An analysis of several years’ worth of research and case studies shows that financial services brands are better served by audio media, even as most of their ad budgets go to TV.
“Audio listeners are a rich source of in-market financial consumers, and drive significant top and bottom funnel impact,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says in Westwood One’s weekly blog. “Despite massive TV spending by financial service marketers, TV viewers exhibit low brand equity for financial service brands and weak interest in the category due to the older skew of TV audiences.”
According to MRI-Simmons, heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners are more likely to be premium clients for financial services — both more likely to agree that they would “pay any price for good financial advice” — while heavy TV viewers are less likely to agree. A MARU/Matchbox survey found both AM/FM and podcast listeners are more likely than TV viewers to own seven types of investments, and twice as likely as TV viewers to indicate they would be likely to invest with five of the biggest names in financial services, even as those services spend significantly more on TV.
“There is a broad array of AM/FM radio programming formats with in-market consumers that offer significant reach for financial marketers, [and] an equally large selection of podcast genres with consumers who are in the market for financial services over the next year,” Bouvard says. For AM/FM, spoken word formats boast the largest share of these consumers, while technology- and business-oriented podcast listeners are most likely to be in the market.
Why, as a MESH Experience study of consumers with $500,000 or more in investable assets found, are heavy AM/FM radio listeners three times more likely than heavy TV viewers to be in the market for a new or additional financial services company? “Demography,” Bouvard says. “AM/FM radio listeners are much younger and more likely to be employed and still have kids in the household. In short, they are more interested in the financial services category and are much better prospects for financial brands.”
In a study of a financial services brand, MARU/Matchbox found that AM/FM radio ads drove double-digit increases in awareness, brand image, consideration, and slogan association, while another of the research company’s studies — of consumers with investable assets of at least $1 million — found that over a six-month period, an AM/FM campaign generated double-digit increases in most measures of brand equity.
There’s more evidence of AM/FM radio’s advantage when it comes to reaching consumers in the market for financial services. A MARU/Matchbox study of adults 45+ showed that heavy AM/FM listeners in the age bracket are more likely to be active investors and more engaged with the financial category versus heavy TV viewers, while research among adults 18-49 by MARU/Matchbox and Signal Hill Insights found that heavy AM/FM listeners are 44% more likely to be financial “thrivers” who like taking investing risks and agree that investing is important.
A financial service’s AM/FM radio campaign was the focus of another MARU study, which found that financial plan sponsors and consultants exposed to the ads developed strong brand associations for the financial services firm vs. those not exposed to the campaign, while financial advisors exposed to the campaign also had more positive perceptions about the brand.