With the first round of station flips to all-Christmas music just days away, Katz Radio Group's annual “Holiday By The Numbers” report serves as a reminder of the power of AM/FM radio listeners across all stations and formats during the holiday season.
While inflation is sure to impact holiday spending, as was the case a year ago, an early projection from Deloitte noted in Katz's report sees a 3.5-4.6% year-over-year spend increase overall, with e-commerce sales up 10.3-12.8%. “Though inflation accounted for much of the 5.3% increase in spending for 2022, healthy employment and income growth is expected to keep the volume of sales growing for the 2023 holiday season,” the report states.
Among the key research statistics in Katz's report: 95% of consumers plan to shop in store for the holiday season, according to Mintel, and more than half (56%) plan to shop on Black Friday, 63% of those heavy radio users, according to MRI-Simmons.
The report also highlights Nielsen's finding that radio reached around 90% of the typical radio audience on not only Black Friday but other key days during the holiday season in 2022, with that performance steady across all demos, even adults 18-34.
“Consumers are listening to AM/FM radio during the holidays,” Katz's report says. “Capturing the winter holiday spirit with consumers and communicating a brand value statement is key during this season. Radio remains the most efficient and effective media outlet to issue this messaging.”
Specific to radio advertising's impact, additional research points to radio ads driving incremental store traffic up 22% across categories (RAB), and generating an average increase of 29% in online search activity across categories (Forrester Research). Katz also cites dentsu's study confirming AM/FM radio's ability to deliver high attention at low cost, with ad attention, brand recall, and brand choice uplift above norms. Also notable is radio's $14: $1 return on ad spend across multiple ad categories, with a positive return for every dollar spent by advertisers and brands, according to Nielsen.
Holiday season advertisers should make note of how cost-conscious consumers' spending plans may differ this year. Citing research from market analytics company Jungle Scout, Katz reports that with more than half of consumers (56%) saying rising costs will impact their holiday spending, 50% plan on spending less per person on gifts, with 47% buying discounted products, 42% spending less on holiday decorating, and 35% reducing the number of people for whom gifts will be purchased.