SPORTS TALK RADIO THRIVING DURING THE DAY

Don’t believe everything that you hear, b/c as we all know, there are usually three sides to the truth – one side, the other side, and then the truth. In this case, radio says one thing about the amount of listeners, Arbitron claims another number with their PPM (Portable People Meter), and then their is the truth! And it is hidden in plain sight.

 

The perception is that radio has declined but that is not the case. People may spend less time listening than they used to, but there is still an appetite for it. The new radio listening, or audio, is way up – especially on the sports format. Traug Keller of ESPN says, “Listening is 65% higher than what is recorded by Arbitron if you add podcasts and its 220 million downloads.”

 

Sports talk hosts bring their flare and personality to the airwaves and have a way of captivating an audience, especially during major sports seasons. They can be the measuring stick for teams and coaches to gauge how they are doing. And with the advent of podcasting, anybody is able to simply download a live broadcast to be heard at a later time.

 

So yes, live radio listening may be down, but overall listening may actually be up!

SURVEY RESULTS SHOWS MOBILE PERFORMANCE MAY MAKE OR BREAK HOLIDAY SALES

According to Compuware Corporation’s recently released holiday survey about the adoption of mobile shopping by consumers, findings show that this year, 49 percent of smartphone and tablet users intend to use their mobile devices to search for and/or buy gifts, and 36 percent plan to do more shopping via their devices this year than last. The findings also show that performance of retailers’ mobile websites and native applications can have a major impact on bottom line success during peak shopping periods, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond.

 

Key findings from the survey:

 

–Mobile Performance is Critical: A resounding 37 percent of smartphone/tablet users will abandon sales to shop elsewhere if a retailer’s mobile site or mobile application doesn’t load within three seconds.

  • Mobile Generation Leading the Way: The younger the buyer, the more likely he or she is to shop by smartphone or tablet. In fact, 66 percent of “Mobile Generation” (smartphone/tablet users age 18 to 34 years old) will search and/or buy via mobile devices this holiday season and 53 percent will do more holiday shopping this year on their smartphone/tablet this year than last year.
  • Barrier to Future Sales: Just one disappointed user is all it takes, as 29 percent of smartphone/tablet users who have a poor online shopping experience say they are likely to complain on social media.
  • Mobile Devices Pose a Complexity Challenge: Retailers need to factor multi-device usage into their online strategies and user experiences, as 36 percent of smartphone and tablet users will use more than one device to search for or purchase gifts this holiday season.
  • Native Application Performance Will Be Essential: 34 percent of smartphone/tablet users will be using company-specific native applications this holiday season. This makes complexity challenges difficult as performance needs to be maintained across multiple application versions and platforms created for different devices.

To read the full article, click here.