The advantages of radio advertising are many, not least as it’s a channel that’s done very well out of steady consumption in recent months - during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An often-overlooked channel for cost-effective reach, radio has seen some favourable reach and overall performance, when bought in the right way.
It’s our job to watch the shifts in consumer behaviour and client’s media buying behaviour, and we’ve seen these change week on week, month on month and quarter on quarter recently.
The range of opportunities to buy audio now is huge, with traditional radio, digital, Spotify ads, Podcasts and more.
Our resident radio guru Lisa shares her insight into what you may not know about buying audio media. There is SO much we could cover, so for the sake of conciseness, here we just focus on Radio - we’ll cover Spotify and Podcasts in another blog:
Q: So, what is it about radio ads that can help a campaigns’ effectiveness?
The advantage of radio advertising is that it is a strong ‘Call to Action‘ medium.
One of radio advertising’s key benefits is its recency to ‘Point Of Sale’ or ‘Point Of Mouse’.
As radio is often listened to while people are driving or browsing online, it can be an excellent medium for getting a message to someone when they may be about to visit the shops or visit a website.
Q: How do you buy radio ads?
There are three main variables you want to control when buying radio ads:
Reach
Frequency
Consistency.
Firstly tackling reach:
It depends on the station that you are buying but normally you would plan for reach in one of three ways.
Firstly, you can buy based on a cost per thousand (known as CPT, aka the cost per thousand listens your chosen spots would receive). The advantage of this type of radio advertising is that you have a clear view on when is the most cost-effective time to buy, and you can compare, on a cost per thousand basis, the reach you would achieve when comparing this to print or other media types.
You can also buy based on day-parts (ie based on listener behaviour - you’d expect more listeners in the morning and evening generally, but as listeners habits are changing, so too are the times they listen).
You can also buy based on a ‘spot rate’, based on the value of the spots during different days per week and times of the day.
When it comes to frequency, there is a scientific algorithm to determine what is best.
Known as an ‘opportunity to hear’ (or OTH) and the sweet spot of is 3 per week, or 40%+ reach per week across the campaign to achieve the best return on investment and impact on your metrics.
We take a cross-section view of your market, and plan our clients’ campaigns holistically at all times. When we are planning, we might find that a client has experienced a challenge in hitting the optimal number of spots per week, due to a limited number of stations being bought.
We bring our full mix expertise to each client brief and ensure we are deploying all tools available to us, to challenge the brief, and deliver the maxiumum value.
Being reputable radio-branding experts we have all the tools to ensure we plan your radio campaign for reach and frequency, but also consistency in terms of creative and planning aligned to listener behaviour.
Q: What does an evolving listenership and RAJAR mean for media strategies?
It means that you should assess what you buy or plan frequently to ensure that you are getting the best deals as well as the station performing in the right way for your target audiences.
It might be the case that your target audience are changing how they interact with radio - in post-COVID-19 times, the increase in working from home means that the usual habits of listening in the car on the drive to work are less frequent. Conversely, digital consumption - or even catching up with the show outside of ‘live’ may be on the rise, so planning to hit the audience outside of the traditional ‘linear’ listening patterns could deliver more value to access the right audience at the right time.
Now is a great time to consider running your current mix against current RAJAR figures if you’ve been running radio for a while - checking in to ensure you are buying the right stations and hitting the right audiences without spending on a station that is in decline.
If you’d like help with this, then just get in touch with us, and we’d be glad to help.
Q: What types of spots are available to buy on radio?
The most common format to buy is 30-second adverts (30-second radio ads generate about 80% of proven recall according to Radio Recall Research, LLC (Media Dynamics, 2006), but 10-second tags can be effective to help build on frequency metrics as well as top and tail ads at the start and end of an ad break.
It is possible to buy 60-second or even longer breaks, but these are generally bought as part of a large scale campaign launch (think the equivalent of the big-budget TV spots you might find during prime time).
