Across Canada people who grew up on the varied musical styles of the last two decades are finally ‘getting what they want,’ to borrow from the tag of one of the new stations.
Before, the dial’s offerings were all news, or all sports, or all classic rock. Now there’s JACK, BOB and DAVE playing a relatively wide mix of ’80s and ’90s tunes – and they’re supercharging an already healthy radio market.
Although not first off the block, Rogers’ JACK most famously leads the pack, borrowing from a U.S. tradition of giving formats catchy everyman names, and then naming the station after the format. According to Gary Miles, CEO Radio, Rogers Media, the performance impact of the JACK format is what sets the trend apart.
‘These formats have catapulted stations that were not number one into a number one position in share, cume and morning show within a six-month period of time,’ he points out. ‘Rarely, when you launch a format, does it have that kind of success.’
Indeed, when JACK (previously 97 KISS FM) launched in Vancouver, the station immediately shot to number one. A JACK switchover (from Rock 97) in Calgary this past spring also produced a number-one station, and one with a commanding 19% share at that (according to Spring BBM numbers).
Meanwhile, CHUM Radio’s BOB (Best of the Best) in Winnipeg has experienced similar success. There the station also went to number one when it launched in March of last year and remains there, despite some loss of audience since then. CHUM has since rolled out more BOBs in Ontario over the last four months, including stations in Ottawa (where it is also number one), London and Brockville, according to Paul Ski, EVP Radio, CHUM Limited.
Not to be outdone, Corus has recently dived into the fray with DAVE, a new frequency on 107.5 in Kitchener, Ont., that also serves up ’80s and ’90s music.
According to David Bray, SVP, Hennessy & Bray Communications, the big radio players weren’t experimenting with the new formats out of desperation – they were simply strengthening strong portfolios by adapting a proven format from the States.
In fact, he says that radio has rarely been stronger, with revenues remaining ‘consistent’ and profit margins among some radio groups running between 20% and 30%. ‘It’s as healthy as it’s ever been.’
And according to Peter Heron, VP, national business development at the Radio Marketing Bureau, while retail has always been strong, even national advertisers have started to move to radio in increasing numbers – to the tune of 6% over the course of the summer. Revenue growth has ‘pretty much stayed the course. It hasn’t been double-digit but it has outpaced the total ad industry.’
But perhaps in keeping with tradition, radio groups are changing formats as often as their stations change hosts, in pursuit of the greatest share. ‘We’re always searching for what the audience wants,’ explains Miles of Rogers’ motivation. ‘And one of the things you hear is that people want a little more variety because they rely on different kinds of radio stations to deliver different things for their needs.’
Bray puts it a little more directly in dollars and cents. ‘In these specific instances it was a question of trying to find a niche within the profitable demographic – which is adults 25 to 54 – where you can generate substantial share.’
Corus simply saw the writing on the wall. ‘We launched DAVE because we learned from what Rogers and CHUM did with JACK and BOB, respectively,’ admits John Hayes, president of Corus Radio.
‘When we went in to research the market, we were able to ask some deeper questions as to whether a format that had a broader playlist would have appeal, and the audience said ‘yes.”
The new station launches are part of a larger move by the competing radio groups to market themselves differently – and be the first to mine existing demographics by tapping them in a different way to create entirely new revenue streams.
‘Because they are brands, in a way, the new formats have really got people interested in listening to the radio again,’ says Sarah Ivey, VP, strategic planning at Toronto’s Initiative Media. ‘[The radio groups] are trying to think of different ways to market radio.’
But what hasn’t changed is how they do business with buyers and clients. The fact is the emergence of BOB and its siblings doesn’t represent a revolution over, say, Standard’s chain of EZ-Rock stations. Heron says, in fact, that there’s not much difference business-wise.
‘It’s the reason people in the movie business make a sequel. It’s a proven format, it works, you minimize the risks and you gain the audience,’ he says.
Ivey, who calls the radio groups’ marketing ‘smart,’ agrees: ‘It’s all in the perception. They might have a very similar playlist to Mix 99 but it’s the attitude and the way they brand themselves that changes the perception on behalf of the listeners.’
Miles explains that the name ‘JACK’ wasn’t chosen for any particular reason other than its value as a catchy marketing tool. He also characterizes JACK as having an ‘attitude’ of high-spiritedness and irreverence. This, in turn, makes doing promotions somewhat easier. ‘It stands out and, coupled with the surge in popularity of the format, they’re easy to tie together and make memorable.’
