According to a study by Ipsos OTX MediaCT in partnership with Katz Marketing Solutions, people who are exposed to radio advertising campaigns demonstrate high levels of engagement with brands at all stages of the purchase funnel, and particularly across metrics such as brand affinity and advocacy.
Comparing results among consumers who had been exposed to radio advertising campaigns (via listening to at least one station airing the ads) with a control group of people in the same market who had not listened to those stations, on average, consumers’ exposure to radio advertising generated a lift at all stages of the purchase funnel, from brand familiarity to purchase consideration, and most dramatically in brand affinity, and recommendation among 23 campaigns evaluated.
Radio advertising appears to be successful across a variety of industries. Campaigns for movies, financial services, retail, consumer durables, and fast food were evaluated in the study; all showed stronger results among radio station listeners than the control group of non-listeners.
While many people see radio advertising primarily as a way of communicating a wealth of information about a brand, these study results show the importance of connecting at an emotional level with consumers. The strength of emotional response to each ad used in the campaigns was measured using Ipsos’ proprietary measure. Stronger campaigns used ads with greater emotional power. This finding throws a challenge to creatives developing spots to generate ideas and content for radio advertsing that goes beyond information and connects with the consumer.
Though the results comprise averages of 23 campaigns, overall impact did vary based on the perceived likeability of the spot, says the report. Commercials that had high likeability (likeable among 53% of audiences) had roughly twice the impact across most creative metrics, compared with the least liked spots (likeable among 29% of audiences).
Concluding, an analysis of the findings of the study provides the author a list of Key Creative Findings which are proposed as suggestions for creative criteria:
Talk to rather than talk at
Mirroring TV provides powerful imagery transfer
Consistency between TV and Radio commercials
Get to the point quickly
Likeability is key to aided and unaided recall
Don’t rush commercial tags
Commercial blandness is ineffective
Vary pace and intonation
Normal speaking voice
Audio signatures and sound bites are extremely powerful
Source: Katz Marketing Solutions/Radio Effectiveness, November 2011
According to Bruce Friend, President of Ipsos OTX MediaCT: “These results have demonstrated to us the power of radio.”