Combined Media Usage

Since the early days of the internet being used for commercial purposes, radio has been recognized as a valuable medium to help drive people online.

To a large degree this has been driven by the complementary functional characteristics of the two media – the parallel nature of radio makes it an ideal companion to the primary, and normally solitary, activity of surfing online.

However, there is little understanding about this conjunctive use of the two media, e.g. how many people listen when they are online, why they combine these media in this way, and the opportunities this presents for brands.

To help build further insight into this area, the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) jointly commissioned Other lines of enquiry to conduct new research into how the two media combine.

Plan

Other lines of enquiry developed a strategic research programme that set out to meet the following objectives:

• Study the combination of radio and internet usage in modern media repertoires
• Establish how, when, where and why consumers listen to the radio whilst using the internet
• Quantify the extent of concurrent internet and radio usage
• Identify the reasons for the emergence and growth of this behaviour
• Delivery informed ideas about how brand advertisers could use this particular media conjunction to deliver more effective commercial messages

Results

500 respondents from across the UK took part in the 20 minute self-completion internet questionnaire. The results showed when and where people combine the radio and internet media, how they are used together, and what the implications are for brands using the media partnership.

We found that one fifth of online users were also listening to the radio at any given time.

Case notes

"We are seeing the emergence of the empowered consumer and advertisers are waking up to that. And with radio and online, they can generate a very interesting conversation."

Guy Phillipson, Chief Executive of the IAB

The results of the study were published in both Marketing Week and Media Week.