Based on per capita spending estimates from the NRF, Wilmington, Delaware area parents are expected to spend a record $96,082,853 to prepare more than 107,400 children returning to grades K-12. These expenditures will exceed 2022 back-to-school sales by 12.5%
Expenditures to equip K-12 students in the Wilmington area will be on:
In addition to expenditures for K-12, $ 217.6 million is expected to be spent in the Wilmington area to prepare college students for their return to campus. This is 27% more than was spent last year. Another record.
The biggest spending categories to equip Wilmington area college students in 2023 will include:
In order to capture the largest portion of this record back-to-class cash, Wilmington small business owners will need to fight to keep these dollars local. According to the NRF, a painful majority of shoppers plan to buy online and in department stores. While only 13-15% of consumers plan to buy locally.
Keeping more of these dollars local will require Wilmington area retailers and service providers to convince consumers of the value and benefits of shopping locally. The best way to accomplish this objective is to advertise. Based on most success metrics, the best way to market local goods and services is by advertising on Wilmington radio.
Every week, according to Nielsen, Wilmington area radio reaches 487,506 adult consumers. This reach is significantly higher than all other advertising options including local TV, cable, social media, streaming video, online audio, and newspapers.
Reach, according to Nielsen, is the audience metric most responsible for driving the success of an advertising campaign. Only the message itself carries more sway.
According to additional data released this month by Nielsen, not only does AM/FM radio reach more adults each week, but the medium also reaches more adults every single month. This is true among almost every imaginable demographic segment.
Among all ad-supported audio options, according to Nielsen's new research, AM/FM radio commands the greatest time spent listening every day. In other words, adult consumers spend more time listening to local radio than with choices such as YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Podcasts, and Sirius/XM.
Local business owners may wonder why Wilmington radio, an early 20th-century technology remains the dominant advertising medium among adult consumers.
According to the 2023 Media Techsurvey from Jacobs Media, these are the three main reasons listeners choose to spend the majority of their audio time with AM/Radio:
Radio's reach dominance over nearly ten decades can also be attributed to the medium's strategic decision to make its content available both over-the-air and online. According to Nislen's latest measurements, 20% of all time listening to AM/FM radio among adults 25-54 happens via stations' online streams. This is 42% more time than in 2021.
In addition to reach, advertising on local radio provides the greatest return on investment (ROI) among all media options available to Wilmington area small business owners.
From April through July of 2021, Neilsen measured the sales results of a radio advertising campaign conducted by a major retailer. The study utilized portable people meter technology to segment consumers into two discrete categories: those who were exposed to the retailer's advertising campaign and those who were not.
Nielsen was then able to match the consumers in each segment to their credit/debit or shopper card purchase behavior. Consequently, the study decisively measured how sales were affected by the retailer's advertising campaign.
Here are the key takeaways from the Neilsen study:
Most importantly, the Nielsen study revealed that every $1000 that the retailer invested in the radio advertising campaign returned $13,000 in sales. A 13-time ROI.
Wilmington business owners should know that these findings support 23 other Nielsen studies that indicate, on average, that advertising on local radio delivers a 10-time return on investment.
AdAge, a trade magazine for advertising professionals, calls these types of returns "eye-popping." The magazine goes on to say radio's ROI is superior to commercials on TV, online, and social media.
To learn more about Nielsen's latest ROI study, click here.
Both reach and ROI are the critical metrics for determining the best way to advertise in Wilmington. By either measurement, local radio is the logical choice for reaching back-to-school shoppers.