WHY “NEVER MORE THAT TWO SPOTS IN A ROW” DOESN’T WORK

Chris Byrnes

There has been some talk recently about a concept that is enjoying great success in three major markets in Australia. A British company, DMG conducted extensive research and found that radio listeners were fatigued by hearing too many commercial messages. So they launched radio stations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth called NOVA with the promise of never playing more than two spots in a row. What a novel idea… conduct research and give the listeners exactly what they want! But there is a lot more to this story and to NOVA’s early success, than simply playing fewer commercials.

David Rogerson, Managing Director of Sydney based Strategic Media Solutions, says “You really need to hear how NOVA puts it together as it does not conform to the concept of how we normally structure stop sets. On NOVA you will not hear call sign, back announce, time call, forward promote, into ad break, jingle then back into song.”

The ads are weaved into the music breaks and structured so that they are part of the free flowing format of the station. The music also creates an "environment" in which the ads sit. NOVA has definitely thought outside the box here, and in that sense really does live up to its positioning statement of "sounds different". Even within itself, this is a departure from ‘X songs in a row,’ or ‘best music mix,’ or ‘Sydney's best rock’ etc. You can listen on-line at www.nova969.com.au. Consultant, George Johns used this idea somewhat successfully in the early 80's at KVIL in Dallas. Of course there were fewer stations to compete with and no real niche radio then, so it did OK.

NOVA has limited themselves to a maximum of five breaks an hour, but frequently runs less, and of course never more than two commercials in a row. This results in NOVA playing less than half the spots run by any other station. Their competitors play up to ten spots in a break, two breaks an hour. Some stations are playing three breaks an hour with up to eight spots in a break.

Dean Buchanan, a fellow New Zealander and a very smart programmer, is DMG’s group PD based in Sydney. He says “We have been able to demonstrate that not only is this strategy a huge benefit for listeners, but an effective new weapon for advertisers. In simple terms, listeners recall more advertising in the low clutter "NOVA environment" compared to the traditional ‘high clutter’ environment. That is - the ads get heard and work – ‘effectiveness and impact’ is a new advertising currency and language in Australia.”

On the surface it seems like a wonderful idea, and it took just two and a half years for NOVA to make it to #1 in Sydney. Melbourne's NOVA 100 is #1 under 40 after 23 months and NOVA 937 in Perth is the leading station under 35 after 11 months. But here are a few things you might want to consider before trying this at home kids.

• While New Zealand has one of the highest radio station densities per capita in the world, Australia is at the other end of the scale. Sydney has about the same population as Toronto, and while Toronto has 22 radio stations, Sydney has only five FM and five AM radio stations. NOVA was the first new FM radio station licensed for the Sydney market in 10 years, so it was not that difficult for them to attract attention and product sampling.

• I talked with one of my programming friends in Australia who suggested it could be harder to sell in markets where rate cutting, bonus spots and deals are often used to get the buy. Due to the low inventory, I doubt the NOVA sales staff has the room to move on these areas, and so could miss out. This may have also contributed to a high turnover of sales staff.

• When you put your radio station on a pedestal and promise fewer commercials, you will get criticized every time you play a station promo, news credits and even station IDs as they are also viewed as ads, so it becomes harder to effectively brand the product and sell the benefits of listening.

• Another challenge is that many advertisers are reluctant to pay a premium for the radio spots.

• Radio is a frequency medium and any good sales rep can tell you how many spots a week you need to reach the target three or more times. Creating sufficient frequency of message, together with reach to ensure you have sufficient campaign weight is almost impossible with the NOVA concept.

• Staffing levels in Australian radio stations are much higher than you’ll find in most North American operations, but the staffing levels required to facilitate the NOVA brand and execute it properly are even higher.

• Perhaps the most compelling reason why this concept won’t work in markets with a high number of stations is that research shows the more times you stop to play spots the higher the perception that your radio station plays too many commercials. Mike McVay of McVay Media had an interesting observation. He said “When I was the GM at WMJI in Cleveland, we stopped four times an hour and ran two commercials per/set. Not minutes, but 2 units...period. We did very well until 106.5 went to two stop-sets of 5 minutes each and promoted 10-in-a-row. They stopped at :44 and :54 and killed us in music quantity images.”

• According to Australian broadcast analysts, the NOVA Sydney operation is still not making a profit. By the way, DMG says it’s making money.

I’ve spent a few lines explaining why I think this idea won’t fly in the long term, even in Australia. Incidentally, DMG may secretly agree since they own 62 radio stations in Australia and are only using this concept on three of them. So here are a few suggestions on what you can do to better serve both the clients and listeners:

Make Your Advertising More Effective: People don’t complain about great radio spots, but they do complain when the copy is sloppy or when you air cliché spots, poor production or the same voice is heard on too many commercials. One suggestion is to dedicate more time and resources to upgrade your creative writer’s skills. Send them on a creative workshop and enroll them in one of the Roy Williams “Wizards of Ads” programs.

Get More Voices On the Air: Anyone who saw the Solutions Research presentation at the 2003 BCAB in Kelowna may remember the focus group complaining about the same announcers voicing too many of the spots. So consider trading voices with out-of-market radio stations and you may even reach the point where most of your spots are voiced by people other than your air staff. This is one benefit the major market radio stations enjoy because they run a higher percentage of agency spots. With some planning and effort your station could achieve the same result.

Setup An Ideas Bank and Trade Ideas: The RAB already has a wonderful bank of ideas. Borrow an idea from one of the big guys such as Clear Channel who have setup a complete web-based ideas bank that extends to audio examples of spots and station promos.

Impose Higher Standards: Conduct a creative and production audit from time to time to identify opportunities to improve your locally produced spots. It should also be extended to the national spots as well. I have heard national spots voiced in a RAP style playing on Soft A/C stations and that can cause tune out. In 1975, when Easy Listening was gaining momentum in Australia, 2CH in Sydney refused to play spots that were too loud for the format. Everyone said, that they would not get away with it as revenue would be too important. The management team countered it by offering to re-record, at no cost, any unsuitable commercial and have the client approve the revised copy and production.

Conclusion: I worked at a radio station that positioned itself as “Better Music, Fewer Commercials” and after three years we abandoned that strategy because it did not work for the clients and the listeners didn’t appreciate it. I therefore doubt the NOVA concept would work in large North American markets in 2004. Of interest is a recent development in Adelaide, Australia. Austereo, which has suffered the most in terms of lost audience due to the NOVA format, has just relaunched its Adelaide Triple M station in what Austereo openly says is a NOVA style format. It seems they want to own that position in Adelaide ahead of NOVA starting there in 2004. DMG has started legal proceedings saying there is a stark similarity between the positioning statements Austereo is using and those of DMG. The trademark court has just ruled in favour of DMG saying that Austereo could not use "sounds different" and have awarded legal costs to DMG. "Sounds different" had been trademarked by DMG some time ago. We’ll continue to watch this situation.

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