How one of the largest mass media
companies in North America leverages
the cloud to streamline data analytics and
create more targeted radio playlists.
The U.S. radio market is a competitive business that is undergoing significant
change. Operators are being pressured by new rivals in digital, satellite and
Internet radio, including subscription services such as Pandora and Spotify.
More than 15,000 stations vie for $18 billion in annual U.S. radio advertising
spend – a figure projected to grow by less than 1 percent annually through
2021.
To generate revenue, radio operators need to build listener numbers. To attract
listeners, they need to play the specific artists and songs their target audiences
want to hear. Years ago, radio playlists were created largely on gut feelings,
based on personal experiences or industry connections. Today, programmers
curate their playlists carefully, tapping data from relevant reports and research.
The challenges stations face are determining which data sources to trust – and
then how to put data into action. Different services have different business
models, and they generate different insights about what may be popular in cer-
tain markets, at certain points in time. Stations themselves collect their own
data, but it is often stored in manual fashion, on spreadsheets and in file fold-
ers, making it hard to analyze using cloud technologies at scale.
Streamlining a Media Company’s Use of Data
One of America’s largest radio providers embarked on a project to create an
analytics function that would be the envy of the industry. The company
engaged CTP to design and build an enterprise-grade analytics solution to
support internal program directors, as well as key business partners: large U.S.
record labels, artist agents and brand managers.
The multi-phase project incorporated initial steps to analyze existing methods
of data collection and analysis, create buy-in with C-suite stakeholders on a
plan, and design workflows facilitating new methods of analysis. The final step
would be to deliver a solution using cloud native applications to help the orga-
nization’s clients modernize their processes.
SUMMER 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 9