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.”

(Source: The Center for Media Research, 11/15/11)

(Source: Radio Advertising Bureau)

I think we’d like to believe that our Social Media Fans and Followers are poised in front of their screens or waiting with smartphone in hand for our next information packed posts or tweets.    

There’s also a wide belief that it’s our FAN Pages that they are looking at when really the information we push out is one of right around 25 different posts on their news feeds and in a matter of minutes that entry has fallen off to page two – never to be seen again.

Not so. Facebook algorithms, in particular, filter upwards of 95% of content intended for any one Facebook user – all based on affinity, profile, and interaction. While on one hand that sounds really scary but on the other, it’s a golden opportunity for content to be delivered as long as we have a “relationship”. A key point is that there are 500+ million Facebooks – not just one as we would believe – customized to each individual user.

Coming from a radio background, I immediately go to that old radio advertising adage – reach and frequency- which has become the key to success in social media too. The difference being that it’s no longer enough for us to put information out to those platforms- it has become a two-way street or rather a bi-directional super highway that requires both lots of relevant info being sent out as well as us reacting or “commenting” and “liking” and “replying” or “retweeting” information coming to us. We can’t just broadcast – we must have a conversation.

Recent changes to Facebook Pages such as switching back and forth from individual to Page gives us great opportunity to capitalize on building these relationships.

It has literally become a 24/7 Facebook Twitter cycle and through the use of great tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck consoles we can harness those relationships and be part of that 5% – 24 hours a day – all on auto-pilot.

By the way, the good news about that 95% of stuff that doesn’t make it is that a lot of that is spammy stuff that no one wants to see anyway or is just not applicable to how Facebook sees us via our profiles and interactions!

My experience from watching the comments and likes on the content we are serving up, it is getting through and it is relevant. We just need to do more and most of all, reach out to our fans and Like and Comment on their stuff as well. That’s the true definition of Web 2.0

I have two personal examples that point to how, when relevant to the audience content can become viral and money can be made via social media.

I point to Dennis Prager’s (one of our daily talk hosts at KNUS) 8:00 minute YouTube piece YouTube – Dennis Prager Q & A At University of Denver at an event in May 2010 – nearly 3 Million views with just over 100 dislikes – shared on Facebook via the Share button over 40,000 times (doesn’t take into account how many people just posted it on their pages and tweeted the link on their own) – was clicked on primarily in the US – not the Chinas and Koreas.

Along that same vein, a carefully targeted ad on Facebook advertsing this event garnered over a million views in less than 10 days and probably accounted for 25% of the people in the room for that event for 1/10th the cost of a single :15 TV ad and a return on the investment of nearly $50 for every dollar spent.

I’m going to be hosting more of these types of workshops on an ongoing basis to help businesses and individuals get a better grasp on both Social Media as well as e-Mail marketing. If you are in the Denver area, drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you an invite for the next one coming up.

This weekly motivational feature is intended to help you get your week off to an inspired start all in under 10 minutes.

Bob Proctor encouraged me to start my first radio show back in 2002.  He shared a concept from his favorite book – “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill that is a chief factor in making that come to reality. In late 2001, I wrote on a card – “It is September 1, 2002. I am so happy now that I am hosting my own radio show.” I kept that card with me all the time. On Sunday, August, 11, 2002, I went on the air on 710 KNUS.

Here is Napoleon Hill himself sharing his philosophy of “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve”

• The weekly online radio audience has doubled every five years since 2001 and the Online Radio audience now reaches an estimated 57 million people age 12 and older per week.
• More than half of all Americans ages 12 and older are on Facebook. The study, fielded in January of 2011, indicates 51% of every teen, man or woman has a profile on this dominant site.
• Ten percent of all Americans age 12 and older report weekly listening to the Internet Radio service Pandora.
• In the upcoming 2011 Infinite Dial report, Arbitron, Inc.and Edison Research measured the ‘love factor’ for dozens of products and services. The iPhone was the clear “love factor” leader with 66% of its users saying they ‘love it.’ The next highest love factor was for, perhaps predictably, the Apple iPad, with 53%.
• When asked to choose among Television, Radio, Newspapers and Internet as the ‘most essential to your life,’ the Internet is the leader by a significant margin.
• Forty-five percent of all Americans age 12 and older say the Internet is their most essential medium.
• The median age of heavy users of Radio (41 years old) nearly matches that of the 12+ population; the median age of heavy Internet users is 36 years old, with heavy TV users having a median age of 48.

