Radio…continues to be strong for planned vehicle purchasers.

As planned vehicle purchasers hit a 5 year low, radio continues to be one of the best ways to reach those adults who are still in the auto purchase market. These are the findings from The Media Audit’s telephone study of 118,211 randomly selected adults in 88 markets.

22.2% of heavy radio listeners plan to purchase a vehicle compared to 18% of the general population. Of 5 major media, including outdoor, internet, TV and newspaper, radio performs the strongest, indexing nearly 25% above the market average.

As planned vehicle purchasers decline, the hardest hit market segment is domestic, down 20% over the past 5 years (see Appendix A). 8.4% of adults are planning on purchasing a domestic vehicle while nearly 12% of heavy radio listeners are planning on purchasing a domestic vehicle. Indexing 42% above the market average radio’s strength in delivering auto purchasers gets even stronger for delivering the domestic category.

Of the major media, radio again performs the strongest in delivering planned domestic purchasers.

One of the reasons for radio’s strong performance in delivering planned auto purchasers is that radio has strength in delivering the “plan to purchase” demographics. For adults in the major demographic cells between 18 and 74 about 22% are heavy radio listeners.

In a comparison of heavy exposure to the major media, radio has the strongest profile in delivering consumers across the major demos.

Radio offers the auto industry additional strengths as heavy radio listeners planning to purchase a vehicle are more financially optimistic. This is good news for auto companies interested in selling high profit options as financial optimists tend to be more liberal in the spending.

Nearly 25% of adults planning on purchasing a vehicle are financial optimists while over 28% of heavy radio listeners planning a vis the strongest.

Heavy exposure definitions are

Radio………..3 hours a day or more
TV…………….5 hours a day or more
Newspaper..1 hour a day or more
Internet……..1 hour a day or more
Outdoor…….200 miles a week or more

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