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IN-CAR STRATEGIES Chris Byrnes At the recent NAB conference in Philadelphia, the one session to me that really stood out as being worthwhile was conducted by Larry Rosin of Edison Research. In July of this year they interviewed 1505 people who had returned an Arbitron diary and asked about their in-car radio listening habits. Their findings are very interesting and I believe have implications for radio stations no matter the market size or location.
The Opportunity: The results clearly show that in-car listening is growing while listening at home and at work is declining. The good news is that most people, in fact 98.4% of all people sampled, had driven or been a passenger in a non public transport vehicle in the past month and had listened to the radio. 39% of all people are now spending more time in their car than one year ago, mainly because traffic is getting worse. The average commute time is a little over two hours a day but this is not limited to Monday to Friday. On weekends, the time spent in the car is still two hours a day because people are running errands, picking up the kids, visiting friends or driving to church.
Where To Find Men: In a normal week the average male commuter traveled 600 kilometers while women traveled just 382, so it will come as no surprise that the car is now the number one listening location for men, accounting for 39% of their listening. And every year the percentage of in-car listening is growing, so capturing this tuning is becoming increasingly more important. The study showed 33% of tuning by all people 12+ happens in the car these days. By format males are more likely to listen to Alternative (38%), News/Talk (37%), Rock (37%), Oldies (35%) or Country (34%) while driving.
Size Does Not Matter: Don't dismiss this as only a large market phenomenon. Even in small markets such as Sussex, New Jersey, 54% of all radio listening is now done in the car. 43% of all radio listening in Panama City, Florida takes place in the car, and in Jackson, Tennessee it's 41%, so one could assume that the same trends likely apply in Canada.
The Early Bird: People get to work a lot earlier these days and nearly 50% of all commuters are at work by 8am, with a growing number (16%) arriving at their work place in the 6am hour. This may force some radio stations to re-think not starting the morning show until 6am. By the way, the study also found that as many as 21% of workers arrive after 9am. People are also leaving work earlier. Nearly 50% of all workers are gone from work by 5pm and most workers are on the road and listening to the radio in the 5pm hour, which creates a real opportunity, providing your station gets the credit for that tuning. We all know that flexi-time now means more people have the choice to work outside the normal 9 to 5 work day, so radio stations need to think more about this as they plan their programming and decide when they should be live, and when they can afford to voice track.
Radio Is Still King: 96% of in-car commuters listen to the radio either all of the time or most of the time when driving. The CD player gets used 19% of the time and the cell phone just 12%. The new gadgets such as DVD, Mpeg, GPS and Satellite are seldom used even if available. The good news is 69% of all people said if they could only have one device in their car it would be the radio. That grows to 75% with adults, but the concern for the future for radio is that less than half of all 12-24 said they would pick a radio. CD's and DVD are becoming more popular with these young people.
We Need To Make Radios Cool: More and more people are interested in having their car radio display important information such as traffic, news headlines and weather. 65% of people said they'd like to be able to search by radio format. 65% are also interested in getting weather information on the radio display. 61% of people said they'd like to see the title and artist of the song that is playing. This is something that satellite radio does today as standard. 59% of respondents wanted traffic information displayed on their radio. As an industry we need to encourage and embrace this new technology and not treat it as a fad that will pass.
Not the Cell Phone: One of the surprising findings in the research is that cell phone usage in cars is not as high as most radio executives think. The feeling is that most radio executives spend a lot of time on their cell phones (talking to other radio executives?) and therefore conclude that most other people do the same. In fact, 45% of all people questioned said they either do not have a cell phone or never use their cell phone while driving. 13% almost never and only 12% said they frequently use the cell phone when they're in the car. It seems that cell phones are not stealing much time from radio listening in the car.
The Key To Winning: Your radio station must be assigned a button on their car radio. 89% have their favorite stations setup on pre-set buttons. 69% said all of the stations they listen to are on one of their pre-set buttons and almost 90% said that the radio station they listen to most is on one of their pre-sets. This means that pre-sets are "the gate keepers" to car radio listening. On average, the number of FM pre-set buttons is five while the number of AM stations they have tuned is less than two. Most pre-sets stay set, and a whopping 60% say the buttons were set 6-months ago or longer. The research clearly shows most feel it is too much of a hassle to change the pre-sets. So if your radio station changes format, part of your strategy and marketing should be dedicated to getting people to add your station to one of their pre-sets. What strategies are you developing to get a button on all car radios? You might consider a partnership with car dealers, interior car-care or automotive companies. In-car station searching is far greater than when these people are at home or at work. People will scan the band when they are in the car, while they seldom change the channel when they are at work or at home.
Is Satellite Radio A Threat?: Only 34% of those surveyed were aware of satellite radio, but less than 1% had a satellite system installed. What is interesting is that 50% said they have no need for satellite radio, 20% said they are not very interested and only 8% of people said they were very interested. It would appear people are not interested in paying for satellite radio or going to the expense of having it retro fitted into their car. However if it is pre-installed in a rental car or a new car the level of interest grows from 8% to 15%, which is why the satellite radio people are doing deals with the big auto makers to have satellite radio installed right in the factory. They are also offering it as a bonus when you rent a car in the hope that once you experience satellite radio, your level of interest will grow. Of the people who are the most interested in satellite radio, they are more likely to be men 18-24 and more likely to be CHR or Urban listeners. While none of this may seem relevant to Canadians yet, we should keep our eye on what happens south of the border because if satellite radio is evenly modestly successful, a similar model will soon evolve here.
Traffic Information Is Important: 50% of North Americans rely on radio for their traffic information, but television is eating away at radio's share. Nearly 1/3 of all those sampled now rely on television for traffic information while a growing number [5%] click on the internet before they hit the road. Traffic is also becoming more important outside of the standard "rush hour" periods. 80% of those sampled said knowing about traffic problems was more important than following a particular route. The major complaint is that even if the radio station has the traffic problem covered, it is very unlikely the traffic reporter will suggest the best alternative route.
Contact Larry Rosin at (908) 707-4707 or e-mail lrosin@edisonresearch.com. |
