Trends in Public Service Announcements

2013 SURVEY
TRENDS IN
PUBLIC SERVICE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Created by:

2
ExecutiveSummary
Williams Whittle is focused on attaining superior results for nonprofits through creative
integrated marketing. We create relationships with new audiences for nonprofits through
national awareness programs, using public service announcements (PSAs), signature
campaigns and brand ambassadors, to name a few of our strategies.
With more than ten years of experience in creating, producing, distributing, tracking
and promoting PSAs, we consider ourselves experts in this specialized media. Last year,
we developed and launched a survey to our public service contacts at TV and radio
stations around the country. For years, we’ve spouted off anecdotal evidence to many
of the questions asked in the survey, but lacked the data to support it. Now in our
second year, the survey is showing distinct trends in this evolving marketing vehicle.
2013 Survey: Trends in Public Service Announcements
A note about our methodology. This annual PSA Preference Survey was distributed to approximately 1,425 TV and
radio stations nationwide from our proprietary PSA database in February 2013.
WilliamsWhittle.com

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KeyFindings
• This year’s results indicate another significant leap towards digital preference, with more
than half of TV stations and more than 90% of radio stations preferring digital delivery.
• Even with the progress towards digital, for a PSA campaign to be successful, we suggest
a dual approach of both hard copy and digital offerings.
• The majority of stations want an evergreen message because the majority run PSAs for
1-6 months.
• While almost 80% stations say they will purposely place a PSA on air based on its
relevancy in the news, almost 60% said that holiday relevance doesn’t increase the
chances of a PSA airing.
• As expected, stations indicated that most of their PSA inventory is available in Q1.
• Three out of four PSA Directors say they have particular preferences for PSA subject
matter, but among the subjects we provided, not one was the clear front-runner.
• Stations reiterated that some of their top factors for a PSA to get on air are: local appeal,
variety of lengths of PSAs available (flexibility) and the creative quality of spot.
WilliamsWhittle.com

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Broadcast
TV
Only 29% of TV stations prefer tapes as the
main method of PSA delivery. A whopping
53% prefer digital downloads (up from 35%
last year) with an additional 18% (7% last
year) preferring digital delivery (DG Fast
Channel or similar) for a total of 71%.
WilliamsWhittle.com
29%
53%
18%
Tape
Download
Delivery
Exactly half of the TV stations that participated in the survey say that they receive 50%
or more of their PSAs via digital downloads with 11% of stations receiving all of their
PSAs via digital.
And for those still not accepting digital downloads, 85% (75% last year) expect that
their TV station will be capable of accepting digital download within the next year.

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Radio
Only 6% of radio stations prefer tapes as the main method of PSA delivery. They are
much more receptive to digital downloads since broadcast-quality spots can be easily
attached via email. 93% of radio stations prefer a digital download/delivery, up from
76% last year. Currently, more than half of the radio stations say that they receive 50%
or less of all PSAs via digital.
DigitalTakeaway
When we asked “Does sending a PSA only by digital download decrease the likelihood
of the PSA getting on air?” stations are almost divided down the middle: 41% of TV
stations and 30% of radio stations said “yes.”
WilliamsWhittle.com
No
59%
Yes
41%
No
70%
Yes
30%
TV Radio

9% 47% 23% 21%
A Week Before A Month Before A Few Months Before It Doesn't Matter
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PSALifespan
Typically, PSAs fare better if they are evergreen. And the survey agreed; 62% of TV
stations and 47% of radio stations prefer a long live period. Combined, about 40% of all
stations said they had no preference – leading us to conclude that if a nonprofit has a
PSA with a campaign specific time period (like holidays or promo periods), stations are
willing to air those messages, too.
For those stations that are willing to air PSAs with specific timing, 70% would like the
PSA at least a month before, with 23% of those wanting the materials at least a few
months before the request for airing.
WilliamsWhittle.com

WilliamsWhittle.com 7
PromotionalMessages
During peak fundraising months in Q4, nonprofits often launch holiday-themed
promotions, including PSAs. Stations have weighed in – 28% prefer PSAs that have a
holiday theme while 13% don’t. And the majority, 59%, says a holiday-themed message
doesn’t make an impact on their decision to air the PSA or not.
Yes
No
59%
say
“it doesn’t matter”
Similarly, almost 80% of stations say they
will purposely place a PSA on air based on
its relevancy in the news, like a flu-related
PSA during winter or a disaster relief
message after a hurricane.

WilliamsWhittle.com
Activity
The number of PSA distributions stations are receiving have stayed at the same levels
as last past year– nine out of 10 stations say they receive 20 or fewer PSAs a week, with
six of those stations receiving 10 or fewer PSAs. Only about 10% of the stations say
they receive 20 or more PSAs a week.
“I receive 20 or fewer PSAs a week”
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“I receive 10 or fewer PSAs a week”

WilliamsWhittle.com
Frequency
While almost 15% of PSA Directors don’t know exactly how many different PSA
messages their station runs each week, 65% say they run 10-40 PSAs (compared to
45% last year), with almost 20% running more than 40 (compared to 17% last year).
About a quarter of all stations (31% of TV stations and 19% of radio stations) say they
will run a PSA indefinitely. But, most stations will keep a PSA message in rotation for
1-6 months (51% vs. 59% last year) while only a few will keep it in for 6-12 months
(24% vs. 15% last year).
16% 31% 21% 13% 19%
<10 10-20 21-30 31-40 >40
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Inventory
For the first time, we asked stations “in which months do you have the most PSA
inventory?” Overall, January, February, June and December were the months with the
most inventory.
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
Among TV stations – January, June, August and December have the most inventory and
among radio stations – January, February, March and June have the most inventory
with 70% of stations saying inventory changes from year to year.
DEC
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Average
TV
Radio

Cause
Only one out of four PSA Directors say they have no preference for a particular PSA
subject matter. But, among the subjects we provided, their preferences were flat.
Subjects provided were:
Last year, more than 20% preferred messages promoting child-related issues, with
educational and health messages come in second and third, respectively.
• Children
• Poverty/Hunger
• Arts
• Disease/Health
• Animals
• Disaster Relief
• Military
• Education
• Environmental
• Elderly
• Financial
• Sports

DeterminingFactors
There are many factors that go into determining if a PSA will make it on air at a station.
We asked PSA Directors to choose all of the factors that affect their decision. Here are
the top five:
• Availability of airtime
• It appeals to our local audience
• Variety of lengths of PSAs available
• Creative Quality of spot
• Alignment with station policy/partners

ContactUs
We are a full-service ad agency that focuses on delivering effective and creative
integrated marketing for nonprofits, some of which include the USO, the American Red
Cross, SCORE, National Park Trust and others.
Want to know more about Public Service Announcements and how they can work for
your nonprofit? Contact us, we’re always happy to chat.
Rob Whittle
President & CEO
703-836-9222 x 124
rwhittle@williamswhittle.com
Read our nonprofit-focused blog posts at:
www.williamswhittle.com/agency-voice

Trends in Public Service Announcements

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