There’s more research making the case for marketers using AM/FM radio, including one study touting the many advantages of including vs. excluding the medium in ad buys, as reported in Westwood One’s weekly blog.
“Over the last ten years, a vast array of marketing science studies have documented how AM/FM radio advertising can build local businesses and national brands,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says.
A just-released analysis of more than 1,200 case studies over three years from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, conducted by marketing consultant Peter Field, shows that AM/FM ads boost mental availability — the propensity of a brand to be noticed and thought of in buying situations — by 13%, as well as give media plans 28% greater market share, 42% greater profit, and 23% greater return on advertising spend.
The study also found that pricing power is the biggest profit driver, and that adding AM/FM radio lifts pricing power by 17%. “Businesses cannot thrive just by growing sales volume. Pricing power is a key profit accelerator,” Bouvard says.
Additionally, Field’s analysis shows a significant and steady profit uplift for marketers using AM/FM radio, vs. those who do not.
A closer look at ROI from Nielsen, looking at six years of sales effect studies — based on matching PPM AM/FM radio ad exposures to retail purchases from credit and debit cards, and consumer packaged goods sales via grocery shopper card data — finds an average $10.59 return on AM/FM ad spend, representing incremental sales generated by a dollar of radio advertising.
Radio also stands out in the just-released results of Nielsen Media Mix Modeling’s analysis of more than 2,800 national, local, and international campaigns across advertiser categories — where the allocation to AM/FM radio averaged a notable percentage of the total media budget — showing that when the relative weight of impressions is measurable, radio consistently ranks as a top tier medium for ROI.
Examining audio media (AM/FM radio, podcasts or streaming) as a whole, a recent study from measurement firms Gain Theory and Ebiquity — analyzing $2.2 billion in media spend over three years across 142 brands, 14 sectors, and 10 media channels — places audio second in short-term (within 1-13 weeks) and third in overall (week one to two years) return on investment. In dollar terms, a dollar invested in audio would generate $3.12 of profit within 1-13 weeks, and $6.29 of profit over two years.
The blog also cites Cumulus/Westwood One’s five years of commissioned attribution studies from LeadsRx, which measures the impact of advertising on site traffic. The studies of ad campaigns for various categories show that using AM/FM radio drove a 14% average increase in website traffic.