Advertisers: 'Super Demo' Dedicated To Online Radio

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While the overall audience for digital radio has been growing like gangbusters, advertisers may be particularly interested in a subset of very heavy listeners. They form a "super demographic" for digital audio, as identified by Parks Associates in a study performed for TargetSpot.

The "super demo" listens to digital audio across different dayparts and channels -- both at home and at work -- via a variety of devices, including PCs, smartphones and tablet computers.

Overall, 96% of digital audio listeners say they listen to digital audio on a PC, 45% on a mobile device, including smartphones, and 15% on a tablet device. However, consumption is especially high (across all devices) in the "super demo": 23% of computer listeners, 25% of tablet listeners and 16% of mobile/smartphone listeners report listening to more than four hours of digital audio content per day.

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What's more, this group is highly engaged with the audio content they are consuming. They say they spend a lot of time choosing music and tweaking personalization options for their online audio channels. They change stations fairly frequently: while 73% of digital audio listeners say they change stations at least once a day, a subset of 31% changes stations three or more times per day.

They are also more likely to check their devices to learn the names of artists and songs.

Digital audio listeners, in general, include a high proportion of online "influencers," meaning people that use social networks to recommend products and services to friends. Sixty-four percent say they tell friends, family and co-workers about new products or services they like. Fifty-one percent say these same groups ask them for advice about new technology; 45% say they often share emails, articles and video online; and 25% maintain a blog on a regular basis.

In terms of ad effectiveness, Parks and TargetSpot determined that ad response rates increased 250% when Internet radio was deployed alongside broadcast radio in advertising campaigns. (The definition of "response," in this case, included buying a product, searching for information about it, becoming a Facebook fan, or contacting the company.)

Overall, 52% of digital audio listeners say they remember seeing or hearing an Internet radio ad, and 40% of that group (21% of the total) say they have acted on an Internet radio ad.

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