Radio's Formats Reach Swing Voters

Recently, Tony Hereau, Nielsen’s VP of Cross Platform Insights, made a presentation to the American Association of Political Consultants entitled, The 10% Solution: Optimizing the Political Media Plan with Radio to Reach Swing Voters. 

His analysis finds that the addition of AM/FM radio to a political media plan can generate an extraordinary amount incremental voter reach. 

This week’s Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® blog outlines the key findings.

• 45% of voters are zero/light TV viewers who are impossible to reach with TV ads: Nielsen finds there has been a sharp increase in voters who watch little or no TV.
• The combination of connected TV and AM/FM radio can reach voters who are zero/light TV viewers: AM/FM radio reaches 82% of zero/light TV voters. Connected TV reaches 62% of zero/light TV voters. Combined, CTV and AM/FM radio can significantly supplement the political media plan.
• Zero/light TV voters reached by AM/FM radio are younger, upscale, and more likely to have kids.
• AM/FM radio is a rich source of swing voters: 40% to 50% of AM/FM radio programming format audiences are swing voters, according to Nielsen.
• AM/FM radio offers candidates an uncluttered environment to achieve an unfair share of voice: Nielsen analyzed political ad counts on TV and AM/FM radio in the run up to 2020 Georgia Senatorial races. In the Atlanta DMA, one-third of all ads on TV were political while only 12% of AM/FM radio ads were political.
• AM/FM radio is the voter reach accelerator: A recent Nielsen analysis found that adding 50 CTV GRPs to an existing TV buy only lifts reach by +8%. The same GRP addition to AM/FM radio resulted in a +24% lift in incremental reach.
• AM/FM radio advertising was the untold secret ingredient to Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial victory.