Kiss and Tell

KISS SAYS RELAX 30 January 2012

Here at Kiss Confidential we like to know our listeners. So 6 times a year we send a sample of them an online survey on key commercial areas, which helps us discover how they feel about their lives and the world around them. In this survey we wanted to know about their leisure time: their favourite activities, how they spend money, and where social media fits into all of this.

2012 is here and already the fun and frivolity of the Christmas period seems a distant memory. But just because Kiss listeners are back toiling away at work and study doesn’t mean that they aren’t already thinking about their next weekend or next holiday. Here at Kiss Confidential, we wanted to know not only how they spend their down time, but where they plan to get away to in the coming year.

With the current economic situation in the UK, it is no surprise that 36% of Kiss listeners believe they are doing more in-home activities this year than last. Watching TV (87%) is their favourite indoor past-time, followed closely by surfing the net (84%) and listening to music (77%). What this doesn’t mean, however, is that they don’t still love to get out, with just under half of their weekends spent out of the house. Shopping is their favourite pastime, when each month they part with £152 of their hard earned cash.

Films continue to play a significant role in Kiss listeners’ lives, with two thirds regularly going to the cinema. At 77%, DVD players are also the technology most listeners have in their homes, and 56% have purchased a DVD or blue-ray disc in the last month. While trailers at the cinema and on television are the factors that influence our listeners’ film choice most with 63% and 61%, trailers and chat on the radio are still likely to strongly influence half of our listeners.

Right now we are in the depths of a cold, dark January winter. But by this time last year 54% of our listeners had already started thinking about their main holiday for 2011 – even though most didn’t take it until the summer. This is due in part to the fact that for Kiss listeners, the day of the prearranged package holiday has passed: 57% now prefer to book an independent holiday, with 42% choosing to do it through an online travel agent. With this preference for independent holidays, comparison and travel booking sites have become more important. Expedia and Trip Advisor are our listeners’ travel sites of choice, with 43% and 42% respectively visiting them when planning a holiday.

Holidays are about relaxing and getting away from it all for Kiss listeners, whether it be staying in the UK, as 20% did last year, or heading to sunny Spain, as 13% did. Indeed beach holidays were their preferred destination in 2011 (54%), followed a little way behind by city breaks (38%). Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Kiss listeners were still willing to splash the cash on vacation: £1,648 was spent on average per person on their main holiday, including on travel, accommodation and spending money. This desire for relaxation and willingness to spend money is also apparent in that Kiss listeners seek luxury accommodation above cheap and cheerful.

Leisure time isn’t all about weekends and holidays for our listeners: sometimes it is about stealing 10 minutes out of their day to check what their 188 Facebook friends (on average) are up to. Half of Kiss listeners do this several times a day, while 65% do it at least daily. Primarily our listeners see Facebook as a way of staying in touch with friends and managing their social life (61%), which is apparent in the fact that 81% have liked a comment someone has posted, and 69% have been invited to a social event via Facebook. There is also a more commercial side to Facebook for our listeners, however, with 66% having liked a brand or company, and 55% having used Facebook to enter a competition.

Just for a bit of fun to end our research we asked Kiss listeners which their favourite films of all time were. Here is what they said:

Also in this survey we had a deeper look at Twitter use and holidays, including when during the year our listeners begin thinking about, researching, deciding and booking holidays; and how radio advertising affects their decisions. To find out more about these please contact haydn.russell@bauermedia.co.uk.