Broadcast radio has many strengths. It’s live and local. You can tune in to hear your favorite songs, get the latest weather and traffic updates. Maybe you turn it on just to keep you company or hear the play-by-play of the game. But radio also has other strengths that are often taken for granted, and even sometimes, overlooked.
Today’s post is courtesy of Jim Spaeth and Alice K. Sylvester of Sequent Partners.
“ROI.” “ROI.” “ROI.” whined Jan Brady.
Ok, maybe not, but you can’t go too far these days without encountering the term Return on Investment. ROI performance is on everyone’s mind – auto dealers, big retailers, movie companies … all of radio’s advertisers.
But just as we wrapped our heads around the advanced math of econometric marketing mix models, the measurement world changed. Today, the venerable, powerful marketing mix models are considered too slow, too macro and too backwards-thinking for most marketers. They need tools that are more granular and more comprehensive – tools like they have in digital, where they can attribute sales to digital touchpoints and map a consumer’s journey from search to website to reviewers’ blogs to Facebook to Amazon.
Attribution modeling is leaving the digital ecosystem and will play a key role in cross-platform ROI analysis. It’s a very hot topic full of promise and right now, some bluster.
Continue reading “Marketing Measurement Evolves:
Why You Should Care About Multi-Touch Attribution”
With only 9 weeks left before we bid farewell to 2016, we asked Mark Fratrik, Ph.D., SVP and Chief Economist with BIA/Kelsey to provide with us with radio’s outlook for 2017.
Where do local radio stations stand in the new local media advertising marketplace, especially compared to their traditional and online/digital competitors? According to the recently published 2017 BIA/Kelsey U.S Local Advertising Forecast, which provides a five year national forecast and 12 individual media forecasts, radio does reasonably well. The combination of online activities with the over-the-air advertising leads to a 10.5% share of the $148.8B local advertising pie in 2017.
Continue reading “Radio’s Place in the New Local Media
Advertising Marketplace”
In seventeen more days we’ll know who will be leading this country for the next four years. As we approach November 8, there is still time for candidates to reach voters and particularly those that are still undecided. Also, given the events that have occurred in the past few weeks, political advertising dollars have seen some shifts, but not with radio.
These are the words that have been used to describe radio by some of the most widely recognized national brands and large advertising agencies. During the 40th Annual Fall Broadcast Management Conference and the 16th Annual Power of Urban Radio Forum, speakers and panelists discussed radio’s strengths, future as well as what radio can do to help advertisers address their challenges.
Radio matters to musicians across all formats. Radio remains the number one source for new music discovery and Forbes takes note, sharing with their readers. Click for a great read.
Over 247 million people tune in to radio every week. Their reason for tune-in varies; it may be to find out about the weather or to get traffic and transit updates. Whatever the reason, they all have one thing in common – they listen because of the connection they have with the radio station and the personalities on that station. During Advertising Week, radio’s ability to “provide a personal connection with listeners that no one else does” and “color a blank canvas” for sports fans was discussed during two separate sessions: “Let Us Entertain You” and “Huddle Up – Radio Sets the Score,” each moderated by RAB president and CEO Erica Farber.
We look forward to each time Nielsen releases another quarterly issue of their Total Audience Report. It provides the entire ad community with a perspective on shifts and changes in media usage. But it is of no surprise that our interest is about radio’s usage.
The Q2 2016 Nielsen Total Audience Report noted that, in a three-year comparison, the number of radio stations that an adult tunes into has grown. Radio delivers content, whether it is in the form of talk, news, sports or music, and listeners tune in to find it. Based upon this report, the average number of radio stations tuned in by adults every month is 7.1.
Continue reading “People tune in and listen and listen
to radio”
Rock, News/Talk, Urban AC, Spanish, Jazz, Gospel, Tejano. These are just some of the formats that run on stations across the country. Radio offers programming that reaches people of different age groups, interests, lifestyle and even language.
Radio listeners are passionate. They engage with their radio stations across all platforms and devices – whether it’s on-air, on a smartphone, via Facebook or twitter. And when it comes to reach and time spent with radio, ethnic audience usage is greater than the general market.
Continue reading “Radio – A Diverse Medium Reaching a
Diverse Audience”
Today’s blog is brought to you by: Scott Bender, Global Head of Publisher Strategy and Business Development, Prohaska Consulting
Much continues to be written about the growth of digital audio. By 2017, Digital Radio listenership will grow to 57.8% of the population, according to a recent study by eMarketer. Digital advertising dollars are steadily following and are projected to grow 24% next year.
