With Election Day less than five months away, campaigns are busy developing their advertising strategies. The question is what medium to pick: television, radio, print, online and mobile are all options this cycle. But which medium works best?
With the growth of online options, radio isn’t as popular. Still, I believe the old standby deserves a second look. Now, admittedly, some radio statistics are problematic. For instance, the Consumer Electronics Association (CES) recently reported that the time people spend listening to the radio is down 47 percent from last year. But, and this is a big one, Arbitron reports that the number of people listening to the radio has gone up.
In a nutshell, more people are listening to the radio, but for less time.
The audience for radio increased slightly year over year this June, by almost 600,000 persons. Moreover, almost 93 percent of the population aged 12 and over listen to the radio. Over 95 percent of adults age 18 to 49 with a household income of $75,000 or more tune into radio on a weekly basis. We believe most do this while in the car.
What campaigns should think about, however, is whether or not their message will be heard on this medium, considering we now spend 47 percent less time listening to the radio than we did last year.
Cami Zimmer began her Washington career working at The White House. For over a decade, Zimmer worked on public policy issues, managed campaigns and ran non-profit organizations. She has spent the last seven years as an entrepreneur.