WANTED: A RENAISSANCE IN RADIO ADVERTISING
October 6, 2014 · by Christian Jenkins For most people, radio is that ratty old blanket on the couch, it keeps you warm in an emergency, but when company comes over, please, please, please, oh please hide that thing. Marketers and their clients see it as the thing that Olgivy, Rubicam, and Burnett used to sell in the golden days. Ancient. Consumers see radio as completely awesome for the 50 minutes when music is playing, but when those 50 minutes are over it’s time to tune out. But is radio really as easy to tune out as the other mediums? Ifodige Productions and its affiliate, Beasley Broadcasting Group, commissioned a research on the reach and frequency of radio and here are a few stats: Radio reaches 92.8% (241,512,000) of the current US population. The average adult, aged 25-54, will listen to 1,439 minutes of “recorded audio” daily, radio controls 921 of those minutes. On average, a message must be heard 3 times before it absorbs into the conscious long-term. 80% of Adults 25-54 listen to radio during the morning commute and 86% during their drive home. More than half of listeners have considered or purchased a product or service advertised during their favorite radio show. Let’s look at this in anecdotal terms. I once worked in an office where we listened to Pandora or Spotify daily. By Thursday, we could recite the commercials line by line. Soon, we moved to another office where we listened to local radio over the loud speaker. We couldn’t change the station if we wanted to. When radio is used as background music to make something more enjoyable like the daily commute or at the office, your commercials will be heard. Even while people are sharing posts on Buzzfeed, after hearing your message just a few times, they will begin to recognize your message regardless of where their attention is. Radio – The Goldilocks Medium It’s easy to see why radio advertising has gone down in popularity. Television and online commercials are far more exciting to produce. Spending time behind a camera is far more glamorous then being stuck in a recording booth, however when it comes to recall and reaching consumers right before they want to purchase, and targeting there isn’t a medium that sells better than radio. In terms of cost and ROI, radio remains one of the best values around. Social media is cheaper, but it requires a major investment in time. Facebook and Twitter are essentially pay-to-play systems. Production costs of television and their spots are increasing even as viewers are watching their shows differently. Online ads aren’t expensive, but the market is more crowded than the AC Expressway on a Sunday evening in July. Creating radio commercials are cheap, and well-crafted ones stick! Ifodige Productions has the capabilities and means to use social media to promote, we wouldn’t be much of an agency if we couldn’t. We still believe that every ad should tell a story and sell a product, and voice to ears is still a potent combination. As we move into an age where it seems like design is the answer to every advertising problem and dominates the selling message, let us not forget that old toys can play with the newer toys.