Case Studies

Numbers before adjectives.

Three engagements, the recommendations they led to, and what operators said when the work landed.

200+ engagements 30+ markets 30+ years
Case 01 · Giant group · Leadership positioning

Leading news-TV network. Leadership positioning.

Three 24/7 news channels in the same market, rated interchangeable by viewers. The CEO wanted a defensible path to the top spot — not another brand refresh.

The setup

Speed scored 8/10. Trust scored 5/10. The gap was the strategy.

Three consulting firms had already pitched set design, tone, and brand refresh. The CEO wanted the strategic question answered first: what would “uncontested leader” actually require, and what would viewers notice?

What I did

A 300-viewer panel split evenly across the three rival channels, stratified by daypart, background, and consumption mode. Signal analysed into a three-layer framework — structural, daypart redesign, on-screen language and sourcing. Two sessions with the CEO and editorial leadership. One briefing with the chair. One action plan with named owners.

300 Viewers, balanced across 3 channels
3layers Speed · Method · Service
18days Kickoff to signed action plan
“The recommendations named the three moves that would actually separate us from the other two competitors. We shipped the first in 30 days.” — CEO, European news-TV network.

Engagement Decision Sprint, 3 weeks. Panel simulation on MediaDatak. The strategy work — framing, team sessions, recommendation, action plan — was mine alone.

Case 02 · Owner-operator · Format discipline

Urban-music radio. Format discipline.

A youth urban-music station was leaking tune-out to a slightly older, more “street” rival. The CEO’s instinct was to tilt the playlist toward the rival’s sound. The data said the opposite.

The setup

Most P1 loyalists also had the rival as their #2.

The retention problem wasn’t format identity — it was flow. Over-rotation, ad stacking, long talk breaks. Half the programming team wanted to move closer to the rival. That would have cost the station’s only real asset: its distinct sonic territory.

What I did

A 400-listener panel balanced between P1 loyalists and P2 dual-listeners — isolating what would lift loyalty vs pull switchers. One working session with programming to rebuild rotation depth, ad-pod density, talk-break discipline. Added a “trending now” micro-slot and a Spotify mirror in the app. Operational fix, not musical.

400 Listeners, P1 · P2 balanced
1clock Rewritten with the programming team
0 Playlist tilt toward the rival
“Samuel made the case for not copying the competitor. That was the entire value.” — CEO, urban-music station in Europe.

Engagement Decision Sprint → 90-Day Program. The Sprint locked the format discipline. The Program ran three rotation and ad-load experiments with the programming team. Panel simulation on MusicDatak; the strategy and action plan were mine.

Case 03 · CHR network · Talent diagnosis

CHR morning show. 20-year flagship, erosion decoded.

A flagship CHR morning-show personality — 20 years at the top of his market — was losing share survey after survey. Internal debate had already split into “refresh him”, “replace him”, and “wait it out” — three irreversible answers to a question no one had asked the audience.

The setup

Share decline without a smoking gun is the most dangerous kind.

The CEO and Group PD needed to know whether the talent had drifted, whether the audience had drifted, or whether the format around him had quietly stopped framing him — before committing to any irreversible move on a 20-year asset.

What I did

500 morning-daypart listener personas across P1, P2 and lapsed-P1 segments. 57 questions on memory, energy, music-vs-talk, co-host chemistry, segment recall, irritants, lean-in vs tune-out. Phased action plan co-built with the Group PD, station PD, and talent team: tightened co-host configuration, repositioned the two highest-friction segments, recalibrated music-vs-talk in the 7:00–8:30 window. 90-day retention dashboard tied to the next two survey waves.

500 Personas, P1 · P2 · lapsed-P1
57questions Memory · energy · chemistry · irritants
90days Retention dashboard, two survey waves
“We were one survey away from doing something irreversible to a 20-year asset. The work told us what was actually drifting — and what to leave alone.” — CEO & Group PD, CHR network, Europe.

Engagement Decision Sprint → 90-Day Program. The Sprint diagnosed the drift and locked the action plan. The Program ran the co-host and segment changes with the talent team across the next two survey waves. Panel simulation on MusicDatak; the strategy and action plan were mine.

More situations like yours

Five other decisions on the desk.

Each started with a CEO or board that needed evidence — not another deck of opinions.

Revenue plateau

Luxury FM station in Europe. Commercial reframe.

400 buyer personas mapped across agencies, luxury CMOs, hospitality, banks. Repackaged the rate card around event bundles, audited affluent reach, shipped a QR/VIP attribution kit. Decision Sprint → 90-Day Program.

Regulatory scrutiny

Public-service broadcaster, bilingual Northern Europe. Board-defensible evidence.

300+ representative respondents with demographic and linguistic quotas. Three-workstream plan: ad-load reform plus paid ad-lite tier, practical-talk slate plus second-language stream, podcast packaging overhaul. Decision Sprint → Advisory retainer.

Brand or editorial bet

Public-service radio on YouTube. Growth without betrayal.

300 loyal audio-first viewers simulated. 7-point plan: chapters, subtitles, sourced descriptions, 10–15 min condensed cuts, use-case playlists, weekly native series, Shorts vs long-form guardrails. Decision Sprint.

Monetization pivot

B2B media brand. Commercial pivot, pre-tested.

400-profile panel across tech, automotive, healthcare, e-commerce, luxury, finance, streaming, consumer goods, pharma. Convergent objection taxonomy. Pitch revised with objections pre-answered, not discovered in the first ten sales calls. Decision Sprint.

AI-powered sensory decisions

Luxury hospitality pre-opening. Atmosphere decided, then verified.

300 UHNW profiles across 10 archetypes. Strong convergence on restrained instrumental jazz, chamber music, tasteful downtempo. Sonic charter: volume curves, genre guardrails, culturally-specific playlists. Built on MusicDatak.

On the record

What operators say when the call ends.

From CEOs and chairs in European audio and news-TV.

“He’s the only adviser I’ve hired twice for the same question. The first time he told me no. The second time he told me when to move.”
CEO · European audio group · 400+ stations
“Short memo. Every line mattered. The three moves he named became our roadmap.”
CEO · European news-TV network · leadership positioning
“We were one survey away from doing something irreversible to a 20-year asset. The work told us what was actually drifting — and what to leave alone.”
CEO & Group PD · CHR network, Europe · talent diagnosis

The rest is on the call.

20 minutes. No pitch. If your situation rhymes with one of the three above, you’ll know within the first five.

Book a 20-min Fit Call See the three engagements