Brian Wright “Growing Platforms”
A new study from Edison/Triton shows us that 44% of Americans say they’ve listened to a podcast at least once. That’s up from last year’s 40%. 22% say they listen to downloads the most the car. That’s up from 18% from last year.
Another finding that I know you will be interested in is the impact of the mega-hyped Google Play and Amazon Alexa. So far 18% of those in the study now own at least one of these and the top of mind awareness level is growing fast. 71% are aware of Amazon Alexa, up from 57%. The Google Home awareness level is at 56%, up from 45%. The growth-pace of these products is at a faster pace than the early days of the smart-phone.
As far as online streaming goes, 31% of Americans have listened to Pandora in the past month with an average time-spent-listening to online audio of
13hrs and 40min, which is down from last year’s 14hrs and 39 min. 44% of those in the sample said they listened to internet audio in a car by using a cell-phone that feeds the car’s audio system.
Terrestrial broadcast radio is King in the car by more than four out of five people which equals 82%. CD use in-car drops below the 50% to 49%.
As you can see, these various cloud-based platforms are growing fast and are invading your listener base. Remember, these platforms don’t need to impact your entire universe of listeners in order to have a universal effect on your ratings. Converting just 6-7 of your Nielson diary holders can be very damaging to you, particularly in narrow target zones.
The solution? Develop your personalities to become emotionally magnetic and masters at setting up appointment-listening. Be locally engaging and constantly involve your listeners on the air. Make sure your brand is given at every opportunity and make sure that brand is burned into all cloud-based streaming devises. You need to be what the streaming devises can’t.
Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming. After many years of success working for individual radio stations and clusters, Brian Joined one of the most trusted consulting firms in the country, Audience Development Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue. Contact Brian at brian@audiencedevelopmentgroup.com
