Radio's 'Most Valuable Listeners' Identified

Study Of Women's Listening Concludes

Research results released YESTERDAY (8/5) by ALAN BURNS AND ASSOCIATES identified four groups of consumers that CEO ALAN BURNS calls "MVLs," or most-valuable listeners.

According to the BURNS study of over 2,000 women age 15-54, radio’s MVLs are both heavier listeners and more loyal to their P1 station. The four groups are:

* At-work listeners, who are 50% more likely than others to be radio’s heaviest users

* "Social Media Highly Actives," 78% of whom listen to three hours or more radio daily

* Listeners who visit station websites or join listener or rewards clubs

* Listeners who join station FACEBOOK pages; they are 71% more likely to be heavy radio users.

"There is some overlap among those groups," notes BURNS, "but if you take care of all four, you will do extremely well."

Other findings from today’s at-work and digital-marketing-focused results include:

* At-work radio listeners tend to be more personality-friendly; they are more likely to value entertaining morning shows and to enjoy air personalities in general.

* As a source of music in the workplace, radio now competes with iPODS, non-radio music streams, satellite radio, and other music systems. At-work music listeners say their usual sources of music at work now are 54% Radio, 23% iPODS/other digital devices or audio equipment, 15% non-radio music streams online and 7% satellite radio.

* 24% of at-work radio listeners now say they listen to local radio via online streaming.

* Women who listen to non-radio sources at work tend to be "avoiders" who turn away from too many/too annoying commercials, too much talk, or other known tune-outs.

The most recent webinar concluded a series of four presented by DMR that summarized what BURNS AND ASSOCIATES says is the largest study of female radio listeners ever conducted. All four presentations are available at www.burnsradio.com.

For more information contact ALAN BURNS at (251) 980-7070, or alan@burnsradio.com.

Burns Wraps Up His Findings For All Access

Said BURNS, "Now that we’ve interviewed over 2,000 women, concluded all four webinars and released a cosmic ton of data, I thought I would look back over the entire study and cherry-pick what I think are the most important results exclusively for ALL ACCESS."

* Radio’s biggest strengths are that it’s free and easy and that when done well it connects listeners to each other and a wider world. That is something that, for now, isn’t done well -- if at all -- by iPODS and music streams.

* Radio’s biggest issues are digital media, commercial load/bad commercials, and relevance to younger listeners.

* The young end, radio’s future adult audience, is in jeopardy, as 57% of 15-24s say they can imagine a day when they won’t need radio for listening to music.

* iPODS and other digital players have had more impact on radio to date than online music streams, but streaming is growing.

* Forming attachments to people on the air is a huge key to radio’s long-term future.

* There is a 50/50 attitude toward air personalities in general. Half the audience likes them and is probably willing to give you a few seconds to get to the point; for the other half, we need to say something useful/entertaining and get right to the point. There’s no doubt we’re seeing this in PPM results.

* Radio still dominates all sources for new music discovery. And there is a huge conceptual appetite for new music -- probably more than can be safely served on the air.

* Getting radio receivers enabled in cell phones would be a large boost to radio usage. We should be able to get that done as an industry, because our research shows a lot of cell phone purchase decisions would go toward radio-enabled phones.

* Top 40 fans pointed us to two things they like most about radio. One is entertaining personalities, the other is a surprise: instead of voting for "I can always find my favorite song" they gravitated to "I can always find out what’s popular."

* Hip-hop still drives Rhythmic Top 40, but has slipped to 4th in Mainstream Top 40, where Pop rules.

* In AC, there’s a sharp break in music and artist preferences at age 40. Below 40 it’s the newer artists; over 40 it’s the tried-and-true traditional AC stars. Soft Pop and 80s pop-rock cross that line fairly well.

* One of the three most important morning show elements to these women may surprise some people: it’s "play a lot of music." The other two, of course, are "make me laugh" and "keep me informed."

* Women are other-directed beings who put other people, and their relationships with them, ahead of material needs and entertainment. This gives you two opportunities: talk to them about relationships, and offer them guilt-free selfish pleasures.

* And as we detailed in yesterday’s webinar, the four MVLs -- Most Valuable Listeners -- for radio are; at-work listeners, "online radioactives" who visit your web site or join your database or rewards club, people who join your FACEBOOK page and women who are highly active in online social media.

All those groups listen to more radio, and are more loyal to their P1, than other listeners.

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