Looking Beyond the Obvious with Radio Quintiles

October 25, 2012

We get it. It’s obvious that we have to compete with many other Radio stations in our perspective market. But, what happens when you’re told, “I’ve been advertising on television or with newspaper and it works for me.” “It’s Radio or television, prove why Radio.” “I’ve decided to cut my budget on Radio in half, and put more on television/newspaper.” I’m sure you have heard this often. And, of course we can provide them with the fact that Radio reaches more people in your market than other mediums and that it’s more cost effective. But, why not take it a step further by showing the loyalty of Radio listeners when it comes to an advertiser’s products or services. Expressing the power of Radio with the use of quintiles might be one of the most underutilized ways of expressing the overall strength and loyalty of Radio’s listeners.

Scarborough’s quintile data can help determine how many of your clients and prospects’ customers use specific media. Quintiles are a five-scale measurement, in 20% increments of an individual’s media usage. The first quintile measures the heaviest use and the fifth quintile measures the lightest use. Scarborough provides quintile information for television, radio, newspaper, outdoor/out-of-home, and Internet, representing the weight of usage in terms of viewership, listenership, and readership of a given target.

For example, if you were targeting an automobile dealership, you might want to show that Radio’s listeners who are planning to make vehicle purchases are more loyal to Radio than television. Based on the chart below, of the 200,000 Adults 25-54 in the Research Directorville USA metro whose households are planning to buy or lease a new or used vehicle in the next year, over one out of four (26%) or 52,000 of them are the absolute heaviest Radio users, falling within quintile 1. More of these people spend more time with Radio than with television. On the other hand, one out of four (20%) or 40,000 of the Adults 25-54 who fall in the same category are the absolute lightest television viewers, falling within quintile 5. We can conclude that, when targeting Adults 25-54, Radio will be most effective for advertisers because they will reach more heavy users of radio and achieve greater reach and frequency.

Keep in mind that you can apply the same for Radio users in general (not category specific) or by applying other categories (i.e., grocery, restaurants, travel, and jewelry) that’s available in Scarborough. And, you can apply the same story for the other forms of media as well. And, hopefully you will yield the same results. Now go WOW!!! your prospects by showing how loyal Radio listeners are.

I have also attached a link that aids in the process of explaining quintiles.
http://www.gfkmri.com/mri/techguide/fall2010/tg_f10_ntiles.htm

-Kathryn Boxill, Sr. Sales Research Consultant/Customer Service Director

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