Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

Source: Radio Advertising Bureau®

“Just one minute.” How often do you hear or say that phrase in a day?  While it may not seem like a long time, a lot happens in a minute. For example, UPS will deliver 11,319 packages, your heart will beat 60 to 100 times and you will blink about 15 to 20 times. Those may be interesting stats, but what is fascinating is the amount of data that is generated in one minute.

Take a minute to think about what you did this morning. If you are like most people, you woke up, looked at your smartphone, read emails, looked at social media, searched the internet, and did a little online shopping. You may have already had a virtual meeting by now. Imagine all the data that has been generated by each of these events – in just one minute.

Domo, a cloud software company, recently released their ninth annual “Data Never Sleeps” infographic. This infographic highlighted online consumer behavior and actions across various platforms to calculate the amount of activity that occurs in just one minute, like the 12 million people that send iMessages, the 240 thousand photos that are shared on Facebook or the six million people that shopped online. It’s an exchange of data.

There has been much written about consumers and personal data, but what do broadcast radio listeners think about data and technology? It may be surprising to learn that 89% of radio listeners think that people place too much private information on the internet, and 86% of radio listeners feel the same way about social media. When it comes to their own information, only 61% of adults radio listeners are OK with companies sharing their product preferences as long as their identity is kept private. For those companies or brands that want to use a radio listener’s personal information to better understand products and services that they might want, companies and brands may want to take a moment. Only 29% of AM/FM radio listeners are agreeable to that, according to MRI-Simmons data.

With broadcast radio, consumers are engaging with a human voice. They are being informed and entertained by the personalities they trust. They tune in to radio because the on-air personalities are like their friend. People listen to radio and engage in conversations with the personalities on those stations to exchange thoughts, opinions and sometimes, based on the topic, they share emotions. This interaction people have with radio takes place for more than just a minute. It takes place for hours.