Television is the preferred medium to watch sports, and streaming media has growth and buzz, but radio holds its own among sports listeners.
A total of 23.1 million listeners tuned in to hear Super Bowl XLVI on radio, reports Edison Research and network company Dial Global. That 23.1 figure stacks up nicely to the 111.3 million who watched the Super Bowl on television, and the 2.1 million who streamed it. Edison Research conducted the survey live via telephone interviews on Sunday, following the Giants 21-17 victory over the Patriots. That gives radio a 16.9% share among the three media. Listeners accessed the live broadcast in multiple environments, including the home, while driving, at work and other locations, and on over 680 stations nationwide.
While Honda, Coca-Cola and Budweiser reached the TV viewership, some big brands that reached the 23.1 million radio listeners included:
- Allstate
- Advance Auto Parts
- Go Daddy
- Subway
- Home Depot
“We are…excited, but not surprised, to see that our research findings highlight…the ongoing demand for radio broadcast coverage of live sporting events,” said David Landau, Co-President CEO of Dial Global. Edison conducted a similar survey in January, to find that 22.9 million people tuned in to radio broadcasts of AFC and NFC championship games on Sunday, January 22. An overwhelming majority of tuned in on AM or FM radio, versus Sirius XM or the Verizon Mobile App.
Dial Global has 100% coverage of the U.S., with a core demographic of adults 25-54.Dial broadcasts nearly 100 NFL games, exclusive NFL primetime games, the Playoffs and the Super Bowl. “Given the popularity of The Super Bowl as ‘television’s ultimate event’ where people actually look forward to the commercials and the halftime show, the number of radio listeners may come as a surprise to those who are not familiar with the significant reach of broadcast radio,” said Larry Rosin, Edison President.
“Singletons” Ignored by Advertisers, But Spend $1.9 Trillion a Year
Advertisers are just waking up to unmarried adult “singletons,” according to a Fortune story. Despite the perception of miserable loners sitting at home, they socialize up to five nights a week, and spend more than $10,000 per person per year more than married counterparts with children.
The Fortune story was adapted from the book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, by New York University sociology professor Eric Klinenberg. Among Klinenberg’s findings:
- 28% of U.S. households now consist of one person, 40% of city households
- Average per capita annual expenditure was $34,471 in 2010, versus $23,179 per person in high-income households with children
- The majority of singletons is female, at 18 million versus 14 million men
- 18-34 year olds are the smallest but fastest growing demographic
Singletons spend their discretionary income largely on socializing several nights a week at bars and restaurants, in special-interest clubs and joining gyms. This, speculated CEO David Eastman of advertising giant JWT, is why alcohol advertisers like Smirnoff now favor images of friends at communal tables, versus couples. Elsewhere, Nestlé reported that 90% of its Lean Cuisine meals are eaten alone, and failed when it attempted to market double-serving meals.
Still, the singleton demographic is largely untapped. Only a handful of big-ticket advertisers, including Norwegian Cruise Lines, Coldwell Banker, Lowe’s, Chevrolet and DeBeers have targeted singles. DeBeers now offers a “right-hand ring,” a diamond designed for single women, and Norwegian Cruise Lines offers “studio staterooms” for single travelers.
23 Million Listened to AFC/NFC and NFL Playoffs On Radio
If radio seems a quaint way to enjoy sports, think again.
Fully 22.9 million people tuned in to radio broadcasts of AFC and NFC championship games on Sunday, January 22. That according to a survey by Edison Research, commissioned by radio network provider Dial Global. Dial exclusively broadcasts all NFL primetime games, the Playoffs and the Super Bowl. Interestingly, an overwhelming majority of tuned in on AM or FM radio, versus Sirius XM or the Verizon Mobile App.
Football may be a highly visual event, but “This survey shows that in addition, many millions of people are seeking out coverage of the games on the radio,” said Larry Rosin, Edison Research President, in a statement on the company’s website. Edison Research conducted the survey on Monday, January 23, polling 901 adults over the telephone. The survey has a ±3% margin of error.
Dial Global has 100% coverage of the U.S., with a core demographic of adults 25-54.
