A NONCOMMERCIAL RADIO ADVANTAGE: NO LONG COMMERCIAL STOP-SETS

Fact 1: Commercial radio requires paid commercial announcements to stay in business.

Fact 2: People dislike commercials, particularly a bunch of them in a row.

Fact 3: Noncommercial should exploit the lack of commercials, particularly a bunch of them in a row.

Each Monday All Access Media [link] publishes a media research column authored by Carolyn Gilbert and Leigh Jacobs of NuVoodoo Media, a research company that is a big player in commercial radio music formats. Their most recent column (Monday 11/20) is titled The Other Problem(s) with Commercials.

NuVoodoo has recently done a study of listener perceptions of commercial breaks, called “stop-sets” or “commercial clusters” in the biz. Stations will play eight or more spots in a row. These commercial breaks can last five minutes or longer.

Typical truck stop menu copy • Courtesy of NuVoodoo

NuVoodoo compares the results of this practice to an audio version of a truck stop menu cover where local businesses advertise in 2” x 2” blocks.

NuVoodoo asked a sample of 2,979 people between the ages of 14 and 54 to wear a PPM-ish device (or keep a written Diary) and listen a simulated radio program complete with music and commercial stop-sets. Then the respondents were asked basic questions.

Courtesy of NuVoodoo

Question One: Agree or disagree, Most commercials don’t apply to me?

The chart on the left shows that the majority of the respondents agreed with the statement. They don’t feel the commercials were relevant to them.

Courtesy of NuVoodoo

Question Two: Agree or disagree, Most commercials on the radio don’t sound good to you?

The next chart on the left shows that most of the respondents agree with the statement. The majority felt commercials just don’t sound good.

In their conclusion, NuVoodoo said:

As our consumer experience is increasingly connected with digital media, where ads are served up based on individual browsing history and the deep information available via Big Data, we’re coming to expect that ads are always relevant to us and match the quality of what they hear online or via mobile devices.

The Takeaway:

The respondents appear to have become even more negative about their perception of radio spots.. If this is also true of the general public, noncommercial radio has an increasing advantage over commercial radio.

This matters because the minutes per hour dedicated to commercials is not expected to drop. As the chart on the left from Inside Radio in 2015 shows, over 55% of commercial stations have 10 to 14 minutes per hour of commercials. That have to keep airing this number of spots to pay back their debts.

The sound and relevance of commercial radio is increasingly different than on-demand media, podcasts and noncommercial radio.