As the pandemic rages on, advertising is no longer a luxury for the 230,000 small businesses in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro area. Advertising has become a tool for survival.OTT & CTV Viewing Soars In Philadelphia
Advertising on Philadelphia television and cable is becoming less attractive to local business owners as viewers rapidly defect to alternative video entertainment sources including, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon and Disney+.
Collectively these streaming services are referred to as Over-The-Top Television (OTT) and Connected-TV (CTV). Viewers can only access this OTT and CTV content via smartphone, tablets, computers, smart-TVs, Amazon Fire Sticks, and Roku Sticks, Nielsen reports that 92.1% of Delaware Valley adults own at least one these devices. Furthermore, they are using them.
According to Nielsen, OTT and CTV networks now reach 42.8% of all Philadelphia area consumers every week.
Although both broadcast and cable TV still maintain a reach advantage, the amount of time consumers are spending with OTT and CTV programming is staggering.
Who Listens To Commercials On Philadelphia Radio?
Every week, 3,830,493 adult consumers tune-in to a Philadelphia radio station. That is way more than are reached by other media, including local television, newspaper, social media, or streaming audio sites like Pandora and Spotify.
A more significant number for thousands of Delaware Valley small business owners who advertise on Philadelphia radio is how many of these listeners stick around when their commercials come on.
A 2011 Nielsen study discovered that, on average, 93% of listeners stayed with the radio station they are tuned-to when the commercials come on. That number amazed many advertisers at the time who believed that audiences were far more likely to defect when the music stopped.
A lot has changed since 2011. Philadelphia area consumers have many more media options and can instantly connect to each with a button-push, mouse-click, screen-tap, or voice command. With all of these choices, do radio audiences still stay tuned during commercial breaks?According to a new study from the Journal of Advertising Research, audiences in 2020 are more than twice as likely to stick with the radio station they are tuned to during commercials than they were nine years ago.
In the current study, the authors combined portable people-meter data ratings to measure loss of audience during advertising. They discovered a new benchmark of 3% for avoidance of radio advertising.
Newspaper Advertising In Philadelphia: Advice For Small Business
Delaware Valley business owners are expected to spend $115 million on newspaper advertising in 2020. This will be 31% fewer dollars than were spent in 2019, according to a study by Borrell Associates, a company that analyzes local media expenditures across the country.
Of course, the pandemic is part of the reason advertising revenues have plummeted at Philadelphia area newspapers. But, the more significant factor is the sustained erosion of readership.
For example, between October 2017 and March 2019, the Monday-Saturday circulation of the Philadelphia Inquirer has decreased by 26%. The Sunday edition suffered a 29% decrease.
Among all advertising media available to small business owners, newspaper's ability to reach adult consumers now lags significantly behind Philadelphia radio, cable, broadcast TV, and social media.
What Is The Best Way To Reach Online Shoppers In Philadelphia?
Delaware Valley shoppers are expected to spend a record $13.2 billion online in 2020, based on the most recent projections from eMarketer. This would represent year-over-year growth of 32.4%.
During the same period, according to eMarketer, receipts at brick-and-mortar stores have contracted by 3.2%. Overall, excluding gas and auto sales, e-commerce will account for 20.6% of all retail sales this year.
The Coronavirus pandemic is credited with this seismic shift in shopping behavior as consumers continue to avoid stores and opt for online shopping.
“We’ve seen e-commerce accelerate in ways that didn’t seem possible last spring, given the extent of the economic crisis,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. “While much of the shift has been led by essential categories like grocery, there has been surprising strength in discretionary categories like consumer electronics and home furnishings that benefited from pandemic-driven lifestyle needs.”
Even before the onset of the pandemic, 81.3% of Philadelphia area consumers had bought goods online over the prior six months, according to Nielsen research. Purchases included clothing, health & beauty products, travel reservations, books, furniture, and groceries.
Advertise In Philadelphia: Radio Listening Little Change vs. Last Year
During July, 3.4 million adult listeners spent 2 hours per day listening to their favorite Philadelphia radio stations, according to Nielsen. Despite an avalanche of pandemic induced disruptions, the daily time spent with radio is down by only by one-quarter-hour from a year ago.
Some advertising experts had predicted that as consumers spent more time at home because of COVID-19 concerns, the hours devoted to radio listening would dramatically decrease. That, however, was not the case.
In July of 2019, according to Nielsen, 30.7% of radio listening in the Delaware Valley occurred at home. During July of this year, in-home listening jumped to 41.5%. Despite the reduction in out-of-home activities, though, consumers still spent nearly the same amount of time listening to Philadelphia radio.
More Advertising Advice For Philadelphia Small Business Owners
- Who's Spending Now? Philadelphia Small Business Owners Ask.
- Advertising In Philadelphia: Still Time To Ring Up Holiday Sales
- What Is The Best Way To Reach Online Shoppers In Philadelphia?
- Small Business Advertising In Philadelphia: Consumers Ready To Spend
- Advertising ROI In Philadelphia: Television vs. Radio
- AVOD: 4 Letters Every Philadelphia Small Business Owners Should Know
