NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Katz Media Group, the largest media representation company in America, releases its second report of key findings as part of the “The Local Vote 2016” – a research initiative delivering targeted political insights for the primary election season, from February to April.
Katz commissioned Nielsen and its Scarborough Research Panel to conduct the research, which is designed to capture Americans’ most current political viewpoints and voting preferences within 10 individual states, two weeks prior to key primary elections. The 12-week research initiative delivers valuable in-time insights to help political advertisers effectively use media to engage during a crucial decision-making time for voters.
The second release of data in the study captures candidate sentiment from 2000 registered voters across all five of the March 15th primary states – Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Highlights include:
- A healthy 34-38% of eligible voters on March 15th are still undecided about which candidate to choose (Undecideds) or if they will vote on their primary date (Turnout Vote). Together these two groups comprise the total “Opportunity Vote.
- The latest wave of polling results indicate that the Presidential race has clear frontrunners in all March 15th states except for Ohio where approximately 40% of Democratic voters are Undecided and Republican voters are fairly split between Donald Trump and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
- For Democratic primary-goers who are undecided on a candidate, radio is used by a larger percentage of them weekly (95%) than broadcast TV (91%) or cable television (87%). In fact, more Democratic Undecideds listen to Pop/CHR stations (41%), Adult Contemporary (36%) and News/Talk/Sports (35%) formats than watch any cable news channel (34%).
- Among Republican Undecideds, AC Radio, News-Talk-Sports Radio and Country formats have a higher percentage of Undecided Republicans listening than those watching Fox News Channel.
- Hillary Clinton has a comfortable lead over Bernie Sanders in four of the five March 15th states – Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. In comparing the two waves of data in the study, Secretary Clinton’s lead over Senator Sanders is much narrower three weeks prior to the March 15th primary states than it was at the same time prior to the Super Tuesday states.
- Donald Trump leads in the Republican field, except in Ohio where Governor Kasich is still slightly ahead (27% to 23%). It should be noted that the size of the Undecided Vote among Republicans in these five states is nearly as large (and sometimes larger) as Mr. Trump’s lead.
- Of all Presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders supporters are the least likely to be found on broadcast television (80%), with significantly more choosing radio (93%) in their daily media diet. Only half of Sanders supporters watch local broadcast news (50%) and more can be found listening to Adult Contemporary (48%), Pop/CHR (45%), and Rock (43%) radio formats than watching all cable news channels combined (32%) which includes CNN, MSNBC and FOX. Senator Sanders also enjoys the highest percentage of supporters who use streaming audio on a monthly basis (47%), which includes all local radio streaming as well as pure plays like Spotify.
“The Katz ‘Local Vote’ initiative is designed to obtain voter insights just prior to their state primaries and link them to substantive, reliable media habits. This approach delivers critical insight in time to activate media and influence decisions. The initiative is therefore more than a poll — it’s a poll with a media compass,” said Stacey Schulman, EVP of Strategy, Analytics and Research for Katz Media Group. “As we look deeper at voter behaviors across the media spectrum, Radio continues to stand out as the most reliable, cost-efficient medium for campaign advertising.”
About the Methodology:
The Local Vote 2016 study draws upon Nielsen’s representative sample of local citizens who are currently part of the Scarborough Research Panel. The states included in the study (Colorado, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) were strategically selected because of their expected high incidence of competitive races across several categories: Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate and Congressional. Katz will release four comprehensive reports during the 12-week initiative, which will include statewide, market-level and station-specific findings and info-graphics designed to help advertisers more effectively build campaigns and reach their target audiences.
About Katz Media Group:
Katz Media Group, representing over 3,000 radio stations, 700 television stations and their digital platforms, is the largest media representation company in the United States. Katz Media Group provides advertisers and agencies one point of access to over 200 million active consumers across the country. Katz Media Group is comprised of two companies: Katz Radio Group and Katz Television Group. Katz is based in New York City with fourteen regional offices across the country.
