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Monday, February 5, 2018

Study: It’s No Contest - Bigger Isn’t Always Better

NuVoodoo Media Services, a data-driven media marketing, programming and content intelligence provider, announces that the latest NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study of 3,041 respondents, ages 14-54, across all PPM markets revealed that, among likely PPM participants, 59.8% of respondents are more likely to play a local radio contest with a smaller prize than the 35.7% of likely PPM participants who said they were more likely to play a national radio contest with a larger prize.

The NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study is conducted twice a year to learn more about those who are most likely to say “yes” to the opportunity to wear a meter in order to provide NuVoodoo clients with competitive insights and advantages that they can exploit to capture higher ratings. This is the 11th Ratings Prospects Study that NuVoodoo has completed since 2011. The company shares the top-level findings of its studies with its radio broadcasting clients to develop winning next-generation marketing and programming strategies for stations of all formats in PPM markets.

Among the new questions NuVoodoo probed this time around was a choice between two hypothetical contests. One option is a contest where the 25th local caller wins $250. The other option is a contest where the 25th nationwide caller wins $1000. It’s the choice between the local contest, with a smaller prize, or the group contest, with a larger prize.


Overall, the smaller prize – against a smaller, local, entry pool – beats the larger, nationwide prize by better than 2:1. But, when NuVoodoo narrowed the sample to those who are most likely to participate in a PPM-type methodology, the gap also narrows – with a higher percentage lured in by the bigger prize.


Leigh Jacobs, Executive Vice President, Research Analysis, NuVoodoo Media Services, noted: “When we add music format P1 lenses to the PPM-complaint filter, we see that not all format P1’s react the same. Urban P1’s favor the larger prize. Our grouping of Rock and Alt P1’s (we had to combine to have enough respondents across the two formats after the PPM filter was imposed) slightly favored the local option. Another grouping, the “library formats,” Classic Hits and Classic Rock and Variety Hits P1’s, came down very strongly in favor of the local contest. Country P1’s voted even more strongly in favor of local contest over national.”

Mike O’Connor, Executive Vice President, Marketing, NuVoodoo Media Services, reacted strongly when he saw these latest data: "Couple these results with our past study intel, which has repeatedly unmasked a majority perception that radio stations rig their on-air contests, and you have the perfect-storm opportunity to reposition national contests as fake news.”

Carolyn Gilbert, President and Chief Executive Officer, NuVoodoo Media Services, observed: “Contesting is a proven tactic to help boost ratings. If it’s a choice between doing a group contest or no contest at all, we’ll advise clients to run the group contest. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” But, these data show the significant preference of most PPM-complaint format P1 groups for a local contest – even if it means a smaller prize.”

Gilbert noted: “We’ll use the important new insights from our 11th NuVoodoo Ratings Prospect Study to guide the next-generation marketing programs we’re doing for our clients and will pass on actionable intelligence from this study to our clients’ programming teams. It’s a huge competitive advantage for stations and informs the strategies that help them to move the ratings needle and win in their markets.”

NuVoodoo Media Services will be in Nashville at the Country Radio Seminar from February 5-7, and is the official sponsor of the popular CRS 2018 Women’s Mentoring Breakfast on Wednesday, February 7th from 7:30am-9:00am at the Nashville Omni Hotel, Level 3, Cumberland 3-4.  The Women’s Mentoring Breakfast brings together CRS attendees with 24 esteemed leaders in Radio and the Music Industry for a morning of one-on-one networking and interaction designed to create connections for everything from mentorship to motivation.

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