We’ve already established that more and more people have turned to audio during the pandemic and that there’s more listening taking place than ever before, something clearly shown in the increases in digital listening over the last 18months.

But why has audio proved so invaluable during this time?

It goes back to the basics of informing, reassuring and entertaining that were spoken about in the presentation. 60% of those surveyed felt that radio was a trusted source of information for them about COVID. Where things get interesting is what benefits people found they were getting from audio. 49% of people saying that they used audio to improve their mood during the pandemic while 47% saying they used it for companionship, a vital role at a time where many people felt isolated.

44% of those surveyed say they used audio to look after their mental health and 40% said they now feel more of a connection to audio than they did before the pandemic. This highlights the unique and powerful bond between the medium and the listener.

In terms of time spent listening, it has increased across radio, podcasts and streamed music with the car being the only place where people felt they were listening less.

These new habits are here to stay particularly for radio and streamed music where people think they’ll continue to listen to more and there’s also an expectation that car listening will bounce back once commutes resume with 29% saying they expect to listen more.

If you’d like further information on these stats or any of the information in Sound Affects 2 please get in touch on hello@urbanmedia.ie.

Source: Sound Affects 2 (2021)

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Sound Affects 2 – Audio Revival tells us that 41% of adults in Ireland and 67% of 18-34 year olds listen to a podcast on a weekly basis making the podcast generation an important part of the audio landscape.

We know podcasts are used to entertain and this rings through with 38% of listeners saying they’re most likely to listen to a comedy podcast. That increases for 56% in the 18-34 age group. We can also see from the popular genres such as true crime that people use them to inform them on more niche subjects.

In terms of listening moments 49% said they listen while working, with 47% saying they listened while walking and 46% during exercise so it’s definitely a complimentary listen. There’s also a connection built with 29% of listening adults saying that they consider their favourite podcast hosts as a friend.

21% of adults subscribe to a podcast which increases to 38% when we look at 18-34’s. We also see encouraging signs for a pay to listen model with 29% of the 18-34 listening demo saying they pay money to a podcaster’s patreon.

While the commercial model for podcasting is still being figured out it does feel like there’s a big opportunity for brands to get on board and create great audio content that suits their brand. In fact a recent study from WARC has suggested that podcasting is the most underinvested medium when it comes to balancing spend versus consumption.

While completing the research we tested a podcast piece in the true crime genre and reaction from that research has led to it going into full production. The Making Of A Detective tells the story of 5 of Ireland’s most notorious murder cases, told through the lens of the man who once solved them; Ex-Detective Inspector Pat Marry.

Premiering today, the series is a co-production with The Irish Sun. Hosted by urbanmedia’s Ian Doyle, episodes feature step-by-step accounts of how justice was ultimately served, with interviews from victims’ friends and family, Pat’s former colleagues in the force, and The Irish Sun’s Stephen Breen to help tell these stories one by one.

Pat’s story begins with the tragic 2004 death of Rachel Callaly by her husband Joe O’Reilly in their home in The Naul, North Co Dublin. The episode features in-depth interviews with Rachel’s brother Paul who reveals his traumatic account of the investigation and media circus that followed.

You can listen right now below, on Spotify, Apple or wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Source: Sound Affects 2 (2021)

If you’d like further information on how your brand can join the party please say hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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Radio’s role is around keeping people informed and entertained – a role it has played throughout the pandemic, something we discussed in the introduction to the event. The President of Ireland chose to use local radio to deliver his COVID message to the public at the start of the pandemic as he knew he’d reach a vast and engaged audience allowing his message to inform the public. Radio also provided entertainment and distraction as COVID fatigue became an issue, especially while people were in isolation. The high level of listeners who consider radio presenters their friends attests to this, as does the numerous stories station presenters told of listeners engaging with them and telling them the important role they were playing in getting them through this tough time.

When it comes to podcasts the role is more around education and finding out more about certain subjects and taking a deeper dive into areas of interest. FM104 presenter Emma Nolan described her own podcast as a deep meaningful chat around music, something she’s passionate about. She described it as that chat you have with a friend late at night, about music and how it makes you feel. It’s not a conversation that would work on a daily radio show but it is a valuable addition to the audio sphere.

Lastly streamed music tends to be more mood driven and therefore seems to have replaced the music listening that previously took place on MP3, CD, cassette or vinyl. Listeners use streamed music to improve their mood or to help them relax and unwind. It’s also used to motivate while exercising and music always performs strongly when it comes to nostalgia – hence the popularity of those 80’s streams like Q102 80’s.

