As part of our new weekly feature providing actionable data and insights to help radio sales teams grow revenue, Inside Radio today looks at how radio stacks up among sporting goods stores. It’s one of the categories showing increased consumer interest in the current phase of the coronavirus pandemic.
Summertime is when Americans traditionally flock to the great outdoors for picnics, barbeques, fishing expeditions, mountain climbing, triathlons, you name it. But COVID-19 has put a damper on some of those pursuits.
Between being restricted to their home or backyard, and with most health clubs and certain public recreation areas closed, Americans are buying their own exercise and sports equipment. “Sports stores are booming and a great advertising opportunity for radio,” says Beverly Lalonde, Northeast VP of The Media Audit. “On average 14% of adults go to sports stores over the period of a month but 20% of heavy radio listeners and 17% of medium listeners visit sporting goods stores in a month, well above the general market.”
That makes sporting goods stores a prime prospect for radio sales teams looking to improve revenue during the ongoing pandemic.
The skew to heavy radio exposure by sports store shoppers can be seen in the average time spent with media. Data from The Media Audit shows sporting goods store shoppers listen to radio an average of 166 minutes a day – 10% more than the general market. Further analysis shows radio significantly outperforms television, broadcast, cable and satellite all of which carve out much less of the sports store shopper’s media day. Indeed sports store shoppers index below the general market average for time spent with broadcast TV, local cable and satellite TV.
“Radio listeners are not only buying for themselves but also for their families,” Lalonde points out. An examination of the family profile of sporting goods store shoppers and radio listeners show they are nearly identical. More than half of sporting goods shoppers (57%) have children at home, compared with 47% of radio listeners. And 42% of these shoppers have three or four kids at home, in line with the 38% for radio listeners.
“When going after sports stores, radio stations should promote their streaming,” Lalonde suggests. While overall radio listening is very strong for patrons of sporting goods stores – 20% higher than the general market – streaming radio is 30% stronger with one in five streamers visiting a sporting goods store in the past four weeks.
“Some businesses like health clubs have suffered as a fallout from COVID-19. Others, like sporting goods stores have benefited,” notes Lalonde. “A great opportunity for radio [is] sporting goods stores as radio listeners are strong sporting goods store shoppers and thus a good place for sporting goods stores to invest their ad dollars.”
The Media Audit gathers research through online interviews, augmented by cell phone and landline interviews in some market surveys. The sample is collected from eight or more opt-in panels, as well as web-based intercept surveys. Respondent levels reflect the demographics of a market.