How well do radio network marketers portray their own audiences? A study of the differences in radio audience demographics with implications for targeting strategy
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(Published version)
Date
2005
Authors
Nelson Field, K.R.
Lees, G.
Riebe, E.L.
Sharp, B.M.
Editors
Purchase, P.
Sharon, S.
Sharon, S.
Advisors
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Conference paper
Citation
ANZMAC 2005 Conference Conference Proceedings, 2005 / Purchase, P., Sharon, S. (ed./s)
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ANZMAC 2005 Broadening the Boundaries (5 Dec 2005 : Freemantle, Western Australia, Australia)
Abstract
Media strategists place great emphasis on matching media vehicles to the brand's target demographic. And media owners themselves go to considerable effort to promote how their audience profiles differ from competitors'. In this paper we explore demographic similarities and differences between the audiences of 13 competing NZ radio networks. Our objective was to give perspective to this issue of media targeting. We describe how the audience profiles differ in terms of age and gender, and consider the managerial implications of our findings. We find that there are differences between networks in direct relation to their format (e.g. talkback networks attract an older audience than youth oriented pop music networks) but the audience profiles of similar format networks are practically the same. While radio networks go to considerable lengths to publicise that they appeal to a particular core target audience typically half of their audience fall outside of this demographic profile, and some networks do not even skew towards their own publicised 'core' any more than their average competitor. Even for a media described as well niched, radio network fragmentation has not resulted in highly segmented audiences. Consequently advertisers must look beyond the core profiles of networks to correctly calculate target audience reach, and may often find that large rating networks offer the best strategic buy irrespective of their lack of audience skew.
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