Tampa Bay Business Owners: Skip Ads on Pandora and Spotify

Of all the advertising options available to Tampa Bay small business owners, streaming audio services like Pandora and Spotify are the least effective.  Here's why.

According to Nielsen, after the content of a commercial is considered, the element of an advertising campaign that drives sales the most is reach. In other words, making sure the most people possible are exposed to the advertiser's message is crucial.

When it comes to achieving reach among consumers, Pandora and Spotify rank dead last.  Advertising on Tampa radio stations, actually, can reach 266% more consumers than these two streaming-audio platforms combined.

It may surprise many small business owners that Tampa radio has a larger reach than Pandora and Spotify even among millennials.  Clearly, it is a myth that younger consumers are ditching legacy media in favor of digital options.

Radio's dominance over audio-streaming sources like Pandora and Spotify is not limited to reach.  According to Edison Research, consumers devote 225% more of their time spent with audio, listening to local radio versus streaming sites.

According to the eBook "7 Steps For Success", the repetition of an advertiser's message is crucial to achieving top-of-mind status for a Tampa Bay small business owner.  The more times a consumer spends with a medium, the more efficient it becomes to generate an effective level of frequency.

Because consumers spend so little of their time with streaming-audio sites like Pandora and Spotify, it becomes nearly impossible for a Tampa Bay business owner to achieve the levels of repetition necessary for an advertising schedule to be effective.

If a business is already advertising on Tampa radio stations, then by default, they are already reaching almost all of Pandora's and Spotify's audiences.

Nielsen reveals that 95% of the combined audience for Pandora and Spotify also listens to Tampa radio stations during the course of the week.

That number is even higher among millennial consumers. Over 97% of 18-34 year old Pandora and Spotify listeners tune-in to Tampa radio stations, as well, during the course of the week.

Pizza Chain Skips Ads On Pandora and Spotify

Hungry Howie's is the 12th largest chain of pizza restaurants in America based on sales volume. The company has 551 locations. Seventy-one of the stores are in the Tampa Bay area.

For the past 33 years, advertising on Tampa radio has helped Hungry Howie's grow from just 20 locations in the Tampa Bay area to 210 throughout the state.

According to Barry Devine whose advertising agency has handled Hungry Howie's marketing from the beginning, "We've tried TV and cable advertising, but it was too expensive to generate the frequency we need, and nobody really reads the newspaper anymore. And we don't use streaming media like Pandora or Spotify because they just don't have the hometown feel like Tampa radio does. We want our customers to think of us as their local pizza joint."

Mr. Devine adds, "The first couple of times someone hears the Hungry Howie's message on Tampa radio, it's like planting seeds.  Adding frequency is like watering the seeds to make them grow. We can only buy that type of frequency on radio."

"Occasionally," says Mr. Devine, "one of our store managers will tell me that we are wasting money on radio advertising because no one listens anymore. They tell me everybody is listening to Pandora and Spotify."

"When I hear that I offer to give his store a radio campaign at no-charge to invite customers in for a free large pizza. No one has ever taken me up on that offer because, they know, the results would be overwhelming because radio advertising does work."

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