Ad Efficacy Explored by RAEL

File this one under “Studies With Obvious Conclusions” (at least, we hope it’s obvious):
The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab published a white paper summarizing radio research, titled “Radio Ad Effectiveness Depends on Execution.”
The report emphasizes the importance of investing more time and effort in the quality of radio advertising creative work, and that the best radio and TV ads are much closer in recall impact than are radio and TV ads, in general.
The report does contain interesting findings about how advertisers can make sure a radio ad is among the best. It includes research in this area from Radio Recall Research, which used an analytical method to find ad content characteristics that had the most impact on “proven recall”: number of words (more is better); brand mentions (more is better, earlier in the ad is better); number of different ideas (more than four or five is bad); and execution format (straight announcement and “sing-and-sell” were weakest).
Variables that appeared to have no effect were humor, type of music and gender of presenter/spokesperson.
Duration was linked to effectiveness, as spots of 45 seconds or longer were more effective in generating sales.
Read the white paper: www.radioadlab.org.