Radio Sales Folk Focus on ‘Accountability’

“Accountability” got a lot of the attention during the Radio Advertising Bureau confab in Dallas this past weekend.
President/CEO Gary Fries released the first phase of an advertiser perception study that was conducted with funding from Arbitron.
“Advertisers,” said Fries, “are asking, ‘Is my money really working for me?’ ‘Did I get what I paid for?’ ‘Did the schedule run as ordered?’ ‘Did I get my true value?’ Return On Investment is what shows effectiveness,” he said.
“Advertisers need to show their stockholders an accountability of every dollar spent. Media buyers and planners are trying to accomplish this for advertisers and are challenged to show ROI. The Radio industry is not doing a good job of showing this. We have to be able to document ROI.
“Radio is not thought to be ineffective. The problem is that advertisers don’t understand ‘how’ radio is effective. They know people listen, and they know it’s a great out-of-home medium. But they don’t know how that connects (with ROI). They must know exactly when their ad ran; and they want to know in a timely fashion. They do not feel that we run ads when we’re supposed to.”
Excerpts from the study are available at www.rab.com under the News Releases tab.