Some things should remain uncluttered

I understand that things are tough all over--and that public school systems are squeezed tough for cash. But, as someone who just this year started putting his child on those unique-orange-colored busses to take her off to school, the following article really caught me off gaurd.

http://www.usatoday.com/

It seems to me that the official who says that students can't be shielded from ads, so why not have them be ads that the school district approves is some wrong thinking logic. Wrong from the school's standpoint as they are the final arbiter of whether THEIR space will be plastered with ads. And, it's also wrong thinking from the advertisers' point of view (the real estate agency, the local toy store, the ambulance company--that last one makes me pause for a whole other reason). The benefit to your product--or your client's product, as this was likely a local agency-driven deal) is extremely short-lived when you are trying to pioneer a new space. How long before the local toy story who "donates" $$ to the school district to put their ad on the side of the school bus gets outbid by Mattel or Hasbro or some other company. Then, once the local company has broken the baracade the next thing to do will be to sell bus boards inside the bus. The local company would better spend their money by figuring out CREATIVE ways to use current advertising vehicles and cut through the clutter that way. Mattel or Hasbro can certainly outspend you local-toy-store owner if this advertise on schoolbuses goes national and becomes an outlet for media buyers to consider. But, can they write a radio spot that mentions the names of the local schools? Or talks about things that parents from the local community can relate to? Of course not.

Another thought on clutter

As many of you know, one of my interests is in the area of commercial clutter. My interests have been primarily focused on how decisions made by radio management can inpact the sense of clutter in listeners--and I have borrowed on the work of Louisa Ha--especially the following article:


Ha, Louisa (1996), "Advertising Clutter in Consumer Magazines: Dimensions and Effects," Journal of Advertising Research (Winner, Lysaker Prize for Outstanding Research on Media), 36 (4), July/August, 76-84



Where she conceptualizes three types of clutter:
1. Quantity of commercials that interrupts entertainment/informational programming
2. Number of commercials which are for the same product category (just think of what it's like on the radio the week before a major election....likely the same number of minutes devoted to ads...it just seems like more because they are all asking for your vote)
3. The amount of intrusiveness--or the extent to which the programming you are using the media FOR...the entertainment or information...is interrupted.

Well, I've been communicating via email with someone who has me thinking about another possible way that listeners could conceptualize a station as more cluttered: when the same voice talent is doing a unusually heavy percentage of the total number of commercials. When I was a disc jockey we were still playing commercials on carts and on the cart labels used to be typed things like the name of the client, the dates the commercial would air, its duration, and, the initials of the announcers that began and ended the commercial. So, a commercial with the following code on it RP/WMJ would indicate to the disk jockey that the commercial started with Rob Potter's voice and then ended with Wolfman Jack's voice (no, I'm not that old...it's just an example).

The trouble would be if you ended up with the following three commercials to play: RP/RP; RP/WMJ; WMJ/RP. When this was the case, there would be no way for the announcer on air to arrange those commercials in an order where MY VOICE promoting one client would not go directly into a commercial where MY VOICE was promoting another client. Bad for the client, certainly. The question is, does this impact the perception of clutter? In other words, if you had ten 30 second commercials in a single stopset...and they ALL were voiced by the same announcer --even with changes in tone, inflection, background music, etc--would listeners perceive that station as more cluttered than another station (still playing ten 30s) with a varied set of voices doing the production?

I wonder.
Good thing another semester is starting!

Merry Christmas

Sorry that it's been such a long time since I've "checked in" with those of you who occassionally drop by to see what "The Audio Prof" is up to. With two young kids in the house, the cold/flue bug has kept me just trying to gather enough energy to make it through. And now my in-laws are in town--which keeps me up to my ears in hosting. Luckily, from a research standpoint, my family has been thoughtful enough to let me work every afternoon on some writing that had to get done. And, done it is! A second revision of an article I've been working on for the Journal of Advertising. I sent it off to the co-authors yesterday...which was a good feeling! I like to tell people that since me and the other three authors first started this project we each have moved to different universities and EACH had babies! The task of conducting research and getting it published takes a long time!

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza and Happy New Year!

An ICR-Lab Party

It was the traditional, end of the semester ICR-lab party. A tradition that I'm glad to say others have begun to carry on as they get to their own faculties. Here's a group of lab rats sitting around. Thanks to everyone for the great food, to Annie for hosting it. Here's some pictures from the event.

Annie Gets a "Headless Favre"

From Julie Fox, true Chicago Bears Fanatic 

But, Annie Got "Even"

A true gift from a die hard Packer fan 

Johnny makes a point

But, this was all staged. No point was actually made. 

Rapt Attention

Narine, Sungkyoung & Gayle look on during the gift giving. 

The Spies' Lair

Nothin' but trouble going on down there in the kids' room 

Max shares his healthy dinner

With Satoko, Zheng, and Tao 

Lab Manager Relaxes

This was one of the few times that Byungho wasn't answering the phone, I think 

Good Cake

Satoko and Zheng enjoy dessert, while Johnny looks on wondering if there will be some left for him.

I'm still here--and so is internet radio

Sorry that I've been silent lately. Trying to stay on top of the grading and such for the end of the semester. I'm actually doing pretty well. Spreadsheets are all ready to go--mostly just plug in the final exam grades and I'll be set to go.

I don't want to be too delinquent in my "audio prof" postings, though. So, here's a little bit of info.

I must admit that I have never viewed myself as much of an internet radio guy. But, as I got to think about this blog post, I suppose I am. I have been a subscriber to RHAPSODY for years. And, although I have mainly used it to listen to specific albums--I have started to listen to their radio station options as well.

And, it seems like many others are doing some sort of internet radio listening. Check out this Arbitron data from the Center for Media Research at MediaWeek.

Average US Weekly Online Radio Audience, Persons 12+
	Monday-Friday 6AM-7PM		Monday-Sunday 6AM-Midnight
	Cume Persons	Avg 1/4-Hour Persons	Cume Persons	Avg 1/4- Hour Persons
America Online's AOL Radio Network	834,500	169,000	1,443,100	114,800
Clear Channel Online Music and Radio	655,300	101,200	831,600	57,000
Live365	356,500	50,600	509,200	30,300
Microsoft's MSN Radio &WindowsMedia.com	474,000	92,200	581,700	50,800
Yahoo Music/LAUNCHcast	1,541,700	312,300	2,482,900	195,200
TOTAL: All Five Networks	3,672,200	725,300	5,629,000	448,100
Source: ComScore Arbitron, September 2005

More on the kid's media survey

I was able to take a look at the public report of kids media usage and preferences, which was discussed in the Radio & Records article from a few days ago. The company that did the research was MediaMark and you can see a copy of the public press release by clicking here.

Turns out I wasn't off base on the perceptions I have of COLLEGE STUDENTS use of radio for music. The media mark research was done on kids age 6-11. And, as you can see, most of them do access music via the car radio. Now, this could be a function of that being the only media source they have access to. . .although almost two-thirds say they have gone online in the last 30 days and I can't imagine they don't have CD players, etc.

So, if you take these results with my ongoing observation of students in my classes...one conclusion is that radio is doing an awful job of making itself a source of importance in the lives of kids as they grow up. They start out listening from ages 6-11...but then they go.