Understanding the in-car radio listener

Rajar (a single audience measurement system for the UK radio industry) figures reveal that in-car listening accounts for 1/5 of all radio listening hours, and projects that as traffic congestion worsens, it will lead to increased radio listening. The survey focuses on the global radio audience mindset, identifying key listener groups, in-car radio audience - advertiser nexus and the reason behind switching stations, among other things.

In-car audience - advertiser nexus

IThe in-car audience is particularly valuable to advertisers, partly because of its size and demographic composition, but also because in-car listening is different from listening in other locations. There are around 25 million cars on the road in Britain today and over 90% of them have a radio. The results in terms of radio listening are significant: every week 21 million people listen to the radio in-car, accounting for a total of 153 million listening hours every week.

Significantly for the advertiser, most of this listening is to commercial radio services. The in-car listening audience represents a particularly valuable sector of the population for advertisers. It is an audience far more likely to be upmarket, male and young-to-middle-aged (25-44). These people are notoriously hard to reach through other media, particularly true of television where they are conspicuously light viewers.

The car is a very personal space for a driver and this allows the advertiser to speak to him/her on a very intimate basis. Most journeys are routine and, particularly in congested traffic, allow the driver to listen intently to radio output. It is projected that levels of congestion will increase dramatically over the next couple of years, suggesting that the demand for in-car entertainment will grow in tandem.

The in-car environment is particularly relevant for messages about anything to do with motoring - car purchase, road safety, traffic snarls etc. For example, 'Radio City Jam Buster' invites calls from listeners stuck in traffic jams so that others can be warned; you can tune in to your car radio for information as to how long will it take to reach from the traffic mess at Dhaulakuan to distant Connaught Place. Conversely, Mohan Kapur of 'Saanp Seedhi' fame hosts 'The Evening Drive Show' on Radio Red, his take on city-specific daily events interspersed with music. Car journeys are also a time for personal thoughts away from the distractions of home and office - a time for planning the day ahead in the mornings or reflecting on the events of the day on the way home. As such, car journeys are a potentially valuable context for the advertiser.

How radio reaches the in-car audience

Overall listening levels
In the course of a week, 45% of the adult population (21.3 million people) listens to radio in the car (this figure is from Rajar, the joint BBC / Commercial Radio audience survey). Over the course of a month, this rises to 52% (nearly 25 million). So in-car listening accounts for nearly 15% of all listening hours.

Commercial Radio's dominance over BBC in-car
In overall terms, the audiences for BBC and Commercial Radio are roughly the same size - but in the car it is the commercial services that dominate. As seen in Chart 1, this is true of in-car listening at the total level but it is even more pronounced for adults aged 15-44 - the so-called "Commercial Radio Generation" (i.e. people whose tastes were developed after the introduction of commercial services in 1973).

Chart one Source: RAJAR 3 months ended March 2000

Driving patterns are different on weekdays and weekends, so it's no surprise to see that listening habits differ too - radio as an auxiliary medium is almost always related to some activity such as driving, cooking, bathing etc; weekday in-car listening reaches higher absolute levels than at weekends (two conspicuous peaks - morning and evening drivetime). But listening on weekends is characterized by a later start and is evenly spread across the day - clearly people are making journeys at different timings.

Key listener groups

Listening in the car is related to lifestyle, and this means that some demographic groups are far more likely than others to be in-car listeners. As Chart Two shows, there is a strong bias towards men, upmarket people and the 25-44s. When these demographic factors work in combination, the effect is even more pronounced. The example at the bottom of the chart shows the figure for in-car listening amongst AB full-time working fathers aged 25-44: for these people, in-car is disproportionately important.


Chart two Source: RAJAR 3 months ended March 2000

Driving patterns are completely different on weekdays and weekends, so it's no surprise to see that listening habits also differ - radio, as an auxiliary medium, is almost always related to some activity such as driving, cooking, bathing etc. As Chart Three shows, weekday listening in-car reaches higher absolute levels than at weekends (with two conspicuous peaks at morning and evening drivetime). But listening at weekends is characterized by a later start and being evenly spread across the day - clearly people are making journeys at a wide range of times.


Chart three Source: RAJAR 3 months ended March 2000

The nature of in-car listening

The car is a unique environment for radio listening. It is a very personal space, and one where the driver is more acutely aware of radio output. The way we use our cars - i.e. the pattern of journeys made, which are habitual and repetitive most of the time - militates in favor of this more focused listening. But what characterizes in-car listening? What are the important aspects for advertisers to understand, in order to run the most effective airtime campaigns?

