10-22-2012
by Ed Ryan
TargetSpot has released a study called ?Attitudes Towards Digital Audio Advertising? that was conducted by Parks Associates. The information comes from an online survey of 1,000 Internet radio listeners conducted over 10 days in January. The survey participants listened to Internet radio anywhere from once a month to every day. And while the study touts the relevance of targeted ads over traditional radio ads, in reality, the difference is small and may provide good news for radio.
TargetSpot and Parks Associates conclude that "Internet Radio listeners are more tolerant of digital audio ads than broadcast AM/FM audience." However, when you dig deep into the results, you might come to the conclusion that radio ads, when compared to targeted over-the-air ads are not much different to the listener. The study says 26% of AM/FM listeners stopped listening to the radio because they did not find an ad personally relevant. It's unclear where TargetSpot came up with that statistic. This study used 1,000 Internet audio listeners and said nothing about AM/FM listeners. The study says compared to that 26% number, Internet radio listeners tuned out only 20% of the time when they did not find an ad personally relevant. If the 26% number for AM/FM listeners is accurate, that is not a large spread when Internet radio's big play is that ads are more relevant to the listener because they are targeted.
Of course, the big elephant in the room for radio, which has yet to be measured, is the overloaded stopsets played on most radio AM and FM stations across the country, which is more likely to be the reason listeners tune out. Not every radio ad needs to be targeted to a listener all the time. It's always going to be difficult for advertisers to know when consumers are in the market to purchase a vehicle, a refrigerator or a new mountain bike. That doesn't mean those categories of advertisers should never market themselves on radio because they are afraid of tune-out. A consumer can enter that market at any time and advertisers should be there when they do.
Advertisers should complain about being the 6th commercial in a pod of 12 when consumers start daydreaming, zoning out or hitting the scan button because it appears regularly scheduled programming will never return. That is an advantage Internet radio has for now, a limited number of interruptions, whether they are targeted or not.
Here are additional findings from the TargetSpot/Parks Associates study of 1,000 Internet Audio listeners:
65% are comfortable receiving ads based on their personal profiles
70% are comfortable receiving ads based on their Internet Radio usage and/or content preference.
59% of Digital Audio listeners like to get coupons, special offers or discounts.
55% don?t mind ads as long as they have free access to their favorite stations.
37 % are willing to ?like? an ad in order to receive discounts or special promotions for the product/service.
34% said they are more likely to remember an advertiser if the media player has the advertiser?s logo or design
30% said that branded stations improved their perception of the sponsoring advertiser.
27% said they were more inclined to buy products from the sponsoring brand.
27% of Digital Audio listeners do not mind getting ads on their mobile device for products/services they are interested in and the same percentage does not mind being targeted based on their physical location.
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