Report: Radio to The Rescue With Massive Voter Reach

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, October 23, 2020

Westwood One

Westwood One's Insights team offers a solution to the problem of TV bursting with political ads and YouTube's being sold out. Adding AM/FM radio to a TV/social/digital buy generates a massive 15% increase in voter reach for the same budget: Keeping the overall budget flat and shifting 20% of spend to AM/FM radio generates huge growth in voter reach (79% to 91%), a +15% increase.

• Nielsen: When TV is sold out, moving money to digital/social does not grow voter reach: A Nielsen analysis found that shifting the same budget from an 80%/20% TV/digital mix to a 70%/30% TV/digital allocation does not increase voter reach. Voter reach is stuck at 79% despite increasing the digital allocation.

• AM/FM radio's superpower is tripling reach among voters who are light TV viewers: Nielsen Media Impact's voter reach analysis reveals light TV viewer voter reach grew 3X from 17% to 53%.

• 38% of voters are light TV viewers and virtually all of them are reached by AM/FM radio: Nielsen Scarborough reports nearly two in five registered voters are light TV viewers. The light TV viewer segment only generates 6% of total TV time spent. AM/FM radio is the solution, reaching 90% of registered voters who are light TV viewers.

• Connected TV cannot solve for the light TV viewer challenge: A Nielsen voter reach analysis examined a buy with a foundation of linear TV at 68% of the budget, 13% of spend allocated to connected TV, and 20% placed in digital. This media plan generated a 57% voter reach. When 10% of the buy is shifted to AM/FM radio with no increase in budget, voter reach soars from 57% to 80%, a +41% increase with the same budget.