24% of Cumulus Media Radio Streams Are On Smart Speakers

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Cumulus Media

The Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers Association piloted a campaign on the smart speaker. It found, over the past four years, the smart speaker has grown to represent nearly a quarter (24%) of all online listening to Cumulus stations. The company had enough confidence in smart speaker listenership, it booked an ad campaign with The Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers Association. When consumers asked their smart speakers to play one of the Cumulus Detroit stations, a 15-second pre-roll ad ran before the online audio stream of the AM/FM radio station launched.

This week's Westwood One blog explains why the smart speaker was such a good fit for the association and outlines the effects of the campaign.

• Smart speaker ownership soars and brings AM/FM back into the home: Per Edison's "Share of Ear" study, smart speakers have surged 5X in ownership, increasing from 7% in 2017 to 35% as of Q3 2020.

• Smart speaker ownership profile: Upscale, employed, and educated: According to Nielsen Scarborough, the profile of the smart speaker owner skews employed and professional, and over-indexes on college-educated, with $100K+ household income.

• AM/FM radio is number one in ad-supported audio share on American smart speakers, according to Edison's "Share of Ear."

• Smart speaker users are an ideal audio audience to reach in-market auto buyers: Per Nielsen Scarborough, U.S. smart speaker owners are an unbelievable media platform to reach American new car buyers. Smart speaker owners are 26% more likely to be in the market for a new vehicle in the next 12 months.

• Consumers exposed to the Cumulus smart speaker pre-roll ads were more likely to be aware of the Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers Association: Smart speaker listeners to Cumulus stations were +24% more likely to say they were "extremely familiar or very familiar" with the Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers Association, 42% exposed versus 34% unexposed.

• Likelihood of visiting a Ford dealer in the next 3 months was +63% greater among those exposed to the smart speaker pre-roll ads.