Ivey is taking the long view and speculates that the rise of JACK, BOB and DAVE may signal the beginning of a new movement in marketing radio using consumer context planning and brand preference to paint a fuller picture of the consumer beyond raw demographics. It’s something she says has already been used in cable TV and in magazines.
If radio keeps on going that way, it can become a little more like those other media, she says. ‘So when you need to run specific formats or specific stations against a target you can suddenly paint a portrait of who that consumer is and what their mind-set is.’
The easy-to-remember brands also help the stations stand out in the minds of buyers, says Miles. ‘Certainly one of the things that’s helping us in Toronto is when we’re able to point out that JACK is a brand, and look at the success it had in Vancouver and Calgary. When [buyers] talk about it, they’re able to communicate with their peers in both Vancouver and Calgary and they’re able to get the same sort of story from them.’
And hey, the marketers like it too.
‘It excites me,’ says Ian McIntosh, GM, advertising and marketing services for Goodyear Canada, and personal fan of the era’s music. ‘You just talk to our media people and you can see a new level of enthusiasm.’
It’s not feel-good marketing-speak either. Goodyear put its money where its mouth was for its fall buy – bumping stations it normally buys to put Toronto’s JACK on its media plan. ‘We certainly made some different moves when we were buying our fall program this year. We normally pick the top five or six stations. At that time, JACK was around nine or 10 and we bought it.’
However, the euphoria doesn’t mean national clients like Goodyear are ready to buy across the JACK network, even though the company might seemingly be guaranteed the same results everywhere. ‘School’s out a little bit on that,’ McIntosh cautions. ‘I think we still go in and plan city by city. And I want to make sure that a lot of that is maintained because I think each city has some variables and some differences.’
Certainly, radio executives themselves are quick to disabuse anyone of the idea that all the stations under the JACK or BOB banner are identical. ‘There are differences in all of them – subtle differences,’ says Corus’s Hayes.
CHUM’s Ski goes further, insisting that testing shows that on a 600-song playlist, only 150 songs or so will be successful in all markets. ‘The real key to differentiating yourselves and to being a market leader is the other 450 songs. Despite the fact the music is similar, it really is driven by market specifics.’
However, there are some hurdles yet for the format.
William Fitch, GM and media director at Calgary-based DSA Baron Communications, expects the format to cool off within two years. He points out that already Calgary’s JACK FM exhibits higher tune in/tune out than other formats like classic rock or country – ironically enough because JACK’s playlist is so wide that listeners often find that something playing isn’t to their taste. This makes building frequency harder and this makes the station somewhat less reliable for marketers unless it’s part of a larger multi-station buy.
For its part, Corus has no plans to roll out additional DAVEs for the very reason that a sudden loss of popularity can have far-reaching consequences. Says Hayes: ‘When the format cools off, and they all do, you’re kind of stuck with a cookie-cutter approach in a bunch of big markets, and if they cool off all at once, your business is in jeopardy.’
But these are almost minor quibbles. The numbers don’t lie: the format is exceedingly popular, and if the battle is for share, then the ’80s/’90s format is delivering.
‘The easy-listening format that was EZ-Rock launched a long time ago and it’s not suffering,’ points out the RMB’s Heron. ‘If you evolve it nicely and nurture it, it won’t go away. And these guys are not about damaging a brand.’
Who listens to BOB, JACK and DAVE?
BOB, JACK and DAVE target what the Radio Marketing Bureau’s Peter Heron describes as the ‘lagging edge of boomers’ – male and female adults in their late 30s and into the 40s with families, careers and good incomes. ‘That’s the gold mine for advertisers, quite frankly,’ he says.
‘This ‘Generation BOB’ are those adults who have kind of been lost between the sexier media targets of baby boomers and Gen Xers,’ adds Paul Ski, EVP Radio, CHUM Limited.
They’re listening to everything from rock, to new wave to disco, KISS to the Bee Gees. In practice, however, the stations have leaned more heavily toward the guitar-oriented rock.
Measurement company BBM has yet to come up with a generic term for the format but David Bray, of Hennessy & Bray, who also serves as vice chair of radio for BBM, says that is currently being discussed.
