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Do you have an EAR for Radio? |
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Written by Marketing in the Valley?
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Thursday, 29 March 2007 |
What's the latest research tell us about effective radio advertsing? If you are wise you can reach your customer between the EARs.
Here is a thought to ponder. If commercials on the radio really truly bothered people don’t you think everyone would own a satellite radio? Now we all get disgruntled at magazines that are 15 pages of ads before any editorial content but then we move on. Most of us have learned how to zap TV commercials that we don’t care about, but we also don’t scream about it. But when it comes to radio everyone is in an uproar over a few spots in a row.
The problem is not how many commercials it’s what kind of commercials.
Recent research confirms what many of us believe. People have an EAR for radio. By that I mean, it’s Emotional and it’s Accepted, but only if it’s Relevant.
RAEL is the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab and they have been studying numerous components of the relationship between a listener and his or her radio station. Their findings, available at radioadlab.org, can be combined with other recent surveys to put together a compelling story on how and why radio works.
The first is Emotional. How many times have you heard someone correct the sandwich maker at Subway about how they lay the ham down on the bread? Not ever. But how many times have you immediately jump into a conversation about radio stations and discuss how it could be so much better? Every time I mention to someone that I own such and such radio station I prepare myself for a litany of things I am about to hear on how I can make my radio station better. As annoying as that sounds (Would you like every citizen of your community giving you their two cents on how to run your business?). I love it. It constantly reinforces to me how passionate of a connection people have with their stations. They tell me their thoughts not because they think I am a poor businessman (in fact I don’t think the thought even crosses their mind that they may be offending me). They tell me because they care. They are emotionally attached to the radio station. They wake up with it. They go to work with it. They fall asleep to it. The count on it to be there the way their mother was when they were young. And however they feel about this song or that song on THEIR radio station they keep coming back to it. Whereas, if you don’t like the way that Subway guy made your sandwich you simply don’t ever eat there again and don’t say a word.
In addition to the RAEL study, a group called Coleman teamed up Arbitron and did a study called What Happens when the Spots Come On ? It focused on people’s listening habits when the commercial comes on. Now there is this assumption that once the radio commercial comes on people jump and change the station. What percentage of listeners do you think actually do that? The answer is 8%. That’s right 92% of listeners stay tuned through the commercial break. For one reason, it really is only easy to change your station in your car. Few home or office radios have push button economy. Now think about it. You probably believe you change the station every time an ad comes on? But think about it. How many radio ads did you sit through? See? Time spent listening research that exists proves the point. Yes, occasionally you switch, but its not that often and you almost always come back. That’s because radio station listeners are Accepting of radio ads. If they really were all so unaccepting everyone would have satellite radio and the companies providing it would not need to merge just to survive.
But what really makes that ad work? It’s Relevance. The ad has to be salient to the listener. That’s why it’s important to spend enough time on the creative elements of ad as well as how much money you will spend and on what stations. Should creative change for every station? Probably especially if formats differ. A classic rock listener and a country listener are really quite different in their perceptions of ads, lifestyle etc. This was all confirmed by another RAEL study that proved that listeners expect the ads to be Relevant and pertinent to them. An ad for insurance company only makes sense to you when you are in the market for insurance. That’s why they advertise every day of the year. So their ad is Relevant to the potential customer on the day he or she is considering their insurance, which happens about twice a year to each of us when our renewal comes due. You may notice that ads are a tad bit more annoying when you are not listening to your favorite station.
So connect to your potential customer through their EARs. Play off of their Emotional connection, their general Acceptance of your announcement but be sure to make it Relevant and you will succeed. Are you listening?
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 March 2007 )
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