The Radio Marketing Bureau has released a report that it says confirms what it’s been trying to tell tv-happy advertisers all along – radio spots are just as memorable as tv spots, and a lot less expensive.

The ‘Visions Seen on Radio’ report, the third in a series conducted by ComQuest Research of Toronto for the rmb, set out to find whether people create their own mental images when listening to radio advertising.

Five radio spots (for Motophoto, IBM Home Computing stores, Saturn, Subaru and Firestone-Bridgestone) and one tv spot (for Saturn) were chosen and played to participants.

Six in 10 of the 1,002 people surveyed across Toronto said they spontaneously generate images when hearing radio spots, according to the report. When prompted with the question ‘What did you picture or imagine (after hearing the spot in question)?’, that proportion rose to between 73% (Firestone-Bridgestone) and 82% (Motophoto).

According to the report, the fact that people can come up with a visual image when prompted proves that radio can deliver brand image on its own.

The study attempted to go further and determine whether brand image could be transferred from the visual to audio. To do this, researchers played the audio track from the well-known Saturn ‘Egg Salesman’ tv spot and asked what the respondents pictured. It turns out they pictured the tv commercial – all but one per cent of the visual images generated came directly from the tv spot.

In its report, rmb says this proves that advertisers can generate the same images as tv, but at half the price. In other words, advertisers can depend on radio to effectively extend or broaden a tv campaign.

The survey is accurate to plus or minus 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.