Lastly, let’s look at what people are doing when they’re listening.

53% of people are most likely to listen to the radio while driving or commuting. 45% like to listen while cooking or cleaning and 36% use the radio to relax.

42% of people are most likely to be relaxing when listening to podcasts, with 37% enjoying a walk with a podcast while 33% listen while cooking or cleaning.

Cooking and cleaning are the most popular activities when listening to music with 50% of people surveyed saying they did this. 47% like to listen to music while relaxing while 45% like to listen on their commute.

Source: Sound Affects 2 (2021)

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It’s clear that audio builds close relationships with its listeners and that trust plays a key part in those relationships.

In the survey 60% of those interviewed said radio is a trusted source of COVID-19 information. During the presentation of the research the government COVID spend on radio was cited as a great example of the power of radio. During the period of March to August 2020 the government spent 49% of their marketing budget on radio campaigns to get the key messages out to the general public. This strategy led to Ireland being voted number one in the world when it came to effective covid communication during that period.

A key element of that trust appears to be the relationship with the presenter. A third of respondents said that they felt like radio presenters are their friends with nearly half of them saying that they would be sad if a radio presenter left a show they liked. 29% also felt like podcast presenters were their friends showing that trust also plays a big part in that genre. There’s genuine relationships built between listener and presenter with FM104 presenter Emma Nolan sharing her own story of how sad she was as a teenager when hearing about her favourite presenter leaving a show. This has helped her develop her own relationship with her own audience. 

Another interesting finding was that 68% of people say they have recommended a piece of audio they have heard to a family or friend. The most popular recommendation is a song but there were also recommendations for individual pieces of content, humorous pieces, news and current affairs pieces and podcasts. 

Commercial messages can benefit from being placed in a trusted environment with the messages from advertisers more likely to be accepted due to their surroundings. It’s another huge positive for audio with increased consumption and high levels of trust providing a myriad of marketing opportunities both digitally and on traditional FM frequencies.

Source: Sound Affects 2 (2021)

If you’d like further information on how your brand can join the party please say hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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More choice has led to more audio consumption across all platforms. With control firmly in the hands of the consumer we expect to see even further increases in listening as people find new ways and new opportunities to enjoy content.

When we look at devices and channels alone there are 36 combinations available to the consumer. When you bring in genre and all audio options you are looking at thousands upon thousands of options so there’s something for everyone. 

As an example just look at the in-car choice which has expanded massively due to technology like Car Play and connected cars – it’s certainly a far cry from 6 presets and your favourite CD. The survey found 69% of radio listeners listen in the car, 28% of podcast listeners listen to podcasts in the car while 59% of music listeners listen to music in the car. This choice is replicated in the home and the workplace where connected devices have led to a proliferation of choice.

The research also explored how different dayparts suit different content and consumer needs. For instance live radio tends to peak in the morning hours, playback radio from mid morning to lunchtime, free music streaming early lunchtime to mid afternoon and paid streaming peaks in the late afternoon. Personal vinyl/CD listening and podcasts seem to skew towards the evening hours when people are relaxing during their downtime.

These insights open up opportunities for advertisers to delve further in terms of targeting specific dayparts depending on consumers audio choices and ultimately linking creative to the consumers state of mind. A perfect example is Harvey Norman’s use of our “Back Garden Festival” stream which we created in the absence of festivals across the summer. It gave them the perfect platform to reach these festival goers who are passionate about music and who want good quality devices to listen on. It allowed them to position themselves as the destination for party audio during the summer in a relaxed chilled out environment.

Source: Sound Affects 2 (2021)

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This week we’ll focus on the first of the six themes that came out of the research – that radio is still king when it comes to audio choice. When comparing radio with podcasts and streamed music we found higher levels of both engagement and recall. 75% were able to recall something they heard on radio versus 63% for both podcasts and streamed music. 58% felt engaged with radio versus 55% for music and 51% for podcasts.

The car remains the most popular place to listen to the radio with 69% of listeners saying they listen there, followed by a physical radio (48%) and the growth segments such as smartphone (39%), laptop (32%) and smart speaker/ speakers (25%).

Listeners are switching on to be informed and entertained with 63% tuning in for news programming and 61% tuning in to hear music. Interestingly the survey found that more Irish adults tune into radio to listen to music than to a music streaming service.

