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Doing Diary Duty, Part II
November 8, 2005
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In-Car Trends
Are Americans spending more time in their cars? Would you say you're personally encountering more traffic than you were one year ago? As you're sure to agree, time spent in car (as driver or passenger per weekday or weekend day) has increased.
And what about daily commute patterns? The number is nearly equal to the time spent in car. For instance, on a national average, 14% of our waking life is being spent in cars. Here in southern California, we know that number is going to be even higher.
Men spend more time in cars than women do, with longer commutes than women have. The average time spent listening is 2:05 for both women and men on weekends. Almost 56% of the time they're the driver and alone. In-car listening is up while home and work listening has decreased.
From 1999 to 2003, the year-to-date statistics from Mon-Sun 6AM-12 Midnight indicate in-car listening is gaining as a percent of total listening. Men are heavier in-car radio users than women. In-car listening peaks at 35-44 (Male.) In-car listening is not only a major market concern. There is a concern about the percent of total radio listening done in car.
Whites spend more time listening in-car than do blacks and Hispanics. Why? Because they live further away from their work. In-car listening is crucial to all formats. For Urban/Urban AC stations, 30% of total listening is done in a car (often to a signal that is less than ideal).
When is drive time? As audiences move through the course of a day, we find that listening does peak in the 7:00 - 8:00 AM hour. This is nearly as high in the 4:00-5:00 PM hour. In-car is more than half of all listening from 5:00 - 6:00 PM. More than half of workers' drive time is over before 8:00 AM. The 9-5 concept is actually used by very few people. People who work outside the home have gotten to their workplace by 8:00 AM. Nearly half of workers leave work before 5:00 P.M.
Radio is overwhelmingly the device most used in the car. But all is not well. Radio is less dominant in-car among 12-24 year olds. Here's a quick look at the percentages of those spending the most time with radio in car.
12-17 year olds - 67%
18-24 year olds - 55%
Radio is the most essential in-car device for a large majority (AM/FM 69%). Radio is much less essential in-car among 12-24 year olds. There is a high interest in current and future radio display technologies. To be able to search for radio by format, you must search for stations offering weather information on demand. That often means searching for the strongest signal.
Satellite radio familiarity has not yet translated into mass subscriptions. Almost one third of the sample is not interested in satellite radio.
Interest in satellite radio increases with pre-install option. Interest in satellite radio is highest among men and 12-24 year olds. They are the people who care the most about music. There is a widely varying interest in satellite radio by format preference. Very few say they are likely to subscribe to satellite radio in the next 6 months.
Almost all in-car listening goes to pre-set radio stations (69%). P1 stations are overwhelmingly programmed on pre-set buttons. Pre-set buttons are programmed to far more FM stations than AM. Many don't have a single AM station pre-programmed. Most have five pre-sets. Most presets stay set.
Once programmed, most agree it is not worth the hassle to change preset buttons. Those in-car change the radio station most often. People are much more likely to change in car than at home or at work. Short bursts of content are usually followed by short bursts of stop-sets. Maybe what needs to happen going forward are longer bursts of content followed by longer bursts of commercials.
Traffic Reports
When you want the latest traffic information, where do you go first? Radio. Two-thirds of the adult audience is at least somewhat interested in rush hour traffic reports. Naturally heavy commuters are more likely to be interested in traffic reports than those with a lighter commute.
Which format's listeners care most about traffic reports? News/talk followed by AC. Rock is fifth. Urban/Urban AC is eighth. Listeners in all formats want to know the best ways to avoid traffic problems. You might want to consider long sweeps as a high in-car listening strategy. What else can we do to get listeners to give us a pre-set? Consider creative pre-set strategies -- potential partnerships with new and used cars.
People still really want to know the title and artist of a song and be able to search for a station by format. People in southern California are spending more and more time in cars. One future strategy might be to expand your appeal among 18-24 year-old males, and aggressively target this vital segment. There are some composite-hour theories and concepts that can help you there.
Now let's briefly look at in-car buying decisions that can result in sales. Recent planning starts with the idea that "when" is the critical variable rather than "how many" -- in other words, advertising effects can also be affected.
For those targeting consumers close to purchase, PM drive is the most logical time. Workers make many stops on the commute home. Two out of five consumers don't make the decision to shop until the last minute. An in-car commercial can deliver immediate results for an advertiser. Who are the heavy in-car consumers? Households with $100K annual income that include males 35-54.
Next week, we'll conclude our exploration of Arbitron with a look at Internet streaming, the "ratings and revenue" connection, and PPM technology.
Word.
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