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How Do Smartphone Owners Feel About Radio Stations? (Pt 3)
July 1, 2013
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Let's continue examining the revealing data from NuVoodoo's recent national study of radio listeners 18-54. The biggest headline, as we have seen, is just how quickly our audience is shifting to the "digital lifestyle." Their pocket computers (which we quaintly call "smartphones") are rapidly becoming their go-to tool for nearly everything. Which of course will increasingly include radio listening. Over the past two weeks we have begun, and this week we continue, to address a question critical to our industry: At this early stage in life-via-smartphone, how does Radio fare? So far, we have we showed you that radio listeners who are also smartphone owners are inclined to be slightly more, not less, attached to their favorite Music stations, and their favorite News/Talk stations, than are than the Muggles who don't own smartphones. That is very encouraging, and confirms that this audience is still ours to maintain or lose. This week, let's turn our attention to their Morning Drive attachment.
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Let’s continue examining the revealing data from NuVoodoo’s recent national study of radio listeners 18-54. The biggest headline, as we have seen, is just how quickly our audience is shifting to the “digital lifestyle.”  Their pocket computers (which we quaintly call “smartphones”) are rapidly becoming their go-to tool for nearly everything. Which of course will increasingly include radio listening.
Over the past two weeks we have begun, and this week we continue, to address a question critical to our industry: At this early stage in life-via-smartphone, how does Radio fare? So far, we have we showed you that radio listeners who are also smartphone owners are inclined to be slightly more, not less, attached to their favorite Music stations, and their favorite News/Talk stations, than are than the Muggles who don’t own smartphones. That is very encouraging, and confirms that this audience is still ours to maintain or lose.Â
This week, let’s turn our attention to their Morning Drive attachment.
Compare the no-smartphone folks on the left side of this chart to the digitized folks on the right. Looks remarkably similar to what we saw with Music Radio, and with News/Talk Radio. At this early point in time, Radio looks just fine among listeners who have a computer in their pocket. So far, attachment to a favorite Morning Show is actually slightly higher, not lower, among listeners who have bought smartphones.
Or, put another way, those who value a Radio Morning Show in their daily lives at a 4 or higher on a 6-point scale are actually slightly more likely to be smartphone owners than those who are less attached to a Talk station.Â
What this means to you
We certainly aren’t suggesting that Radio has some significant advantage among smartphone people. The point is, simply, that in 2013, Radio does not have a disadvantage among them.
In other words, we are still at ground zero. The act of acquiring and owning a smartphone itself does not make a listener less attached to their favorite music station, news/talk station, or morning shows.
Now, it is up to us to make sure this continues. This about how we market our radio stations to an audience that is rapidly converting to living digitally.   Â
If our audiences were converting to getting their radio listening through their TV’s, it would make complete sense to put our marketing muscle on TV. Instead, they are converting to getting it through their hand-held computers.Â
Other businesses that will also depend on the personal digital device for their well-being understand this megatrend. They are making sure they have continued high-frequency top-of-mind visibility on their target’s smartphones. For them, it’s a no-brainer. A classic case of smart “Point-Of-Purchase Advertising.” So how long is the Radio Industry going to wait? How much attrition to our new digital competition will we have to see, before we catch on too?
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