Making data useful in our overloaded world…

You pay a small fortune for PPM, an expense that keeps you from doing perceptual research and marketing.

How’s that working out for you?

I mean, are you discovering nuances about your listeners and clients that lead to sustainable growth?

Do you know when — and why — listeners leave your stream, and where they go? Have you spotted patterns that lead to things you can change to keep them longer?

Do you know which contests and which specific prizes produce the highest listener response and how that correlates to your ratings?

Have you studied how PPM is affected by your commercial remotes? You may make a couple of thousand dollars extra for that 3-4 hours, but end up losing money for the day or week because they drive listeners away from that daypart.

Have you tried limiting inventory in a key hour, or on one day of the week to track whether listening goes up enough to make running fewer spots a self-perpetuating cycle?

If you’re going to pay Arbitron as much as you are, shouldn’t you demand data that answers those questions?

And if you think having those answers wouldn’t change a thing, take a night and read Moneyball…