In radio, targeting pulls $s from 25-54 demo

'When the
money is more spread out, more stations have the opportunity to get a share. There might be a leader in 35-54, or 25-34, or whatever else. So it’s actually healthy for the radio industry to
see this.'

In radio, targeting pulls
$s from 25-54 demo

Ad spending drops below 50 percent for first time

By Gabriel Spitzer

   Radio advertisers are as anxious as ever to reach listeners between the ages of 25 and 54 but increasingly they are adopting niche strategies to target them.
   They are buying ad time less by broad demographic and more and more by radio format, which allows more precise targeting.
    The evidence is in the numbers.
    The percentage of national spot radio ad money devoted to reaching listeners 25-54 saw its biggest decline in years in 2000, dipping below 50 percent for the first time.
    According to a study conducted by radio rep firm Interep, based on the nation’s top-25 radio markets, just 48.5 percent of national spot money went to adults 25-54, men 25-54 and women 25-54 last year, compared to 50.3 percent the year before.
    The percentage of total ad money aimed at the 25-54 demos has declined steadily for each of the last five years, off from a high of 55.5 percent in 1995.
    Still by far radio advertisers’ most-sought-after audience, listeners 25-54 are being increasingly divided up by advertisers seeking to target more precisely.
    "We haven’t really seen any one winner of the extra dollars. It’s partly due to advertisers getting more niche-oriented about the way they approach an audience," says Michele Skettino, VP of marketing communications at Interep and author of the report.
    The proliferation of formats is largely responsible for the trend, she continues.
    "In the past, formats weren’t as targeted as they are now, and you didn’t have as many spinoffs as you do today. So they would go to blanket buys in the 25-54 demo, which now really contains so many consumer subsets," says Skettino.
    "I think what we’re finding is that advertisers are starting to take more advantage of radio’s precise targetability."
    Adult Contemporary, Country and, to a lesser extent, Oldies, all cater to the broad-based 25-54 demographic.
    Interep has yet to assemble data for 2001, but it seems likely that the ad slowdown will spur continued movement away from broader demos like adults 25-54, as advertisers drop their money into more targeted buys.
    But Skettino doesn’t expect the slump to affect any one format significantly more than the others.
    "It seems to be affecting them equally across the board. Advertisers generally just buy fewer stations. They go less deep into a market and control their costs that way," she says.
    Skettino argues that the gradual shift away from reliance on the 25-54 demo is a healthy sign for the medium.
     "It allows many more stations to be successful. Whereas when there’s a lot of money just going to 25-54, you might have six or seven or eight stations in a given market competing for the same money. So there tend to be winners and losers," she explains.
    "On the other hand, when the money is more spread out, more stations have the opportunity to get a share. There might be a leader in 35-54, or 25-34, or whatever else. So it’s actually healthy for the radio industry to see this."
    Demos starting at age 35, such as 35-64 and 35+, showed a significant increase in 2000, up a full percentage point, to 7.7 percent of total national-spot ad dollars.
    The uptick is likely due to heavy election ad spending, which tends to target older voters.
    Markets in contested states saw the biggest increases. St. Louis (11.9 percent), Detroit (11.1 percent) and Minneapolis (10.8 percent) all saw significant growth in the share of ad dollars devoted to the 35-based demos.
    "I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a trend, because that was a political year. I wouldn’t yet call it a shift of dollars to the older demos. We’ve done this survey for six years, and it seems that those demos go up one year and come down the next," says Skettino.
    African-American demos still account for a disproportionately small share of national-spot ad money, at just 1.5 percent in the top-25 markets. The percentage is significantly higher, however, in cities with large African-American populations.
    In Baltimore, for instance, 5.4 percent of the ad money went to African-American demos. In Atlanta African-American demos claimed 5 percent.

Radio spending trend for 25-54 demo
Year:	Percentage of national-spot money
1995	55.5
1996	54.4
1997	52.9
1998	50.5
1999	50.3
2000	48.5
Source: Interep’s Performax Database; Top 25 Radio Metros (excluding Puerto Rico and embedded metros)

Share of national-spot radio dollars by demo
Demo	Percentage
Adults/men/women 25-54	48.4
Adults 25-54	36.8
Men 25-54	3.5
Women 25-54	8.1
Adults/men/women 18-49	17.5
Adults/men/women 25-49	9.4
Adults/men/women 18-34	6.0
All 35-based demos	7.7
All 50-based demos	<1.0
Black demos	1.5
Adults/men/women 18-54	1.4
Teens	<1.0
Other	7.0
Source: Interep’s Performax Database using Competitive Media Reporting RER data; Top 25 Radio Metros (excluding Puerto Rico and embedded metros)

-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.

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