Are Smartphoners Streaming Radio?

Each week, in this space, we have been discussing smartphones.  We have shared with you many key findings from NuVoodoo’s 2013 national studies of Radio listeners 18-54. 

Essential take-away #1: Daily tasks, social patterns, lifestyle habits, entertainment, and consumer behavior are all moving rapidly onto our phones.  A massive culture shift is in progress.

Essential take-away #2: Radio stations can still get in on the ground floor and protect the audiences we have.  Radio listeners who own smartphones are still listening to and valuing radio stations as much as listeners who do not.  They are not sliding down a slippery slope.  Their TSL, behavioral patterns, and emotional attachment to stations all closely resemble those of non-smartphoners.

Put those two take-aways together, and we get a very clear message:  This is a great moment of opportunity for Radio, this time, to get ahead of a curve.  And change the future to one we control.  Not simply by making sure we stream well and talking about it on air.  But by constantly reaching out and touching the ever-growing smartphone culture.  Where they live.  Building a strong beachhead now.

So … is that shift to smartphone listening actually happening?  In case there was any doubt, let’s look at the numbers.  We asked respondents whether, and where, they were using their smartphones to listen to AM/FM stations.

As we can see from this chart, smartphone streaming is indeed happening.   Now of course, not all these listeners are streaming all the time.  But all of them are doing so at least some of the time.  Just over one in ten is already streaming at work.  Just under two in ten are already streaming in the car.  Despite the convenience of their in-dash car radio.  And just over one in ten is streaming radio into the ear-buds in other places … in the home, walking around, at home and at various third venues. 

What this means to you

As listening patterns shift to the smartphone, Radio has an opportunity to steer this shift.  These folks still like us and want to like us, even as they become more digitally-attuned. 

Now, Radio has missed other opportunities over the past couple decades by staying on the sidelines too long and falling behind the curve.  So here’s our challenge.  What if we can actually seize this moment?  Invest our ad budgets aggressively in smartphone media with a smartphone message?  Position and relentlessly promote ourselves ahead of the curve this time? 

If we step up now, Radio will enjoy the perfect three-fold advantage in the coming conversion to smartphone streaming:

(1) Incumbency. 

(2) The perception of being a 21st Century product, not a 20th century product with a newfangled 21st Century doodad adaptor. 

(3) Dominating the conversation … and controlling the conversion … with the sheer volume and omnipresence of our constant on-phone advertising.

Or, we can just worry about the future when we get there.  That always works.