There’s also a real trust and connection with the radio with a third of respondents saying they feel like radio presenters are friends while 49% said they would be sad if a presenter left a radio show they listen to. This connection was confirmed in our panel discussion when FM104 presenter Emma Nolan told the story of a listener getting in touch to say her new baby recognised Emma’s voice on the radio. This was after a pregnancy that was spent listening to Emma while in lockdown, something the listener described as her life being “just me, you and my pregnant belly”.

These emotional connections were also discussed by fellow panelist Mike Cass, Head of Content for Virgin Radio who spoke about the impact of not only big name presenters like Chris Evans and Graham Norton but of all presenters. He talked about how he works with presenters to ensure this connection by keeping the conversation relevant and treating it like a conversation with a friend. He described wanting the radio station to be the party that you know you should leave because you’ve an early start the next day but you just can’t drag yourself away because you’re engaged and enjoying yourself.

If you’d like further information on how your brand can join the party please say hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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It’s going to be a very meaningful Christmas with a lot of people planning on splashing the cash and spending their lockdown savings on their nearest and dearest. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the latest TGI data for the Republic of Ireland.

People are thinking ahead and the number of listeners already planning what to buy for Christmas has grown by 76% compared to last year. 

September to October has seen a rise in the number of listeners planning their Christmas shopping with 1 in 3 early birds starting to think about Christmas presents during these two months (39% of listeners). Over 80,000 listeners started their planning as early as July – August.

Of course, not everyone is as organised, with 587,000 of listeners waiting until November or December to start their shopping.

This year, shoppers will have less people on their Christmas list with over 560,000 urbanmedia listeners buying gifts for five people or less. This is an increase of 8% on last year. Over one million listeners plan on buying gifts for between 1 and 10 people this Christmas (883,000 last year).

While listeners may be buying for fewer people, quality beats quantity with total expenditure on Christmas gifts expected to be higher amongst urbanmedia listeners (up from €516.7m to €634.6m) with an average spend on gifts by listeners up 13.5% year on year (up from €460.84 to €522.83).

Consumers Association chief Dermott Jewell said people will feel they deserve a bumper Christmas this year after almost two years of the pandemic curtailing their spending options. “From listening and reading comments on social media, you can tell people are looking forward quite significantly to Christmas and having a good one because they believe they deserve it, and they’re right,” he said.

It’s no surprise that online shopping is increasing in popularity with over 1 in 4 listeners browsing their favourite stores online to buy presents (+36.5% year on year). urbanmedia listeners are 5% more likely to do so than the average adult in Ireland. The high street is back too with 420,00 listeners planning to use a mix of online and in-store shopping, which is up 23.9% from last year.

Studio is our creative department, who we work closely with on our larger projects. They create campaigns that harness emotions to change how people think, feel and act around commercial brands for our clients and agencies. They do this by telling stories that entertain, excite and inspire across all platforms; digital, print, video, social, audio, events and more.

Source: TGI Republic of Ireland 2020/2021
Base: Weekly listeners of urbanmedia stations

If you’d like to be part of the action contact your urbanmedia representative or drop us a line on hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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Sound Affects 2 – Audio Revival, follows on from our first study, and has again explored how people in Ireland are consuming audio content, but this time we have delved even deeper.

An intensive diary study, together with a robust quantitative study has uncovered many interesting themes, including how we have changed our listening behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic and how likely that is to impact our future audio consumption.

It’s clear from the study that audio has played an increasingly important role in people’s lives through the pandemic. It informs, educates and reassures while also providing entertainment. It has given comfort and companionship during times of lockdown and it became a vital part of our work from home day as our working patterns were turned upside down.

Technology has played a huge part in getting audio back into people’s homes, with smart speakers and digital devices taking the place of the traditional radio that once lived in the kitchen. Earphone intimacy continues to be a theme as people engage with the medium in a very personal way as they go about their daily routine, highlighted by the fact that 1 in 2 people surveyed said they’d be sad if a presenter on the radio show they liked left.

Radio remains the predominant choice with 94% of Irish adults saying they listen to the radio. However, we are seeing the benefit of content choice driving more consumption with strong numbers for streamed music listening (71%), podcast listening (70%) and catch up radio listening (64%). It’s clear the themes of Sound Affects 1 around listener control and the multifarious nature of audio continue to ring through. 

We see a clear role for different channels come to the fore in this research. Chief amongst radio’s key roles is to provide information and entertain, while with podcasts we see a desire for education on specific topics and links to hobbies and interests. Motivation for streamed music tends to be more mood based with a role in relaxing and improving mood.

