Commentary

Why Mary Meeker Kills Radio's Star

Speaking of real time, two interesting analyses passed my desktop this morning.

There was the most recent edition of Nielsen’s “Total Audience Report,” which shows that despite the shift to all things digital, radio still has about a 15% share of the time the average American spends connected …

4 comments about "Why Mary Meeker Kills Radio's Star".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 1, 2019 at 9:16 a.m.

    An even better example of the folly of equating time spent comprisons with advertiser media mix decisions is magazines. Even in their heyday---the 1940s and early 1950s----magazines, including the biggies--"Life", Look" and "The Saturday Evening Post"--- collectively garnered barely 20-25 minutes per day of claimed "reading" in time spent studies which, invariably showed radio and TV  with  2-3 hours apiece in daily usage.  Yet, these and many other magazines were at their zenith in both audience and ad support during those years. Meeker's harping on this aspect reflects both a lack of understanding about how branding advertisers really make their media decisions as well as it's blatent pandering to digital media ad sellers---who keep babbling about how advertisers need to follow the eyeballs, which, as we are constantly told, are deserting "legacy media" for the internet.

  2. dorothy higgins from Mediabrands WW, July 1, 2019 at 12:06 p.m.

    Equating time spent to advised ad dollars is simply quaint these days. 

  3. John Grono from GAP Research, July 1, 2019 at 8:57 p.m.

    I think desks are one of the most important of all.   I spend about half my day at a desk.   It is strongly correlated to all my purchases.   Not.

  4. Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, July 2, 2019 at 11:48 a.m.

    Dorothy:  You are far too polite.  John: You should have gone further? 
    That the Bond Partners behind this report did not pick up this egregious error is shameful.  As we are aware, based on delivering the most conducive parameters radio can be a powerful medium to drive brand sales or brand equity depending on the creative.  Radio's inclusion in the campaign's media mix has virtually nothing to to do with average time spent with radio per adult per day although it likely has a great deal to do with the propinquity of the ad delivery to an optimal time of day!  

Next story loading loading..
About the Author

Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.

SPONSOR CONTENT

Discover Our Publications