There’s a way for brands to generate incremental reach without increasing marketing budgets: Maintain spending on podcast ads, but kick TV to the curb in favor of AM/FM radio.
That’s according to the latest Westwood One blog entry, which says two brands — a meal kit firm and a subscription management app — were recently measured by the Harris Poll Brand Tracker and studied for optimal media plans through Nielsen Media Impact intending to find strategies to grow without increasing media budgets.
According to ad-spending measurement firms Vivvix and Magellan, the two brands’ media plans were mostly earmarked for TV and podcasts, with little spent on AM/FM radio.
For the meal kit brand, writes Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard, podcasts delivered, TV did little to nothing, but AM/FM radio audiences were highly engaged with the brand — despite the absence of AM/FM in the media mix.
Further down the purchase funnel, podcasts continue to deliver results as TV fails and AM/FM radio — again, not included in the media plans — shows strength. “It is stunning,” Bouvard writes, “that the brand does much better among the AM/FM radio audience versus the TV audiences. Despite the massive spend on TV, the meal kit brands suffers from low awareness, interest, and usage among TV viewers.”
The study of the subscription management service (which spent 60% of its media plan on TV) told a similar story: Podcasts generated strong results, TV’s impact was a non-factor, and AM/FM radio audiences were highly engaged with the brand, even in the absence of AM/FM radio ads. All the TV spending did little to grow awareness, familiarity, and interest, Bouvard writes.
So why do subscription service and meal kit TV campaigns not drive impact among TV viewers? The short answer is that TV audiences aren’t interested in those categories.
“According to MRI-Simmons,” Bouvard writes, “TV viewers significantly under-indexed on meal kit usage. Audio listeners are much more likely to be meal kit category users. Similarly, MRI-Simmons reports TV viewers under index for financial apps while audio listeners over index.”
TV’s aging demographic plays a key role in the dynamic: “80% of TV viewing occurs over the age of 50, according to Nielsen,” Bouvard continues. “Audio listeners are much younger. The median age of the AM/FM radio audience is 47 and among podcast listeners the median age is only 34.”
According to Nielsen Media Impact, if the meal kit brand shifts $181,000 monthly from TV to AM/FM radio, the reach will grow by +17%. If the subscription management app were to shift $192,000 each month from TV to AM/FM radio, campaign reach would increase by +16%.
The Westwood One post offers three suggestions to optimize the media plan: Maintain podcast spending levels, with podcast listeners exhibiting “strong awareness, interest, and usage” down the purchase funnel; slash TV spending, which failed to generate awareness, interest, and usage among TV viewers; and add AM/FM radio to the media mix.
“Despite not spending on AM/FM radio, the two brands have very strong equity among AM/FM radio listeners,” Bouvard writes. “AM/FM radio listeners are far more likely to know the brands and use them. The smart move is to shift money from TV to AM/FM radio.”
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