Pending Business: In Car
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
What happened to us? Unless we move quickly, the radio business stands to lose the final frontier: in-car listening.
The numbers tell a riveting story.
The good news is 92% of Americans listen to the radio every week.
The bad news, according to Edison Research, is only 68% of homes have a radio. All of us who were trained on the 90%-plus penetration of in-home radios are officially out of touch. The in-home radio listening experience is fading fast and there is no trend in sight to reverse it. Smart speakers aside, that bedside clock radio that helped millions wake up every morning is a silent reminder of days past. That 90%-plus penetration number will soon be the domain of Smart TV as 91% of homes have internet. That’s more homes than have radios.
The good news is 73% of drivers listen to the radio in the car.
Nearly three out of every four drivers tune in. The bad news is emerging retail media will soon be the final purchase influencer, online and on location. By 2025 more ad dollars (nearly $47 billion) are projected to be invested in retail media than TV. If you are still pitching, “in-car radio is the last purchase influence before the shopper steps into the store,” you are joining the growing group of outdated radio sellers. Let’s stop the head-in-the-sand approach and review what will have better sales power in the current landscape.
1. In-car listening is typically a shared attention experience. Adjust your commercials to work in the in-car environment. Simplify the messaging, repeat critical sales points, make the call to action easy to understand and implement.
2. Frequency sells. Forever the foundation of solid radio sales, repetition works, and compelling messaging can be commuter friendly.
3. Do your homework. If your community relies on several major industries, learn how the new remote workforce impacts in car listening. Different commute patterns may be in play. Know your marketplace before you suggest a schedule.
4. Seasonal trends. Summer is here. What changes are impacting your market?
Is there a go-to resource for advertiser info on your station website?
Some things will never change:
1. Auto is typically the #1 ad category. One of the best places to start the sales cycle of buying or leasing a new car is in the car of that money draining repair clunker and radio is right there!
2. Three out of four commuters drive alone and when you have someone one-on-one messaging will be heard.
3. In-car radio listening still is and always will be that uniquely personal experience.
Finally, owners and top-level management must learn to help sellers adjust to ever changing world of how to work with radio advertisers to meet the consumer where they are today.
Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com
word, which is a 55% increase over nine years ago (20%); 2) Spoken word listening at home has grown dramatically: 60% of the total daily audio time spent with spoken word audio is at home, 24% in the car, 13% at work, and 3% at some other location. The time spent listening to spoken word audio at home has grown to 41 daily minutes in 2023 from 27 daily minutes in 2014. Increases in at-home spoken word audio listening are seen across every hour in the listening day; 3) Spoken word listening in-car has shifted post-pandemic, but AM/FM radio remains on top: Of all the daily time spent listening to spoken word audio, time spent listening in the car has declined from 36% in 2014 to 24% in 2023. In the car, 62% of spoken word audio consumed by those in the U.S. age 13+ is to AM/FM radio content, including over the air and streams; 4) For the first time ever, the mobile device is the primary way people listen to spoken word: 39% of spoken word audio consumed daily by those age 13+ in the U.S. is on a mobile device, followed by 35% on an AM/FM radio receiver. At home, 41% of spoken word audio is consumed on a mobile device, and at work, 47% of spoken word is consumed on a mobile device. AM/FM radio receivers still dominate in-car, garnering 60% of the spoken word audio listening there; and 5) Podcasts represent a large and growing share of spoken word listening: Podcasts now represent over one-third (36%) of time spent with spoken word audio. Twenty-eight percent of time spent listening to podcasts goes to NPR/public radio. At home, 40% of spoken-word audio listening goes to podcasts.