Coleman Study Detects Decline in Ad Recall

Research firm Coleman recently released findings from an analysis of station advertising, saying that recall of station external self-promotional advertising to listeners has fallen 9% over five years.
Coleman studied perceptual studies conducted for stations in 1999 and 2004, for various formats and market sizes.
When respondents were asked questions similar to “Within the past few months, do you recall having seen any advertising, such as TV commercials, billboards, bumper stickers or newspaper ads, for radio stations?,” 70 percent responded “yes” in 1999, while 64 percent responded “yes” in 2004. (The drop translates to a 9% decrease overall.)
The firm did not have an ad dollar figure on how much less radio has spent on outside advertising during this same period.
“In a period where radio is airing significant commercial loads and facing increased competition from a wide range of media, a decline in the recall of station marketing efforts makes a difficult situation even worse,” said President Jim Coleman. “A 9% decrease in ad recall doesn’t equate to a 9% decline in listenership, but as with any product, consumption will drop without marketing support.”