Radio: The Way To Get Young Indie Voters

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young-voter

What’s the most impactful way to sway young voters who are not registered Democrats or Republicans?

According to a new Nielsen voter analysis, commissioned by Katz Media Group, the answer is customized—and localized—radio messages in key battleground states and Congressional districts.

The report, “The Local Vote 2016,” examines how various media can reach and influence registered voters across the U.S.

In this “fifth wave” of Nielsen’s study, the focus is on the all-important independent voter. Custom data of independent voters from the key states of Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin were examined.

Among the key findings:

  • Radio is the top-reaching media platform among 94% of battleground independents, regardless of age. That’s followed by Broadcast TV (88%), Cable TV (85%), and Mobile Internet (62%).
  • Even among the youngest registered voters, radio is tops in reach. In fact, radio is the media platform used by the most millennial independents in the seven battleground states (94%) examined by Nielsen.
  • On a weekly basis, more millennial independents listen to Contemporary Hit Radio (54%) and Rock stations (52%) than watch major television properties such as Broadcast Prime (45%), Local TV News (44%) and Cable News channels (26%).
  • Radio is also the media platform used by the most Generation X independent voters in the battleground states (97%) examined by Nielsen.

Of particular note is the finding that 1 in 3 battleground state independents spend more than 2 hours per day consuming radio, while watching less than 1 hour of television per day.

Katz Media Group also analyzed Nielsen Voter Ratings data from 17 markets across seven battleground states released on July 29 for insights on independent voters’ unique listening habits, depending on the community they live in.

In Ohio, the Adult Hits and Classic Hits formats have the highest share of listening with Cleveland-area indepenents. In Columbus, its AC. In Cincinnati, the News/Talk/Sports and Country formats have the highest shares among independents.

In the Sunshine State, independent voters in Miami tend to listen the markets Spanish-language radio stations—a sign that younger Cubans are once again straying from their older family members by not automatically supporting the Republican Party’s slate of candidates.

Stacey Lynn Schulman, EVP of Strategy, Analytics and Research for Katz Media Group, noted, “Everyone is voting in the same election, but you need to speak to people where they live.  It’s a national election won by reaching local voters. What we have consistently found is radio delivers better national reach with the ability to connect on a local level than any other medium.”

The Local Vote 2016 study draws upon Nielsen’s representative sample of registered voters who are currently part of the Scarborough Research Panel.

This report represents 2,704 registered independent voters interviewed from January 25 to April 5 in aforementioned seven battleground states.