In 2020, every aspect of the radio business has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic — none more so than revenue. In March, we fielded our first study of how the pandemic affected your listeners, and we followed up with a second study in May. These studies helped stations navigate through a truly turbulent time.

The impact of COVID-19 on radio advertising this holiday season will be unprecedented.

To assist broadcasters, our third COVID-19 study, in partnership with the RAB, will explore how your audience plans to shop this holiday season. This will provide participating radio stations with information they can use to develop a sales strategy and focus on areas that can generate the most revenue.

This survey is open to COMMERCIAL radio stations in the U.S. and Canada only. There is no charge for Jacobs Media-consulted clients to participate in this survey. Other stations may participate for a nominal $250 processing fee.

Along with tracking questions from previous COVID-19 studies about listener behavior and media access, this study will ask about:

Plans on shopping on Black Friday.
Compared with 2019, how much they plan to spend on the holidays this year.
What your audience is using to access shopping information, and what types of information they want (safety, curbside pickup, home delivery, etc.)
Online shopping vs. local businesses.
Which categories they are planning on spending.
What can radio stations provide to become a resource for holiday shopping information.

If you have any suggestions on what you need to know to help generate holiday season sales, please let us know here asap.

Timetable:

Now through Friday, September 25th: Registration period for stations to sign up.
Tuesday, September 29th – Thursday October 1st: Survey in the field. No extensions.
Week of October 5th: Webinar(s) for participating stations and individual station results delivered.

Deliverables: We will provide each participating station with up to two reports: The total results as well as the results of their station’s survey, provided the station has met the minimum requirement of 75 responses to receive a station-specific report (similar to Techsurvey). There will be a limit to each station’s maximum number of responses.

We will again conduct a webinar for participating stations. During the webinar, we will provide breakouts and context to the findings, with our interpretation on what the study tells us, and what it means for radio.

If you’d like to participate, please fill out the short form below. We will be in touch by Friday, September 25th with the link for your station’s survey, instructions on how to field the survey (it’s easy – you email the link we send you to your email database and post on social media), and other information.

We will not be contacting you with “progress reports” on your sample. You either make the 75 in-tab minimum – or you don’t. We recommend doing one big blast. If you’re concerned about hitting the minimum, use social media, your website, and maybe your own air.

These are challenging times for our industry. Information is critical if we want to serve our audience in a meaningful way, help our local communities, and of course, generate as much revenue as possible to close out 2020.

Register to Participate in our COVID-19 Survey

Register Now