A new youth research project from Capital Radio has revealed that 86% of 7-18 year olds recognise and remember radio ads, while 61% enjoy listening to commercials. The youth market, is however, extremely fickle when it comes to the quality of radio ads, with 75% saying they can tell if a company has made a shoddy commercial. These findings, from Capital Radio’s ‘Capital Youth’ survey, were revealed by Abbie Rawson and Andy Carter at last night’s MRG Evening Meeting.
The pair went on to discuss some of the key findings of the survey and drew three broad conclusions about the benefits of radio as an advertising medium: it has an enhanced status at a time of media proliferation; it plays a unique role in kids’ lives; it is an under-exploited medium.
The main reason the Capital team gave for the “enhanced” status of radio was its presence in young people’s bedrooms which are regarded as “inner sanctums”, where the medium is on their own terms and readily available (79% of respondents have radios in their bedrooms). 80% of respondents also engaged in solitary listening.
In terms of the role radio plays, the findings suggest that the medium is seen as intimate and trusted, free from parental censorship and regarded as an entertainment source. 62% of respondents also said that listening to the radio helped them to relax. While radio is often considered a good “background” medium, Carter stressed that it should not be seen as some kind of “wallpaper”, but a medium which enhances moods and helps people in everyday tasks such as getting ready to go out.
Carter then discussed the theory of ‘subliminal’ reception to radio ads. While there was limited unprompted recall of ads, respondents were able to recognise brands and products when played examples of recent campaigns. Groups were also very good at remembering jingles and sonic logos. Types of ads likely to influence consumer behaviour were for records/music (according to 91% of respondents), concert tickets (65%), clothes (56%) and shoes (41%).
In response to a question from the floor regarding the composition of radio audiences and the issue of effective targeting, Abbie Rawson said that while morning shows had a very wide-ranging audience, evening slots had a more selected audience with a high proportion of young listeners. Concern was also expressed about measuring ad saturation and while Carter admitted this had not been considered in the survey, he believed this to be an issue which boiled down more to the creative quality of an ad. In response to a question regarding “channel-switching” among radio audiences, Rawson pointed out that youths generally tend to widen the number of stations they listen to as they get older.
