In his latest blog posting, Cumulus/Westwood One Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard has laid out some data for radio stations to take to clients as the all-important fourth-quarter holiday shopping season gets ready to launch. The final three months of the year have typically been radio’s best, and Bouvard lays out the forecast for the shopping season and how radio should be participating in snatching up those Q4 advertising dollars.
Bouvard first quotes numbers from Deloitte, which expects a 3.6% to 4% increase in November through January holiday sales, and the Chamber of Commerce which states that while e-commerce is growing, 93% of sales still occur offline. “Americans still flock to discount and department stores for holiday shopping.” So how does radio fit into all of this. Here’s what Bouvard says…
He says radio is the best way to reach holiday shoppers because 94% of adults 25-54 are reached by radio during holiday weeks. “During holidays, media habits can become erratic and shift — not so with radio. AM/FM radio reaches virtually all shoppers around the holidays. AM/FM even has strong reach on holiday weekends: 77% during Thanksgiving weekend and 74% on Christmas weekend.
Bouvard also says radio, and outdoor, influence purchases the most. “A major retail shopping study conducted by Starcom Mediavest revealed that media closest to the point of purchase have the greatest impact on sales. Starcom found a lower correction to purchase with TV, print, and digital video. Want spectacular retail holiday sales? Put AM/FM radio on your holiday media plan.”
You can read Bouvard’s entire blog HERE, complete with snazzy looking charts and graphs for you to take out to your clients.
All well and good.
But this stuff should have been here in August, pitched to clients in late August and closed no later than early September. The major Christmas buys have been made. And radio wonders why Christmas isn’t like it used to be.
Radio will fool around with trying to get Christmas money that has been largely spent, wasting time into November/December when it should be selling the first quarter. Then, radio will say the first quarter is bad again. Any money it gets for Christmas will come from the back of a buyer’s drawer. When radio constantly shows up at a client pitching seasons that have already been purchased, the buyer thinks we don’t understand his business-and he’s right.