Report: Consumers Know “Too Little” About HD Radio
However broad and high-quality its offerings, HD radio is achieving no progress in consumers’ understand of or enthusiasm for it. All Access Music Group covered some findings by media thinktank Mark Kassoff & Co., and among those findings:
- A majority of Americans (54%) have heard of HD radio and understand its value prospect of CD-quality sound for FM stations, and FM-quality sound for AM stations
- Another 16% have heard of it but know nothing
- Only 8% understand that HD radio delivers more channels and choices
Kasoff went on to describe some specific quotes from his 670-listener survey. “I’ve heard of it, but don’t know what it is and don’t have one.” “It’s, uh, I haven’t heard much about it. It’s high definition.”
Part of the challenge is one of confusing HD with satellite radio—a premium service. A full 6% of those who had heard of HD radio believed that it actually is satellite radio.
The bottom line is that “The industry still faces a big challenge marketing HD Radio.” While it made perfect marketing sense to dub itself HD (which connotes better quality listening), the industry must focus as well upon more choices, and to distinguish itself from satellite—chiefly, that HD radio is no cost to listeners.
Pandora Claims Localized Markets Gained Massive Audience, Listening Time in 2011
Pandora, the personalized online radio provider has announced its 2011 full year ratings, and claims an average quarter hour (AQH) 1.0 among adults 18-34 in top radio markets.
Pandora claims ratings hikes of—
- 50 to 100 percent growth in in all of the top radio markets for adults ages 18-34 and 18-49
- 100 percent in the New York, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Boston metro survey areas (MSA)
According to a press release, an AQH rating of 1.0 means an average of 1% of a target population listening for five or more minutes within a quarter hour, and between 6.00 a.m. and midnight.
Pandora claimed 44 to 75% cume increases in each local market, and with the Atlanta and Dallas-Ft. Worth areas posting the largest cume gains. A cume is the weekly measure of the total number of unique Pandora listeners in a given market. During the December 2011 holiday season, ratings revealed that Pandora reached an AQH of 1% among adults ages 18-34, and a weekly cume of 22+% in each of the top local radio metro survey areas.
The findings were compiled and vetted by market research firm Edison Research, which analyzed Pandora data to determine exactly how many listeners tuned in and how long each listened. Edison did not include Pandora One subscribers, who pay a premium not to listen to advertisements.
Clear Channel Rebrands, Dumps “Radio” From Masthead
Clear Channel Radio has announced that it has changed its name, effective immediately, to Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. This says the company will “better reflect the evolution of its business.”
The core of Clear Channel’s business will remain its more 85O+ radio stations. But, the company delivers content across numerous platforms, including broadcast stations, online, via iHeartRadio and other websites, HD digital radio channels, satellite, smartphones and iPads, among other platforms. Clear Channel CEO Media and Entertainment CEO John Hogan said “Radio is both our history and the foundation upon which we will grow our company moving forward. That will not change,” but the company is committed to serving “our increasingly diverse audiences and local communities with the best content…wherever they expect it.” Given the breadth of platforms, Hogan believes the company provides advertisers with “multi-platform marketing opportunities that reach, activate and engage target audiences like no one else.”
The company in September hosted what it claims is the biggest live concert event in radio history, being the two-day iHeartRadio Music Festival. The concert celebrated the launch of the New iHeartRadio, which “reinvented the digital radio experience” with access to 800+ live broadcast and digital-only radio stations, along with user-created custom stations and social media integration.
Media Measurement an Illusion, Says Ad Research Foundation CEO
“What does it mean that Coke has 36 million Facebook followers?” blogged Advertising Research Foundation CEO Bob Barocci on the AdAge site. Barocci described the oft-heard complaint that digital metrics are hard to quantify; but he called the simpler days of ad metrics a myth. Twenty years ago, “a brand looked bigger to the consumer if you were in two media.” A company then might enjoy a good score on 24-hour aided recall, but even then, major advertisers were reluctant to trace market share gains to that recall. “No cause and effect then…as now.”
