Loading ...Is Radio Advertising Effective?
Chris Gwinner of Fueling Media in Atlanta asked a nice survey question on LinkedIn late last week.
Interested in hearing from others that have used radio advertising in the past 3-6 months. How effective was your campaign, were you pleased with the results? Did you find the costs fair?
Having just completed a major radio campaign, I posted this answer.
We used a mixture of radio and television for a Congressional Committee in the recent election here in Illinois. Because of the geography, we used both local radio and the Chicago media market. The total media expenditure (minus commercial production) was a little north of $600,000.
The media campaign was on radio for six weeks. We added cable television two weeks after radio broke, and the broadcast television two weeks after that. All advertising was CDR (Candidate Discount Rate) which is slightly more expensive than LUR (Lowest Unit Rate) but still less than standard rate card. Still, some of the radio cost $1,500 for a 60-second commercial.
Considering the nature of an election, we don’t have the blessing of building brand awareness. The media plan resembles a television station’s sweeps plan where you are driving for the highest GRP/TRP levels possible given the budget.
As for effectiveness, well, my client won her race. Internal polling showed more awareness once the broadcast television component broke. I’m not too surprised by this given television’s superior reach over cable or radio (as a rule). Overall, however, I don’t know if radio alone would have achieved the results we sought.
If you are looking to build long-term brand awareness for a local product, radio is a cost-efficient method. If you need to strike in the short-term, you should consider a media mixture.
If I can help you with any media planning, please contact me on LinkedIn.
Brian McDaniel
Clarification added:
I forgot to mention that I have some experience buying Atlanta media. You’re radio stations are highly segmented, much like every other US market today. Targeting your audience on radio will require a bit of research–more of the Scarborough-type than pure Arbitron.
Among the other responses, the general consensus was that media mixture is as important as targeting the audience. For long-term advertising, clients can place a heavier emphasis on one media (i.e., radio, outdoor, transit, etc.). The key is to make sure your GRP/TRP, reach, frequency, remain high enough within the demographic to be noticeable. Personally, I start at the 50 TRP per week level before adding new media or heavier weighting—it all depends on the client’s budget.
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