Friday Poll: Using Alexa to Boost Listenership

    • 1373 posts
    March 15, 2019 12:43 AM PDT

    Happy Friday, everyone!

    A recent Nielsen study found that 24% of American households own one or more smart speakers, while an Adobe study put smart speaker ownership at 32% of the population, and predicted that figure would reach nearly 50% this year. In a March 11 Radio Ink article, It's Time to Answer the Smart Speaker Call, broadcast veteran Peter Smyth writes, "What got my attention was a PWC study from last year that ranked how we use smart speakers. The top response was 'ask a question,' followed closely by 'listen to a streaming music service,' which almost 42% of the sample did daily. 'Listening to radio' was down the list in fifth place with 26% daily usage. That gap is significant and should be a call to action for radio stations — we are now competing on an easy-to-use, convenient delivery system with two of the biggest competitors for music services, Spotify and Pandora."

    So this brings us to this week's poll question:

    What is your station doing to promote listening on smart speakers? Has your station created smart speaker skills? If so, what resources for doing so would you recommend to your fellow broadcasters?

    Looking forward to reading your replies!


    This post was edited by Rebecca Hunt at March 15, 2019 12:59 AM PDT
    • 5 posts
    March 15, 2019 4:11 PM PDT

    I'm generally a fan of encouraging potential listeners to listen wherever I go.
    If one of my sales reps sells a business I frequent but I haven't closed. I'll tell them "I heard your ad on the radio"... even if most people never actually say that.


    We haven't broken into an always on internet stream and currently only go live online during our sports broadcasts and a select few station events. The current pitch to my GM who hasn't been quite convince of the value in paying for the additional licensing fees, streaming platforms, and potential infrastructure upgrades is to subscribe to a Tunein platform. 

    Almost everything that is a radio sponsored even we run a promo for. We ran promos when we got our sports stream and If I can finally get us into a digital age I like the idea of an ad that specifically uses the words "Alexa, listen to KOHU" or whatever it might be.