by Columnist/Blogger STEVE KOWCH
From where I sit On The Kowch, radio sales managers probably won’t be sharing with advertisers the findings of the latest CRN International study on the impact long commercial breaks have on listeners. That’s because the listening habits of 525 radio listeners polled blows up the myth that people don’t tune out when the music stops for commercials. They might not change the station, but mentally they stop paying attention to what is on the radio until the music resumes.
When it comes to radio advertising, clients in the United States will be spending $16 Billion in 2014 to reach their share of the 244 million Americans that listen to radio every week.
“Almost seven out of 10 respondents said they don’t make it past the second in a series of spots during the commercial break; 64 percent said they don’t make it past the first,” says the study. “The law of diminishing returns applies, according to the survey, as spots get further and further down the order within the commercial set. Even for avid radio listeners—those respondents who said they listen several hours a day—31 percent said they listen to the first commercial but no more.”
As if this wasn’t enough bad news for radio sales managers, 80 per cent of the respondents to the Connecticut-based national ad agency study, said they pay very little attention to the traditional 30 second or 60 second commercials. The study found these commercial formats, length, content and placement within the commercial breaks, hinder their effectiveness in converting consumers to buyers.
READ THE REST OF STEVE KOWCH’s COLUMN HERE.