One of the key findings from the past came from the Navigator Research study on car advertising, "Beyond the virtual forecourt", which revealed that people are "more car-minded" when in the car - and that this was especially true for women, who are less inclined to think about cars outside the context of driving.

But the RAB needed more extensive information on this area.

The qualitative study

In 1997, the RAB commissioned Winstanley Research to explore the attitudes and behavior of in-car listeners, starting with in-depth qualitative interviews with a small sample of people in the southeast who drove to and from work everyday:

QUALITATIVE IN-CAR LISTENER STUDY: CONCLUSIONS
	For drivers to and from work, radio is much more important than at any other time, and is listened to more intently
	Advertising on radio is accepted but can be a cause of switching occasionally, after much repetition
	Radio meets, in the car, much more intensive needs than in any other situation, spanning the gamut of emotional, mood enhancing/changing, entertainment and information
	Drivers have a known repertoire of stations they listen to frequently or occasionally, and random listening appears to be less common
	The car allows for a wider range of stations listened to than elsewhere, because of the ease of changing station and the solitary situation
	Hardware plays a part in extent of repertoire, but separates the sexes more
	Personality plus journey type/duration appear to be the key factors in determining promiscuousness in car radio listening
ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTES FROM LISTENERS
"In the car, you are captive. At home I am doing something else… not locked in"
"In the car you are sensitive to things that are irritating"
"It is like having a friend in the car"
"If I didn't have the radio I would have to sing to myself"
"It's murder without it - so boring"
Source: Winstanley Research

In-car audio equipment

studies have clearly established that length of the commercial had a positive impact on the ad. In general, spots of 45 seconds or more were effective. RRR studies also indicate that more brand mentions in the commercial were good for ad recall and was more effective when the brand was mentioned early in the ad. Moreover, fatigue factor is high with radio commercials. The ads that were repeated too often were disliked. Copy variation can offset this fatigue and it is suggested to have three variants of the same theme. Though airing multiple variants is recommended, there is evidence, which state that simultaneous airing of more than 5 executions leads to decay in effectiveness. As in any other media, ads that were liked had higher impact.

Station switching
For people in the advertising and media industries - who tend to be promiscuous in their media consumption - the levels of switching amongst the driving population often come as a surprise.

Patterns of loyalty are exemplified by the following top line findings:

The extent to which journey type affects switching behavior is shown in detail in Chart 4 below:

Chart four Source: NOP Media 1998

Reasons for station switching

The qualitative study suggested that sometimes drivers will switch stations to avoid repetitious advertising, and the NOP Media survey sought to measure this effect in more detail. The findings suggest that most station switching is a "push" activity - i.e. drivers are switching to avoid something which is boring or repetitive, rather than being "pulled" to listen to a specific program on another station. Most drivers cite programming reasons for switching (e.g. finding different music), but the avoidance of advertising is cited by 12% as the main reason why they will change stations. This is reassuringly low for any advertisers worried that drivers might be using technology to avoid their commercials. It is also worth remembering that the qualitative study suggested that switching to avoid ads only becomes an issue when it becomes repetitive: copy variation can make a big difference here.

MAIN REASON FOR SWITCHING STATION	%
Boredom with current station	21%
To listen to different type of music	20%
For better reception/signal	17%
To listen to a particular programme on another station	12%
To avoid advertising	12%
To avoid a particular DJ/presenter/programme	9%
To listen to the news at particular times	4%
To find local travel/weather updates	3%
Another reason	2%
Source: NOP Media

Targeting the in-car listener: case studies

Kellogg's Nutri-Grain
In 1998 when Kellogg's launched Nutri-Grain, it was designed as a breakfast meal-replacement in a countline-style bar. The media strategy focused round making Nutri-Grain as visible as possible at the most relevant times. Many different media were used - including posters, petrol pumps and the Internet - but radio was extensively used to target one important group of consumers, the so-called "Dashboard Diners". These were people who were happy to eat something convenient in the car, having missed out on breakfast.

Visa Cash
In 1997 within the test area of Leeds, Visa International launched a cashcard offering an alternative to cash for lower value transactions. In 1999 this system was extended to cover on-street and off-street parking. Their target audience consisted of drivers who would be parking their cars in the city. By using radio, Visa International were able to reach them whilst in-car on their actual journeys to and from the city.

BT Business
BT wanted to educate business people about the technology they had available to allow home working. By simply installing faxes and additional phone lines, home PCs could become part of the existing office network. During the launch stage of BT's campaign, radio was used to reach their target audience in-car whilst they were commuting to and from work. The likelihood was that at some point during their commute, they would become stuck in heavy traffic, which would also serve to highlight the benefits of working from home in a hard-hitting way.