A 36-member panel of Traffic professionals, Sales experts and Traffic Software developers has launched the first of several research projects aimed at “The Monetizing of the Traffic Department” to support the Radio and
Television industry. The group is planning to ultimately provide tools and techniques to make more effective use of available inventory.
“It’s not a ‘Less is More’ approach, says Larry Keene of the TDGA, “but rather a more effective use of station avails to maximize revenues and control an alarming increase in “perceived” clutter.” We’re inviting Traffic personnel across the nation to help us acquire research data that will be used in the project."
Keene explains:
"Our group needs to rely on Traffic rather than Sales fir this research, since nearly all Reports used in Sales planning or projections automatically eliminate zero-based spots or trades, promos, NCSA commitments, network or syndication inventory, etc. It’s a mistake to “lump” all those items as nonessential, when many of those “types” represent commitments for significant station operations.
It’s not Yield Management in the sense of rate guidance or creation. In fact, the goal is toward using existing Traffic system software more effectively. “Most Sales Departments know how to sort or limit data from their systems, but not all know what to do with the numbers when they get them. That’s a key element we hope to resolve. Eventually, it will be information that says – here are the numbers and here’s how to use them for increased profit.
Our contention is there’s a wealth of sales opportunity sitting inside your traffic system, and we plan to work through Traffic for Sales to start increasing your ROI in people and applications. Its sounds like an abused cliché’, but really it’s a matter of working smarter (not harder) by cashing in on software you may already have in-house."
Step One of the project is to gather a real world database of the types of Orders consuming the Inventory. TDGA has set up a confidential survey using a commercial service, and are seeking large-scale participation to insure the data truly represents thousands of stations as opposed to a small sampling. The online site is available by clicking here.
Confidentiality is a key ingredient, as well as the ability to “slice and dice” the data for Radio and Television, regardless of format, commercial loads or even non-commercial. TDGA has agreed to fund all of the initial research for its membership.
