Justin Sampson – ‘The Evolution Of Listening Behaviour’, A Synopsis
Justin Sampson, director of operations, Radio Advertising Bureau
As the oldest of broadcast media, radio has had to re-define itself over the course of this century to adapt to new competitive media. But then, the medium itself is undergoing dramatic growth in the number of stations competing for listeners ears. Ten years ago a station that achieved less than 10 per cent penetration of its transmission area would have been called either a failure or Radio 3. Today there are a number of stations that thrive with such penetration figures.
A question often asked in this context is what impact this expansion in choice has had on listening behaviour. Specifically there is a view held in some quarters that listener promiscuity is an issue – we would caution against relying on the sample of one in this instance.
It is true that some sectors of the population are more actively tuning around the dial than others, however the demographic profile of these listeners is suspiciously close to the demographic profile of people who work in the advertising and marketing industry. It is worth highlighting the continued loyalty of radio listeners, with well over a third tuning to only one station each week and the average number of stations tuned to in London being only 2.1each week.
But how do listeners use this repertoire? New research from the RAB into this issue has highlighted two different types of radio listening which illuminate how radio listeners use their repertoire. Habitual listening is what you do in the morning when you’re getting ready for work, or getting the kids to school. Habitual listening also occurs during the day, particularly in the workplace. The nature of this type of listening means that the stations that are most likely to be used in this mode are those stations with larger audience levels.
Discretionary listening is what you do at times of greater leisure. For the majority of the readers of this piece this probably means weekday evenings and weekends. The act of turning the radio on is more conscious and is often driven by an appointment to listen to a particular show. The key benefit of discretionary listening occasions are that they are a more focused, front of mind experience, with listeners having higher attention levels to the programming. It is in this mode that listeners will use their repertoire and when stations with more specialist output come into their own.
The two types of listening are not mutually exclusive as there is an element of discretion in choosing your station of habit, and a degree of habit in tuning to specialist music shows. It is true to say that habitual listening takes place when audiences are at their peak, however it should also be remembered, when considering discretionary listening occasions, that half of all adults tune to the radio during weekday evenings, for an average of just under 50 minutes a day – hardly a ghetto.
The conclusion of the research analysis is that stations that are used predominantly for habitual listening are probably good vehicles for building the core cover and frequency of radio campaigns as a result of their larger audiences, while those that are used predominantly for discretionary listening should perform well if brand association and environmental positioning are important to the campaign plan.