Bringing the Numbers for Radio Together
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This won't be long because it's purpose it only to drive home the point that numbers are the currency for radio. The industry is long past the point of needing to commingle what it sees from Arbitron and what is retrieved online.
This topic is brought up because I'm deeply involved in an analytics project that's taking a great deal of time to compile. In the end, a variety of views are created on how radio operates online in what's referred to as a chart-driven system that feeds off a Data Warehouse of information. Supporting the Warehouse is a "Data Mart," numbers from single-purpose exchange (i.e., site unique visitors or streams launched). Arbitron offers the "book" as your warehouse witih demo-breakouts being a string of "data marts."
A Data Warehouse may contain hundreds of columns of information, across thousands of rows. The "Data Mart" will be considerably smaller. It can be the source feeding a Data Warehouse spreadsheet, or created by pulling data from the Warehouse.
When you do a Scarborough Research report, the data pulled comes from a warehouse of information. Online, the data you reap from a web site analytics program is assembled and deliverd in methodically laid-out charts. Neither Arbitron nor online analytics programs offer a simple way to interpret the numbers served, which is why my preferred method (one I refer to as the 30,000 foot view) is to reconstruct numbers into a graphic display requiring little thought for interpretation. This approach leaves the mind open for analyzing. Want a ground view? All that's needed is to drill down to the supporting Data Warehouse.
There are two observations to consider here because Arbitron and online analytics have yet to be combined for use within the radio industry. 1) The presentation of that 30,000 foot view will soon be mandated to help programmers increase audience and advertisers find exactly what they need. 2) While it's nice to have individual breakouts of numbers for on-air and online, the future lies in presenting an advertiser with a combination of both, and then being able to reconcile each set into a unified, easily-interepted data set that delivers actionable information.
I recently sent a friend a link to "Competing on Analytics" by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris. If you are interested in grasping all that's ahead, please dive into it. Your eyes will open wide to the explanations it holds.
Also recently the publisher of the above, Harvard Business Review, sent me a gallery copy of the most recent work by these two authors titled "Analytics at Work." In this edition, Davenport and Harris are joined by Robert Morison to cover the second stage of setting your company (radio station) up to better use analytics for strategizing. It, too, will give insight to the future of business.
These numbers we work with, Arbitron-supplied or coming from the internet, are a vast gold mine of information, provided they are used. And, in the words of our authors of "Analytics at Work," Data must be accessible in order to be analyzed.
The radio industry has been using numbers for on-air ratings for what seems forever. It's now time to bring numbers together with online activity.
PPM aside, my suggestion is to begin exposing yourself to how data is gathered and assembled today. It is much different from just a decade ago, and having the ability to create the Data Warehouse and Data Marts will keep you in a desirable position for the decade to come.
The valuable person moving into 2010 will be the one bringing these numbers together for the radio industry.
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