One Year On: Re-visiting Radiocentre’s insight into home working and the effect on commercial radio listeners

“This time next year life will be back to normal” was the underlying, optimistic mind-set many of us held onto as we entered 2021, following a Christmas period, and indeed a year, like no other.

At the start of 2021, almost half of all working adults (46%) were working from home, either full or part time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Radiocentre carried out research to more effectively understand who these people were, the value they may hold for advertisers and the ways for brands to effectively reach them.

Fast forward to 2022 and for many, restrictions to our daily working lives still remain. Many companies have used the pandemic as a chance to rethink.  Offices downsizing, the general move to hybrid working and the latest government advice to work from home where possible (Plan B) has led to a substantial subset of workers still finding themselves working from home.

This is a fitting time to revisit our study “New ways of working, New ways of connecting”. Commissioned in the first quarter of last year, we took an in-depth look at the working from home audience and explored how radio can help brands connect with this high value audience. But a year on its interesting to see how much of the findings have remained relevant.

1) Radio provides companionship and accompanies listeners as they work

Despite a multitude of perceived benefits provided by a hybrid/work from home model, working at home remains, at heart, an isolating experience. Last year, 50% of WFH commercial radio listeners stated that they were listening to more radio than before lockdown 1.0.

88% said that increased listening was simply due to having more available time to listen, but the effect on the mind seemed to play a role here as well; 89% were playing the radio in the background as they worked, with 82% using it to keep them company and 83% saying it improved their mood. 

As time at home, working in silo has continued for almost two years, these reasons for increased listening are as likely to have remained as relevant as they were a year ago.

2) Work from Home listeners are an audience that are receptive to advertising

Last year, more than half of the measured commercial radio listeners working full time from home agreed that that they would often go online to search things they had heard advertised on the radio.

With this habit formed last year, this behaviour is unlikely to have changed as work from home listeners became used to having the ability to search at their fingertips while they listen to the radio.

3) Working From Home has enabled savings to be made

A year ago, 63% agreed of those surveyed believed that they had saved money since the start of the pandemic.

Back to the present day, and for those who have retained a level of employment stability until now, increased working from home has meant a drop in spend on daily travel alongside savings on expenses such as takeaway lunches and that vital mid-morning coffee. Let’s not forget the staycation that took the place of a week of skiing and a fortnight in the sun.

These people (who are listening to the radio more, receptive to advertising, and find themselves with expendable cash) are also becoming more optimistic that milder variants of Covid actually may be nudging us back to normality. So what will they be aiming to spend their money on?

4) Increased motivation to spend after lockdown

The 2021 study indicated increased motivation to spend across most areas after lockdown; whether that be on activities, travel, major purchases or retail. Obviously since January 2021, restrictions have relaxed somewhat and many have taken the opportunity to spend on those things, albeit with a level of caution. This rings especially true when it comes to travel and major life purchases. However it is likely that interest in spending across these areas will continue to grow as we become more hopeful that these purchases will not involve red tape and arduous process.

Ultimately the new normal is becoming simply normal. But that doesn’t stop any of us wanting to get back some semblance of the old normal. For that, radio continues to fill multiple needs.

To find out more about the Radiocentre Study, New ways of working, New ways of connecting, watch below or click here.