RAMS, Radio and the Repertoire of the rolling maul.

Traditionally, the release of new RAMS radio listenership data is greeted by media strategists in Mzansi with all the excitement usually reserved by rugby fans for yet another confusing penalty during a test match. This week’s release of the BRC RAMS AMPLIFY 2023 Q1 data has proved to be no exception.

Critics of the modern game of rugby do tend to agree though, that it’s not the rules themselves which are the bone of contention, but rather the inconsistent application of those rules. Even Donald Trump is more likely to blow the whistle on a hooker who has committed a technical infringement, than the average rugby referee.

So, when it comes to BRC RAMS AMPLIFY 2023 Q1 it is reassuring to observe the overall consistency and stability of the data. In a quantum shift mediaverse, stable audience data is a win for researchers, radio broadcasters and advertisers alike.

At a national level, nothing has really changed. Past 7-day listenership to radio remains high (75%), although it is reported that this represents a “significant decline in listenership” compared to Q3 2022 (76%). At the 95% level of confidence nogal! Now, whilst we all appreciate the due diligence applied by researchers in the pursuit of statistical excellence in media research, I can predict at the 100% level of confidence that this particular fact will have absolutely no impact on radio advertising investment over the next 12 months.

That is not to say the #RA23Q1 report is without genuine points of interest for media strategists. As always, when it comes to media research, it’s All Done with Mirrors.

It is when the decline in weekly listenership is considered in conjunction with time spent listening that the implicit behavioural shift becomes a little more intriguing. Almost a third of waking hours are spent listening to radio (5hrs 06mins) each day but this represents a softening in this particular listening metric. Time spent listening is down 2,5% from Q3 2022 (5hrs 14mins).

Listenership to radio might be stagnant but listening behaviour is not. It is when we look at the growth of Listening on Demand (LOD), particularly amongst younger consumers, that the future of audio advertising becomes clear. As an industry it would be considerably more productive to focus less on miniscule quantitative shifts in traditional radio listenership and focus more on discernable shifts in human listening behaviour across all audio platforms.

The really valuable insights derived from BRC RAMS AMPLIFY 2023 Q1 are those that highlight behavioural displacement of listeners, rather than minuscule shifts in radio station audiences. And no insight embedded in RAMS AMPLIFY database is more valuable to users than the Media Repertoire Score.  

The Media Repertoire Score is a measure of this displacement across 13 alternative media platforms (excluding radio) that are reported in #RA23Q1. MRS provides a functional lens for understanding the implications of continuous partial attention (CPA) in the media landscape and the need to develop holistic media strategies.

The adult population of South Africa has an RMS of 5,3 (excluding radio) but the further up the socio-economic scale we move the higher the RMS. The SEM 7-10 segment has an RMS of 6,7.

Interestingly, population targets that have a broader media repertoire tend to have higher radio reach, further highlighting radio’s popularity as a medium consumed in parallel (and often simultaneously) with a wide variety of media types.

But it is when we compare the insights generated by the Media Repertoire Score with a popular media consumption measure from the dim and distant media past, Media Imperatives, that we realise just how far effective media strategy has evolved in terms of embracing the dynamics of the media Fusion Zone.

In the past, Media Imperatives provided deep-vertical insight into consumption by individual media type. Consumers were divided into Light, Medium and Heavy (readers, listeners or viewers) which assisted planners in optimizing investment within each media silo. A brilliant research initiative at the time but offering no insight into balancing investment in the media Fusion Zone.

In a sense the Media Repertoire Score is to the media Fusion Zone landscape what the rolling maul is to modern rugby. Rugby purists may reflect fondly on the days when we all understood the rules of the game, which dictated that all 15 players in a team should stand neatly in their allotted positions, waiting for the ball to be passed to them.

But the game has moved on.

Nobody in the world truly understands the fusion of human energy and intimacy that fuels the rolling maul. With the possible exception of Boris Johnson of course. But the players who have studied the rules that govern the rolling maul (and there are rules) will probably win the Rugby World Cup this year.

As they say – Fuse it or Lose it!