If you are looking for longer-term branding – sponsorship of a show or segment at a key time across the week/day that fits your audience profile would provide longevity as well as awareness.
Q: What’s the difference between buying traditional and digital radio spots?
Traditional radio will play out only on the stations you choose at the times you choose. Think of these spots in the same way as buying ads on linear TV. These are great for mass-market consumer brands, where you have potential to hit a wide group of people, and build your SOV.
Digital radio planning focusses on the audience first. This is a great approach if you have a relatively niche audience and a not-so-huge budget. The focus for digital is on building frequency with a % of a key listenership, rather than a spray-and-pray approach.
It’s a more tailored approach to traditional radio, and works really well in tandem with online activity.
Q: Are there any seasonal spikes around radio media costs and availability?
The spikes all depend on the RAJAR results and radio station reach, which change either every 3 or 6 months per station.
The peak times for radio are generally across the week at the breakfast and drive shows – this can vary from station to station often with weekend and celebrity shows performing really well.
If you are buying an even laydown – the peaks will not affect your overall costs.
Want more info on this? Contact us.
Q: Isn’t radio ad production expensive?
Radio ad production can be expensive if you let it (or want to spend a lot), but with all things, effective planning, working to a budget and being realistic about what you can achieve with the budget you have will help you keep costs down.
If you’re keen to have ‘a name’ on the voiceover, or a known track as background then this is where costs can escalate.
Writing an effective radio script is an art form, so lean on the expertise at the stations to help you with this - each station will have the ability to help you with production, or we can manage this for you with our creative team.
Writing a clear, tight brief ahead of time will help you no end too - if you’re running a cross-channel campaign, consider which ‘visual’ cues of the campaign may or may not work in audio form. How much does the audience need to be ‘in’ on the campaign concept to get what’s being played to them over their speakers?
Key to keeping these costs down too - if you decide to use the stations’ in house production - is the relationship your agency has with the station to begin with. We have managed to negotiate some exceedingly competitive rates for our clients, as part of the overall media & production package.
Using the relationships we have built up over time gives us (and ultimately, you) the ability to secure some great ‘all in’ rates, giving you the reach you need, and a killer radio creative, for a competitive rate.
Q: In a media budget, what’s an ideal % weight of radio if you are running a 360 campaign?
The optimum mix is likely to vary by campaign depending on sector, the current media mix, and relative effectiveness of individual media.
Radiocentre reports that when a client’s budget is reallocated to radio equally from other media in proportion to current level of spending - total ROI increases.
A great example of this is when a campaign was planned with radio at 20% of the total budget is executed, campaign ROI has been proven to be 8.5% higher than a previously planned campaign with the same budget, but a small % allocated to radio. As demonstrated in the graph below:
For us, that’s a clear indication that radio should be something you consider for your next campaign. You don’t necessarily need to spend big bucks to get you on radio, but we can help you understand what budget levels might be required based on your audience.
Q: What type of creative is generally most effective?
The creative process starts with a clear understanding of your brand, your audience and the targeted goals you wish to achieve.
Working with this, our team begin conceptualising the best way to present your messaging in the most impactful way possible.
You will most likely have 30 seconds to tell all you need to. The listener is busy. Don’t make it complicated and sell every single USP and and offer and a call to action. Less is definitely more, to avoid overwhelming the listener.
You have to know your customer to connect with your customer in a personal, authentic way.
This may sound obvious, but too often clients cast the widest net possible and are terrified to offend or exclude anyone.
The result too often is an ad that grabs no one.
A good radio ad provokes the listener’s imagination. It asks the listener to join in the process of generating the imagery to be evoked in the campaign
When forming a brief, consider the below:
What makes you stand out?
What makes your product or service unique?
What special benefits does your product or service offer that no one else can?
It’s this distinctiveness that will attract people to you.
Similarly, your ad should also seek to differentiate itself from all other ads – so it too stands out.
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If you’re considering radio, want some help understanding if it’s the right media for you or are keen to get started and aren’t sure how, then get in touch, we’d love to speak to you.
