The advantage radio advertising offers your business stems from its unique combination of high reach, high targetability, and low cost. When combined with the database approaches of traditional direct marketers and broadcast direct-response advertising techniques that drive response and deliver new customers, radio advertising can be - and is for many of our clients - the main engine of growth and profitability for a business.
Radio Advertising Costs
Radio advertising cost is perhaps the most obvious and important of the top three characteristics of radio advertising that makes it a very attractive advertising vehicle. On both creative development and media costs, radio beats TV by a significant margin. Where the most simple and least expensive TV spot ad will easily cost well over $50,000 and take months to produce, you can have a radio spot developed for less than $1,500... in a matter of days or weeks. In terms of media costs, you'll often pay a minimum of thousands of dollars for TV media placement. However, you can air a radio spot for under $100 at agency discounted rates and you can air a full week's radio advertising test on multiple stations for as little as $2,500. With TV, you can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars before you know whether a campaign will either take flight or until enough is learned to determine that it won't work. With radio, the testing happens much faster, so it costs you less in time value of money, as well as up-front and at-risk investment. Factor in TV dubbing costs and the picture only gets better for radio advertising costs.
Radio Advertising Reach
An advertising medium must reach your target customers or it provides no benefit. Radio has a wide-scale appeal to consumers. Even with the alternatives available today, listening patterns appear to be stable, indicating that radio remains a popular consumer choice. The 13,000 radio stations (approximately 8,800 FM, 5,000 AM) broadcasting across the United States together reach over 94% of the US population over 12 years old each week, according to Arbitron's American Radio Listening Trends report. With radio, there is rarely a question of whether you'll be able to reach your target customer.
Targetability
The third characteristic of radio that solidifies its advantage to you is its targetability. The fundamental advertising axiom of reaching the right people at the right time with the right message at the right cost is more possible with radio than with TV or print, the other large-scale "push" direct response advertising mediums. As a result, your dollars spent on radio advertising are more efficient, generating a greater return on investment. With the right data, for example, your radio advertising agency can tailor your media plan so your radio ads reach moms between the ages of 34 and 45. The radio industry's grouping into formats is partially responsible for radio's ability to target your customer efficiently. Here is a summary of the formats that reach corresponding demographics2(note that further targeting is possible by sex and other variables beyond age):
| Age Target
| Format(s)
|
| Teens 12-17
| Primarily CHR, some Urban, Alternative
|
| Adults 18-24
| CHR, more Alternative, Urban preference
|
| Adults 25-34
| Alternative, Rock, CHR, some Urban, AC
|
| Adults 35-44
| Rock, AC primarily
|
| Adults 45-54
| Oldies, AC
|
| Adults 55-64
| Classical, New AC
|
| Adults 65+
| Adult Standards, Classical, News Talk
|
Age information is only the beginning of the targetability of radio. For any given format, we can know much more about the audience listening habits. Let's take one format, Alternative, and look at what we know based on the available data:
· 63% male, 37% female
· Over 83% are less than 44 years old
· Adults 25-34 account for almost 28% of the audience
· Listening location: 38% car, 31% home 28% work
· Geographic skew toward New England, Mountain and Pacific regions
· 18% more likely to have children in the home (49% of listeners)
· 36.5% earn more than $75k/year
· More likely than any other format to use online banking
· #1 format in movie attendance
· High fast food restaurant usage (31% have eaten at a fast food restaurant 5+ times within last 30 days)
This information assists in developing a targeted media plan that significantly enhances the efficiency of advertising by ensuring your radio ads reach the right people.
What sells on Radio? 3
Radio buyers purchase a wide variety and growing number of products, ranging from vitamins and nutritional supplements to CD's/music, and health and beauty items such as hair care, skin care, and weight loss/diet products. Other stable radio advertising categories include household cleaning products, kitchen/cookware products, financial, and travel offerings. We've also seen a growing trend toward using radio advertising to drive online traffic as well as support retail sales.
Other notable radio buyer characteristics:
Radio buyers are more likely than the average direct response buyer to have viewed one or more infomercials in the 3 months prior to their radio purchase (70% to 59%).
Radio buyers spend more per purchase than TV infomercial buyers, with a median of $59 vs. $40 per purchase and an average of $148 vs. $98.
1 Radio Today 2006
2 Radio Today 2005
3 Source: ERA Buyer Study, May 2005
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http://www.strategicmediainc.com/radio-advertising.php
http://www.ehow.com/how_4449895_write-script-radio-commercial.html
