CRN International recently surveyed consumer brand marketers and advertising agency decisionmakers to determine their satisfaction with radio advertising campaigns.
The survey included marketers from a variety of industry segments including automotive, financial, food and beverage, retail, household goods, personal care, business to business and agencies.
Sixty-two percent said “they are ‘fed up’ with the quality of results from traditional radio spot advertisements and believe “there must be a better way” to achieve marketing objectives using radio.” More than 90% reported less-than-stellar results from spot commercials. At the same time, 57% said they feel promotions, branded content and other nonadvertising strategies collectively generate the greatest results for their brands.
The majority of respondents reported they have used radio in their marketing mix and achieved success in a variety of ways. More than 244 million Americans listen to radio every week, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.
The responses showed satisfaction with a number of nontraditional radio marketing tactics.
Over half (57%) indicated they were very pleased with the results of campaigns that employed branded radio content. More than two-thirds (71%) of the respondents reported being very pleased with the results of campaigns that employed on-air DJ endorsements and recommendations. The vast majority (93%) said they were very pleased with the results of campaigns that employed testimonials from everyday people. About half of those polled (52%) said they were pleased with the results of campaigns that included local radio station appearances. Almost two-thirds (63%) reported being pleased with the results of campaigns that employed radio-activated contests and sweepstakes. Moving forward, 68% said they would be interested in exploring radio marketing outside of traditional advertisements.
“The results support our belief that traditional advertising, while still the most common way to deliver a marketing message on radio, is not the most effective way,” said Robert O’Mara, CRN’s managing director of strategy and development. “It’s not necessarily the fault of the ads themselves. But the nature of radio broadcasters to combine all commercials within a designated ‘stop set’ of several minutes often causes listeners to lose focus.”
