinforcing their characters and cross-promoting the morning show.

Reintroduce the key benefits and features of your station while you're still playing continuous Christmas music.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

When December 26 comes around, remember that you have up to 45% of your audience tuning in and auditioning your station-deciding whether it is still for them now that you are no longer playing the Christmas music they enjoyed.

It is essential that you are playing audience favorites if you intend to retain your Christmas audience.

Consider playing 100% power songs following Christmas until January 5. Then, return to a cautiously sorted music library. Make sure there are no renegade songs in your library. Check and double-check to ensure that you're playing the hits and playing them often. If you are unsure of the hits, consider purchasing a "safelist" of music from a consultant or research firm.

Keep in mind that listeners hear your station in small pockets. Every 15 minutes should be representative of your overall product or "center sound." That counts for Christmas music and non-Christmas alike. Playing an unbalanced quarter-hour of instrumental, religious, or pop-remake Christmas songs may cause listeners to think that your Christmas library is something other than what you intended to convey.

Your Free Prize

As Seth Godin says about cereal in his book Free Prize Inside, there are too many brands and not enough shelf space now for cereal to bring in the cash it did in the past. One remaining attribute that makes a cereal stand out and offer something over-and-above the other brands is the free prize you find inside the box.

The same is true for radio. The dial is full, and there are far too many entertainment options for your station to stand out by merely "playing music for the target."

What is your "free prize inside?" What remarkable experience does a listener get from your radio station that they don't get from anywhere else?

Most radio stations playing all-Christmas offer family listening as a free prize inside. What says "family" and "community" more than Christmas music? If listeners feel that you are providing an experience for their family-and that in using your station they are part of something that benefits their quality of life, they will return with loyalty.

Sell the benefits of all-Christmas music (family, community, spirit, etc) and draw connections to parts of your programming that validate this family-safe promise all year long. Run promos that sell the family-safe atmosphere of your morning show, for instance.

Planning For A New Year

At McVay Media, we work with a programming model of Music, Information/News, Personalities, and Promotions/Marketing. Start with each of these compartments and look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in each area. This is as good a time as any to start seizing new opportunities in the marketplace and closing potential vulnerabilities of your product. As always, we're here to help you author your success story. May your holidays be merry and bright!