Note to online colleges that spend the majority of their advertising dollars on television and digital or social media: you are missing out on a significant number of potential students who listen to AM/FM radio.
An analysis of the research MARU/Matchbox and Nielsen on Westwood One’s weekly blog shows that the radio has a 38% advantage over TV when you reach the demo of target prospects of online colleges for adults ages 18-49. Add radio to the marketing mix of five of these online schools Increase the reach of this audience by 100% or more.
the survey of MARU/Matchbox, commissioned by Cumulus Media in August 2022, shows that out of 1000 participants, about half (45%) says you are considering, desiring or planning to pursue an online education. Of those, 23% are definitely willing to consider or plan to start such an education next year, and 22% say they might consider it. Among those in the first category, three quarters (74%) are adults aged 18 to 49, while 80% of adults who intend to continue their education in person or online are in the same age group.
“Advertisers should focus on reaching this age group, as they are more likely to enroll in online classes or universities,” says Ariella Leiter, analyst at Westwood One investigation.
Citing data from the Total Audience Report of the second quarter of 2022 from Nielsen, the blog shows that the weekly reach of AM/FM of adults 18 to 49 years old is 84%, in comparison with 61% of television. “AM/FM radio has the highest weekly reach among the 18-49 age group compared to all other media types. Online colleges can increase the reach of prospective students with increased use of podcasts and AM/FM radio and reduced TV spending.” dice ladder.
What is the best place to reach these audio-media-tuned online college students of the future? According to the MARU/Matchbox study, between 40% and 50% of future students say they frequently or occasionally listen to rock, oldies/classics, adult contemporary, classic rock, and top 40 formats, and 24-25% of podcast genres such as comedy, entertainment/culture, news/current events, and real crimes.
By focusing on television, showing monthly reach of adults 18-49 by ad campaigns is out of five online colleges something as low as 4% and only as high as 27%, according to Nielsen’s Media Impact optimization platform. Move the 20% of each school’s advertising budget to AM/FM results in range increases ranging from 100% to 250%.
Kantar’s media plan data for the University of Phoenix and the University of Southern New Hampshire show massive spending on television and digital/social media, that represent the 35% and 64%, respectively, of the purchase in the first, and the 91% and 9% in the second, with little or no AM/FM radio and podcasts, 0.7% y .01% of the first and no expense in any of the second.
“While existing media plans mainly consist of television and digital, audio should play a much larger role,” dice ladder.
Meanwhile, MARU/Matchbox research suggests an optimized plan that allocates 45% of ad budget to audio, 33% to AM/FM and 12% to podcasts, while reducing the participation of television at 20% and that of social networks at 35%.
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