Believe it or not, fake survey brings real ratings to Rewind

It comes in the mail from an outfit called Impact Research, listed to a post-office box somewhere in southeastern Pennsylvania. And if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was a legitimate survey about Chicago radio programming.

But it’s actually a cleverly disguised marketing tool designed to get you to listen to a particular radio station in order to boost its ratings in the survey that really counts — the one conducted by Arbitron Co.

Thousands of Chicago area women between the ages of 25 and 54 were targeted in recent weeks by just such a mailing, commissioned by WILV-FM (100.3), the adult contemporary station known as Rewind 100.3. It’s nothing new for owner Bonneville International, which has been using versions of the Impact Research survey for years to promote WILV and classic rock sister station WDRV-FM (97.1). Sources said it is the product of Impact Target Marketing, an interactive marketing firm based near Boston.

Here’s how the latest pitch went:

Dear Chicagoland Radio Listener:

We’re conducting a research study on radio listening preferences in the Chicago area, and we need your opinion. Your thoughts can help shape the programming you hear on local radio.

Please listen to your assigned station for at least one hour, preferably more, over a couple of days in the next week. Then complete and return the enclosed survey card. The postage is prepaid. For participating, we’ll give you a chance to win $1,000 for yourself and $1,000 for the charity of your choice.

For this study we’d like you to listen to a new radio station at 100.3 FM, it’s called “Rewind.” Please listen to it at your earliest convenience, then complete and return the enclosed survey card. If you’d prefer, you can submit your response online at RadioSurveyChicago.com instead of using the reply card.

Your honest opinions are vital to improving Chicagoland radio. Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,

R.H. Harshaw

Research Director

Enclosed with the letter was a card inviting participants to note where and when they listened to the station, evaluate what they heard (on a scale of 1 to 5), and tell how often they’d listen in the future. There’s also a space for comments.

Bonneville International bosses insist that all of the responses they receive are read and carefully considered in conjunction with other market research and programming feedback.

But insiders acknowledge that the primary goal of the questionnaire is to get people in the station’s target demographic (in this case, women between 25 and 54) to sample Rewind 100.3, and if they like what they hear, to win them over. “It’s no different than Starbucks handing out little samples of their coffee cake,” one executive explained. “Once you try it, the hope is that you’ll like it and want to come back for more.”

While outsiders may view the Impact Research piece as intentionally misleading, if not downright deceptive, industry experts see it as just another weapon in a station’s marketing arsenal that also includes television commercials, outdoors advertising and a variety of other media.

Is the device effective? Let's put it this way: There’s no way that a smart, blue-chip operator like Bonneville would spend thousands of dollars on it year after year if the company didn’t believe it to be worthwhile.

In the past two weeks — right around the time the mailing turned up in thousands of Chicago area homes — a funny thing happened: Arbitron Portable People Meter ratings showed Rewind 100.3 jumping ahead of its main adult-contemporary competitor, Clear Channel Radio’s WLIT-FM (93.9) among adults between 25 and 54, and among women between 25 and 54.

Free coffee cake anyone?