Source - Arbitron and Edison Research

This weekly feature is intended to help you get your week off to an inspired start all in under 10 minutes.

Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down?

The Road Ahead, conducted in July 2011, looks at consumer usage of sixteen different in-car media and entertainment choices. The study also weighs consumer interest in newly introduced “telematics” features. Telematics technology enables a variety of applications that share data between the vehicle and information and entertainment networks.

The Road Ahead updates a similar study conducted in 2003, to provide a unique look at the changes and challenges in the in-car landscape over the past eight years, combined with a peek into the future of this crucial media space.

Key findings of The Road Ahead: Media and Entertainment in the Car:

• AM/FM radio continues to be the top choice for in-car media and entertainment, with 84 percent of all drivers or passengers reporting use of AM/FM radio in-car — compared to the next highest device, the CD player, at 68 percent.
• When share of time spent while driving is measured, AM/FM radio dominates with nearly two-thirds of all ‘in-car time’ (64 percent). The CD player is in second place at 21 percent; all other devices combined make up 15 percent.
• While various digital options such as satellite radio and connecting one’s iPod to the car system remain rather small, they are growing and very well-loved by those who use them.
• In terms of radio advertising strategy, in-car AM/FM radio usage is strongest in the key buying demos it has long targeted, reaching nearly 90 percent of adults age 25 to 54.
• The Radio Advertising Bureau reports, “Radio is the most-used medium just prior to shopping. 62% of shoppers listen to Radio just 13 minutes prior to making a purchase. 90% of consumers are in their car less than 6 minutes before shopping. Audio captures 90% of in-car media time
• One in four (24 percent) persons age 18 and older have used their iPod/MP3 player to listen to audio in their car; more than half (55 percent) of 18-24s have done so.
• Six percent of persons age 18 and older and one in five persons aged 18 to 24 (19 percent) have listened to Pandora on their cell phone in the car.
• There is a high level of interest in newly developed vehicle telematics. More than 60 percent say they are interested in accident response features, stolen vehicle recovery systems, parked vehicle tampering alerts, and remote car unlocking capability.
• There is also significant consumer interest in several in-car media applications: 41 percent are interested in pause, rewind and replay functionality for radio in-car and 40 percent are interested in built-in wireless Internet for the car.

(Source: Edison Research, 09/15/11)

Download The Complete Report From Edison Research

Seth Godin is one of the most respected voices in marketing today. This is a wonderful passage on the importance of frequency in advertising taken from one of his landmark books.

 “If trust is the objective what are the tactics? How do some marketers build trust while others are doomed to languish in obscurity? Before a marketer can build trust he must first build familiarity. But there’s no familiarity without awareness. And awareness – the science of letting people know you exist and getting them to understand your message – can’t happen effectively in today’s environment without advertising.

When advertising agencies measure their campaigns they look at reach and frequency. Reach is a fairly simple metric: how many different people were exposed to each ad? Frequency – as we’ll see in a moment – involves some more artful measurements but it is the advertiser’s single most important tactic. Muhammad Ali didn’t become heavyweight champ of the world by punching 20 people one time each. No, he became the champ by punching one guy twenty times until he fell down. By applying frequency to the poor opponent’s head Ali was able to bring his message home.

Advertising works the same way. Advertisers know that the single best way to make an advertising campaign work is to run the ads a lot. By all means, be sure to reach every possible consumer but it’s far more important to deliver advertising with frequency. Drill it home again and again.