Now the CMO is tasked with dividing ad spend among far more numerous platforms, and dealing with their complexities. The global research director of Kraft Foods described the dilemma to brand advertisers as this: which five of 100 or more touch points that influence consumers should he buy? Mobile phones promise more exposures, but are also driving discounting; should a CMO thus avoid the burgeoning platform? In social media, is recall more or less valuable than likability? “With all the data we have these days, I think we should be finding answers to some of these questions,” wrote Barocci, “But we're not.”
Barocci credits Google with putting significant resources toward analytics, with initiatives like its Advertising Format Impact project to measure the impact of multiple video formats on multiple platforms. Barocci described the Foundation’s multisponsor Arrowhead Project, with a mission to answer the question “What ideas do people get from digital/social media when making a purchase?” The project focuses upon three test categories which vary in length of the consumer purchase process; consumer packaged goods, which are short-term; smart phones, being mid-term; and automobiles, a long-term decision. ARF will present its findings at its March Re:think conference.
Radio Not A Dying Form Factor, But An Evolving One at CES
Radio is the subject of a “flurry of news releases at CES,” being the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But as Radio World describes, “you may have to expand your definition” of the word “radio.”
Among other announcements at CES, TuneIn Radio released a smartphone app that is compatible with Ford’s voice-controlled Sync system. This is a free service and app with access to 50,000 AM, FM, HD and Internet stations.
Subaru is working with Harman to provide its Aha platform in Subaru models. This is a cloud-based platform that enables drivers to use Internet radio content. Harman describes Aha as “the Web-connected ‘fourth band’ of radio, alongside AM, FM and satellite radio.” Aha provides Internet radio from Shoutcast, CBS Radio and Slacker, among other providers.
Slacker and Verizon Wireless debuted the Slacker Radio application for Android, optimized for 4G LTE connections. This the companies described is “A highly visual application [that] features a unique station tile display [and] the ability to preview stations before playing and an optimized ability to browse for content, making music discovery even easier.”
Internet radio may get a boost in Europe, where Ford will cease fitting new models with CD players, in favor of MP3, USB and Bluetooth devices. Drivers will bring their own music on mobile devices, giving them the ability to stream Internet radio.
Research: Social Media No Substitute for Offline Ads
Offline channels still hold the reins in brand and product awareness, reports eMarketer, despite the talk of “viral marketing” and social media “influencers. eMarketer was quoting market research by AYTM, which found that 57.8% of US Facebook users had not any brand in a status updates as of October 2011. Similarly, 61.3% of Twitter users had never “tweeted” about a brand. Of those consumers who claimed to hear frequently about new brands, only 6.5% did so frequently, and 26% reported they never heard of new brands through social media.
Where they did hear about new brands, products and services: TV, radio, and offline print outlets. Sixteen percent did so “most frequently,” 34.9% did so often, 31.8% sometimes, 13% rarely, 4.2% never.
Pandora Tops November Internet Audio Ranking
Digital service provider Triton Digital released its November internet audio rankings, and Pandora dominated a pack of 20. Pandora trounced second-place Clear Channel Radio, with “average active sessions” of 1.06 million versus Clear Channel’s 168,173. Pandora advertisers include (for banner ads), Vistaprint of cheap business card fame, and online businesses like LivingSocial and OurTime (for singles over 50), and BookIt.com. Toyota is a customer of both banner and streaming video..
Triton uses the proprietary Webcast Metrics audience measurement platform. It ranks audiences on the basis of “Average Active Sessions”, with "Session Starts" and “Average Time Spent Listening” also displayed.
The Top 20 “Rankers” for November are as follows:
1. PANDORA
2. CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO
3. CBS RADIO
4. CUMULUS STREAMING NETWORK
5. SLACKER
6. ENTERCOM COMMUNICATIONS
7. ESPN RADIO
8. COX RADIO
9. EMF
10. DIGITALLY IMPORTED
11. RADIO ONE
12. GREATER MEDIA
13. ACCURADIO
14. EMMIS COMMUNICATIONS
15. SALEM COMMUNICATIONS
16. UNIVISION
17. HUBBARD BROADCASTING
18. TOWNSQUARE MEDIA
19. WNYCRADIO
20. 977MUSIC.COM