Eric F. Richards wrote:
D Peter Maus wrote:

Eric...you seem to be missing the essential point. The advertisers
don't GET the metrics based on a model, the advertisers CREATE the
model, they create the metrics. They create the tool. Not the stations.
Not the consultants. The stations do what they do to make money with
the advertiser's tool.


Oh, I hear what you're saying -- I just don't believe my ears.

An advertiser wants to sell product -- nothing more. He doesn't care
about the media used to do that. He hires someone to do that work for
him, and this is where your so-called "radio expert" like Eduardo
comes in.

Advertisers didn't create Arbitron -- so called "marketing experts"
did.

Fine. Radio *stations* didn't create the model, but the radio
*industry* -- which includes these so-called experts -- did.

Actually, no, it didn't advertising agencies and research bureaus did.

That's why the numbers are SOLD to Radio. In fact, the all the
limitatins on how the numbers are gathered, accessed and used, are
placed on Radio. Advertising agencies have access to the data through a
variety of sources.

Radio didn't create the model. The Radio Industry didn't create the
model. Advertisers and the companies that serve them did.

And Advertisers define the model, and how it's used, according to
their needs.

You said it yourself....advertisers may call the shots, but they do
not have the best interests of Radio at heart. You were exactly correct.
If the model were created by or for RADIO, it would benefit RADIO. It
doesn't. It benefits ONLY advertisers.




If Ace Hardware wants to buy time on the local station, the manager of
Ace doesn't go look up Arbitron figures -- he (rightfully) calls a
specialist -- an agency that deals with radio in the (wrongful)
expectation that they'll know what they are talking about.




Actually, if Ace Hardware wants to buy time on a local station, they
get the numbers from their in-house agency at the regional or national
level. The strategy is devised, the budget is created, and the buy is
defined: which stations, which dayparts, how many spots, what they're
going to pay for them, and how they rotate. THEN, they call the
stations and tell the stations how the buy is going to be placed, and
how the money is going to be allocated, and what value added they expect
for free in return for considering them on the buy.

The station is actually, when you look at the whole picture, only
laterally involved.

It's the advertisers who create the demand, the terms, the
specifications, and the meaningfulness of the numbers.

And if you think that agencies have a warm fuzzy relationship with
Radio, guess again. Agencies have a Hate-Hate relationship with Radio
stations, and treat radio people with the kind of contempt generally
reserved for herpes ridden ex-lawyers working at used car lots.