Some companies have problems when it comes to customer engagement. Not so at iHeartMedia.
Rich Bressler, the company’s President, CEO, and Chief Financial Officer discussed this point during iHeartMedia’s July 30 second-quarter earnings conference call.
“In Nielsen’s latest total audience report, radio is highlighted as the No. 1- reached medium among adults and millennials in the U.S. with over 90% weekly reach,” Bressler said, according to Seeking Alpha. “We have also seen consumer engagement across our platforms continue to grow. In addition to our other cross-platform strength, we have become a significant social player generating billions of social impressions with our events and garnering almost 75 million social followers from just Facebook and Twitter alone.”
Radio continues to engage audiences across the country, Bressler explained, evidenced by strong broadcast ratings growth in April, May, and June.
“Yet we believe it is still significantly under-monetized within the advertising media mix, particularly relative to other traditional media like TV,” he said. “This puts us in a great position. In addition to building and selling new products, one of our biggest growth opportunities is better monetizing our existing portfolio of assets. Our strong consumer engagement and unmatched reach combined with the results of the ROI study conducted by Nielsen Audio and Nielsen Catalina Solutions that showed a six to one return on radio advertising dollars, are important data points in demonstrating radio's power as we continue to close the gap between radio's consumer scale and engagement and its much lower share of advertising spend.”
With 245 million monthly listeners in the U.S., iHeartMedia has the largest reach of any radio or television outlet in America. The company owns and operates 858 broadcast radio stations, serving more than 150 markets throughout the U.S.
“Radio presents a huge opportunity for advertisers to connect with consumers through audio,” Bressler said. “In fact, radio has always been a leading mobile and social medium. It just happened to exist long before the new digital and social categories emerge. Think about it. Radio is the original mobile medium. And today, 66% of the usage of what is generally referred to as mobile is consumed in the home whereas radio is the opposite. Two-thirds of its usage is out of the home, delivering on the true promise of mobile as an advertising vehicle.”
During the quarter, the company hosted its annual iHeartRadio Country Festival and iHeartRadio Ultimate Pool Party, both of which attract key advertisers and artists.
“Events continue to be an important embedded part of our sales strategy, as they have a positive impact on advertising and consumer relationships, as well as great promotion and brand building through our stations,” Bressler explained. “We are leveraging these events as a significant differentiator from a sales, branding, and promotion perspective. At today’s iHeartMedia, Inc., we offer what we believe is a truly differentiated value proposition for advertisers built on the power of sound and the power of outdoor and capitalizing upon the consumer trend of spending more time out of the house. You have heard us say many times that we are one of a kind media company and we are. There is simply no other company that can do what we do. At the recent Festival of Media Global Awards in Rome, iHeartMedia was named Best Media Vendor of the Year in recognition of our work within the advertising community.”
On the outdoor front, Bressler said the company continues to innovate both in the Americas and internationally.
“We reached millions of people through our global footprint, including more than 640,000 displays in over 40 countries, with over 1,200 digital billboards in North America, and over 5,000 visual displays in our international markets,” he said. “With the growth of social media and mobile and the fact that 70% of consumers time is spent out of home, more and more advertisers demand the flexibility to coordinate their outdoor spend with real time events and product launches throughout the year.”