The frequency you bring to an advertising campaign does two things. First, it cuts through the clutter with the sheer law of averages. If only 10% of the people remember your ad tomorrow, but your ad runs for 30 days in a row, sooner or later virtually everyone will remember it. Second, frequency causes the consumer to focus on the message you’re trying to get across. Just as repeating yourself to a 4 year-old makes it more likely that he’ll get the idea that you’re trying to communicate…just as repeating commands to a horse in training is more likely to change the horse’s behavior…repeating yourself to a target consumer increases the odds that your message gets through.

But in spite of this obvious truth, many unseasoned marketers – given the choice between reach and frequency – make the mistake of going for reach.”

 “Permission Marketing” available here

I’ve compiled a listing of the most common terms that are used from day to day in the techno-lexicon.  It’s certainly not complete but embraces every area of technology – particularly as it relates to the internet side of things.

“I’m honored to fill this role. Ever since the first time I got involved , it’s been a passion for me to support this great cause of preventing teen suicide,” said Crowley who was named “Broadcast Citizen of the Year” by the Colorado Broadcasters Association in both 2004 and 2005.  He was also awarded the 2009 “Media Award” by The Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado for his work in providing media support to help prevent teen suicide.

Crowley said, “We have a very large megaphone with our stations and as part of this community, we have a responsibility to shed light on issues like teen suicide that impact each and every one of us. Getting a first-hand look at the great work of Second Wind Fund and all the organizations they are associated with makes it very easy for me to be a part in getting the word out.”

Second Wind Fund of Metro Denver’s efforts to prevent teen suicide in the past 10 years have resulted in saving the lives of nearly 2,500 Denver youth from more than 300 schools in the metro area.  This is SWFMD’s premier annual event to raise the money needed for one-on-one counseling services from a network of 100 local professional mental health providers.  These therapists work at a significant discount for Second Wind. In turn, Second Wind foots the bill for all therapy because these teens do not have enough, if any, insurance to cover the high quality of mental health care needed.

“Music has always been a key component of our event, but this year we’ve decided to turn up the volume and add bands for our 10^th anniversary with the Give a Second Wind Music Fest,” said Kevin Shipley, executive director of Second Wind Fund of Metro Denver. “This is a fun family event, filled with music, a full barbeque lunch, 7,500 homemade cookies, a bounce house, taco bar and free t-shirts.  It seems like a contradiction, but we want a happy environment where it’s ok for the community to come learn about and talk about the dark issue of teen suicide that affects us all.”

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Colorado teens. Nationally, teen suicide is the third leading cause of death. Every year, one in four teens has more than passing thoughts of suicide, according to results of studies from the American Association of Suicide Prevention. One-on-one therapy sessions with a licensed professional is the industry standard as the best method for changing a young person’s thoughts from suicide to life-long coping skills.

“Life can be hard at any age,” said Jake Schroeder, lead singer for Opie Gone Bad, the headliner for Give a Second Wind Music Fest.  “Our band is excited to be a part of this event because we know music is a great outlet for processing life’s ups and downs. Working with Second Wind, I’ve learned that actually talking about this issue out in the open is one of the best ways to prevent teen suicide.” 

“We want to talk about the issues that face our generation,” said Cassie Sutton Coats, a senior at Lakewood High School. “But, most of us don’t know how to bring up dark thoughts we might be having. Second Wind Fund’s music festival is the place for kids, parents, really everyone, to come together and help solve the issue of teen suicide. Coming out to walk or run, or just listen to music is a great way to raise money to save a life.” 

“We’re not talking about some anonymous teenager.  These are the young people of our community who can go on to fulfill their life’s dreams if they’re given the opportunity to learn how to overcome suicidal thoughts,” said Shipley.  “To date we’ve saved two entire high schools worth of teens, but the need is still great and we want to close the gap.” 

To give someone a second wind to live, sign up for the 5K Music Festival at www.5Kmusic.org, call 720-985-0118, or join them on Facebook at Second Wind Fund of Metro Denver. Help them continue their mission to prevent teen suicide.

This weekly feature is intended to help you get your week off to an inspired start all in under 10 minutes.

Today’s M6! features Volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos speaking at TED as he tells a story of an act of heroism that didn’t go quite as expected  – but that taught him a big lesson: Don’t wait to be a hero.