With the growth of digital, new technologies are emerging. International Data Corporation (IDC), an American market research, analysis and advisory firm, reported that by 2020 roughly one of every five radio dollars, or about $4 billion, will be booked programmatically. The whitepaper prepared last year for the RAB by Prohaska Consulting defined programmatic as follows:
“Programmatic buying is the process of executing media buys in an automated fashion through digital platforms such as exchanges, trading desks, and demand-side platforms (DSPs). This is an alternative to the traditional use of manual RFPs, negotiations and insertion orders to purchase digital and other platforms.”*
Continue reading “New Targeting Capabilities Enhancing the Value of Digital and Broadcast Radio”
The click of a flip-top can. The fizzing when you open a screw top. These descriptions bring images to mind – and those images are unique and personal to the individual as they remind them of the beverage they connect with the most. Radio has a strong value proposition for this category – loyal listener connections that drive engagement, awareness and consumption.
As a top 20 category for radio, beverages increased spending by 9% in the first half of 2016 based on data from Miller Kaplan Arase, LLP. Growth within this category was attributed by some of the national soft drink, beer and distilled beverage advertisers, and specifically Coca-Cola (+87%), Anheuser-Busch (+150%) and Bacardi (+127%), to name a few. While these are all well-recognized brands, there are in fact other beverages that have a history just as long.
Radio is the original social medium. It’s always been the connector between the community and listener, and at the top of that connection is the radio personality who guides the conversation. But that connection also extends well beyond the broadcast. Naturally, it moves from traditional media to social media and back again.
Listeners are passionate about their radio stations, the on-air personalities on those stations that speak to them every day and the impact that radio has on their lives. And there’s no better proof than hearing directly from a radio listener. A recent piece in our “Matter of Fact” newsletter detailed just one listener’s story.
Continue reading “Radio and Social Media – A Perfect
Combination”
Radio plays an important role for the auto industry both in-dash and for sales. According to the Infinite Dial 2016, of those adults 18+ who had driven/ridden in a car in the past month cited AM/FM radio as their most used in-car device – specifically 84% general market Adults 18+, 80% African-Americans 18+, 79% Hispanics 18+ and 77% of Adults 18-34. When it comes to sales, radio is a steadfast component of auto sales.
For the past five years, radio’s share of U.S. auto dealers’ ad spend has remained consistently strong, while other traditional media have experienced extensive declines – especially when compared to spending in 2002.
That is how close we are to electing the next president of the United States. As much as this cycle has been filled with controversy, one thing is true: This election year has been like no other in its imbalance of earned media versus paid media by both presidential candidates.
With Election Day just 80 days away, we asked Leo Kivijarv, Ph.D., Executive Vice President & Director of Research of PQ Media, to provide us with a perspective on the current state of political advertising and what it can mean for radio. Before we share those insights, here are just a few simple reminders about radio:
Radio station personalities are arguably the single most important differentiator for radio.
These talented individuals introduce people to favorite and new music. They share current, local and national news, play-by-play sports reporting and coverage, and updates about weather and traffic in the cities they live in. They convey the information that their listeners seek (even if they don’t know they are seeking it) in a very personal and relevant way.
These are the people that make you laugh, make you cry and have the ability to provoke 6-8 emotions in less than 3 minutes. They know their audiences. They REALLY know their audiences and they know how to have a dialogue with them. Many of these individuals share their own lives and the listener is instantaneously connected — feeling like they are part of the conversation.
You can’t tune in to radio, watch TV, read a newspaper or click on the internet without hearing a piece or seeing an article about Millennials, and here is another one! The reason we are so focused on Millennials (now the largest generation in terms of numbers) is because they have a different way of experiencing life. They were the first generation to be born and raised in our modern digital world. They not only rely on social media and apps for leisure and convenience, but they are trendsetters and influencers who are set to break records in terms of consumer spending (Accenture has predicted that by 2020, the Millennial generation will annually spend $1.4 trillion in the U.S. alone). As such, Millennials play a pivotal role in the success of just about everything – brands, advertising, media, etc., proving that younger consumers need to be heard, but do they listen?
Yes! They listen to what matters to them.
We are the RAB, the trade association for America’s broadcast radio industry, the #1 reach medium. We have created this Radio Impact Reports blog site to share current news, information and insights about broadcast radio while using this social space to encourage an open dialogue with broadcasters, advertisers, agencies and even listeners.
On a regular basis, you can expect to hear from RAB’s president and CEO Erica Farber and the rest of the team including business development, insights, marketing and professional development experts.
Topics will range from research and insights
One thing is for certain – our focus will be on continued growth and innovations taking place, ensuring radio’s bright and exciting future.
Follow Radio Impact Reports and join the conversation!
