Historically, radio just didn’t rank when advertisers planned brand-building campaigns – but the Radio Marketing Bureau (RMB) is working to change all that with ‘Radio Active.’ Commissioned by RMB, the new Millward Brown Goldfarb research paper attacks the perception that radio only works as a retail or support medium by illustrating its brand-building qualities.

Planners already know that radio helps make retail cash registers ring. They also understand the ‘multiplier effect’ of radio – that as part of a multi-media effort it extends reach, improves frequency and magnifies the ad message. But ‘Radio Active’ brings some new learning to the table and proves radio’s role in increasing brand awareness.

Specifically, the study looks at the effects of four-week radio campaigns for three national brands in categories typically advertised on television: beverage alcohol, packaged goods and automotive. RMB has also compiled case studies for campaigns executed by Crazy Plates Meal Kits and Goodyear Tire.

Peter Heron, RMB’s VP business development, says the objectives of the study were to challenge the perception of radio as simply a tactical medium, to show national advertisers how it can help establish a brand, and to prove the effectiveness of radio against a number of different target groups.

‘If your campaign can increase perception of your brand as more valuable and increase top-of-mind awareness, then there’s a better chance the consumer will actually purchase,’ he says. ‘That was played back to us in the beverage alcohol instance, where radio increased brand awareness in two test markets. People reported they increased consumption of the brand over the period the survey was taken, and this also translated to increased cases sales in the test markets.’

In the studies, research was conducted with target groups ranging from young adults to mature homemakers (adults legal drinking age to 34, women 25 to 54, adults 25 to 54, to be precise) and across categories (automotive, packaged goods, beverage alcohol). The brands were both mature and growing.

For the mature packaged goods brand, ‘multiple use’ radio messaging – aired in tandem with national TV brand advertising – drove brand image and purchase intent among household shoppers. In fact, while the pre-wave survey found purchase intent similar in both the radio and TV markets, post-wave, the radio market consumers were 19% more likely to consider purchasing the brand than those in the TV-only market. This was accomplished with what is delicately described as ‘relatively weak’ radio creative.

The study also found that radio works for cars. In one short month, radio advertising for the established automotive brand increased consideration by 12% in a well-developed market for the brand. In combination with newspaper advertising, radio increased aided awareness a staggering 22% and consideration by 5% in an underdeveloped region of the country (a tougher market for the brand). In this case, the creative employed mnemonic ‘sound marks’ built through strong TV advertising over the past couple of years.

In the final case, radio was used to supplement a national TV campaign for adult beverages. It effectively drove unaided brand awareness up to a peak of 60% over control market levels, and increased estimated sales 30% over those in TV-only markets. Further radio advertising investments are planned.

Bill Ratcliffe, president of Millward Brown Goldfarb, says the study uncovered some particularly surprising findings, even some that, at least at first, didn’t make sense.

‘In some markets where a lot was spent on radio, ad awareness didn’t change, but some of the other measures, such as purchase consideration, went up. The reason was that a lot of that awareness was attributed to television.’

Thus Ratcliffe cautions, ‘When approaching multi-media effects, you have to make sure you’re looking at a variety of brand health measures and not just ad awareness because you could be totally misled.’

The Goodyear guy works on radio too

Radio’s ability to further brand-building done by television has worked so well for Goodyear Canada that it’s considering making radio its primary medium, with TV secondary.

Ian McIntosh, Toronto-based Goodyear’s general manager of advertising and marketing services, says his company’s consistent use of Goodyear guy Thom Sharp on both radio and TV over the past decade means that radio listeners can now visualize the character. They even frequently attribute ad awareness to television when there were no spots none running at the time.

McIntosh says radio is an ideal medium for automotive aftermarket products because with the amount of radio listened to while driving ‘what better time to get them than when something is rattling?’ Radio is also better for targeting both geographically and demographically.

‘When you think of this country, we’ve got seasonal abnormalities that are vastly different, dealers whose needs are extremely different, road conditions that are different,’ he says. ‘In other words, light truck tires out West are huge. Snow tires are huge in Quebec. How do you efficiently and economically run television to that?’

McIntosh would never completely abandon television, but says he is planning to refresh Goodyear’s radio creative for the ‘Work With Me’ campaign and perhaps even use TV as a secondary medium.

‘If I can pull it off on radio, why wouldn’t I? There are just too many advantages to radio and we’re very lucky that our radio [ad awareness] scores are about television norms.’