Data that shows radio helps consumers decide what to purchase shortly before they make the cash register ring will come as no surprise to seasoned managers and AEs. However, it’s always helpful to have more — and current — data to back up that claim.
On Tuesday, Mediavest | Spark and iHeartMedia released the results of a joint study that measures the correlation of various media and how they influence consumers’ purchase decisions. The results showed that all types of audio are now influencing consumers as they gear up to make a purchase.
The study measured consumers’ use of different media as they were headed to make a purchase. Audio, out of home, print, TV, digital video, search, and social media were all part of the study. The study analyzed the overall purchase journey behavior of 5,000 consumers.
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As this next chart shows, AM/FM radio (light blue bars) is now in a bit of a battle with streaming audio (middle bars) and Satellite radio (darkest blue bars) as consumers get ready to make a purchase. The good news is, audio, no matter what form, ranks high when it comes to consumers getting ready to break out their plastic. However, at the time of the actual purchase, the strongest relationship is with satellite radio.
One of the reasons the study was being done was to measure the impact social media and search would have in the purchase process, and whether or not radio/audio was taking a hit because of the popularity of social and search.
The study concluded that the strongest relationship is seen consistently for audio and out of home. “There was a 90 percent or greater correlation between purchase consideration (across categories) and exposure to any audio or any out-of-home media in the half-hour before. This compares with a 33 percent correlation with any digital video, a 53 percent correlation with any print, and a 55 percent correlation with any television. Not surprisingly, search and social are also strongly related to purchase consideration.”