Audio is in the midst of an exciting revival and this provides many opportunities for marketers. This research will help inform and understand what those opportunities might be, by helping understand the Irish audio consumer and how they behave.

If you’d like to attend our virtual event next week, September 30th at 11-12.30, you can do so by RSVPing at hello@urbanmedia.ie

If you’d like to be part of the action contact your urbanmedia representative or drop us a line on hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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urbanmedia is now on Instagram, follow us @urbanmediairl.

There is no doubt we will see Irish shoppers’ use of electronic payments continue. The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland has seen online and mobile payment methods continue to grow despite the easing of restrictions on physical retail. A new report shows the volume of online and mobile payments grew by 15.3% in the April – June period when compared to the same three months of 2020. While last year was something of an adaptation period this is something we expect to continue into the busy Christmas shopping season.

A longer holiday purchasing period with an even earlier start is also expected with shipping costs skyrocketing and world trade gripped by a major supply chain crunch. These cost increases will also undoubtedly find their way to the consumer and all market trackers are showing higher inflation levels are set to continue.

Some of the biggest toy and furniture retailers have said they are experiencing major delays. Up to 10% of IKEA’s product lines are unavailable in Ireland at present, and Halfords have said it expects the shortages to continue well into the future. 

A perfect mix of COVID led manufacturing and distribution disruption, increased costs and Brexit seems to be coming home to roost as we can see from some of the key factors: 

• When the pandemic first hit demand collapsed and ships crossing our oceans were half empty, with containers sitting in warehouses holding goods. As a result of the shock, ships weren’t repatriating containers to their origins. That meant that shipping companies “didn’t have the containers they needed” to actually move goods and commodities once global demand began trickling back in the months after the initial outbreaks. 


• Production related disruption was also a factor. A freak Texas ice storm that knocked out semiconductor plants in February sent the already-constrained global supply of microchips into a spiral. That’s had a knock-on effect on a vast multitude of industries from tech to car manufacturing.


• Because businesses expected prolonged delays and disruption they increased orders putting more pressure on the supply chains who were already feeling the pressure of trying to manage mass PPE delivery.


• The delays in agreeing a trade agreement between the UK and EU and the changes to the processes has led to delays in getting stock on shelves and a reorganisation of shipping lanes from mainland Europe to Ireland. 

Some will argue it’s retailers just trying to further extend the holiday buying season but there does seem to be clear evidence that supply is under pressure. Therefore it might be worth looking at buying early this year in order to avoid disappointment, especially as the cash alternative mightn’t be as en-vogue as it once was!

Source : Irish Banking Federation of Ireland

If you’d like to be part of the action contact your urbanmedia representative or drop us a line on hello@urbanmedia.ie.

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80% of the adult population tune in every day for a total of 13.1 million hours per day, reflecting the sustainability of this long established medium. Even amongst the 15-24 year old cohort, almost 70% listen to radio on a regular basis. 

Irish audiences are also highly connected, ownership of smartphones are at 86%, and smart speakers at 30%. The growth in smart speakers has been rapid, almost trebling since 2018  and likely to grow further in the coming years. Ownership is higher amongst a younger demographic and enables easy access to audio material. We can see this with the growth of digital audio listening on our own platforms where we have seen an increase in total listening hours of over 40% for the 10 week period to the end of July.

In terms of device usage 72% used a radio or music player to listen to their audio material while the next device of choice is the smartphone used by 28% of the population with 15% using a PC/laptop or smart speaker.

Live radio currently has a share of 78.8% of the audio market reflecting the depth of engagement listeners have with radio. While many tune into on-demand audio, they spend much less time doing so. There is more activity among the younger 15-24 year old audience in this space, however live radio still achieves the majority share of time spent listening  (53.2%). Music streaming (Spotify or similar) has a share of 25.2% among this group followed by YouTube for Music (14.2%).

Later this month we will be presenting our own audio research as Sound Affects 2 – Audio Revival follows on from Sound Affects 1, exploring how people in Ireland are consuming audio content. 

In conjunction with Dentsu we’ve completed an intensive diary study, together with a robust quantitative study have uncovered six interesting themes, including how we have changed our listening behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’d like more detail of our event on September 30th or you’d like to attend you can find details at urbanmedia.ie/sound-affects-2/

Source: Ipsos MRBI Game Changers/ AdSwizz 

If you’d like to be part of the action contact your urbanmedia representative or drop us a line on hello@urbanmedia.ie.

Bringing your message to new urban audiences.

urbanmedia is now on Instagram, follow us @urbanmediairl.