Westwood One ROI Guarantee: First In The Audio Space

October 25, 2017 By Pierre Bouvard

In a first for the audio space, Westwood One announces the industry-wide Westwood One ROI Guarantee. Suzanne Grimes, EVP Corporate Marketing, Cumulus Media and President of Westwood One says, “We have seen stunning radio ROI findings across the board and are so convinced of radio’s ability to generate a positive return, we are offering the ROI Guarantee to our advertisers.”

The Westwood One ROI Guarantee ensures sales growth from AM/FM radio advertising.

Here’s how it works
Westwood One will partner with qualifying clients to accomplish their business objectives. Additionally, because campaign creative influences 50% of sales lift, the commercial creative will be pre-tested and benchmarked against industry audio creative test norms to ensure consumer impact and resonance.

Nielsen will measure return on advertising spend on behalf of the radio campaign, which includes all media that run across the entire broadcast radio landscape, as well as Westwood One, by matching Media Monitors ad occurrences with Portable People Meter listening, Nielsen credit card data and in-store CPG purchase data from Nielsen Catalina Solutions. If ROI is not positive, Westwood One will run no-cost supplemental media weight sufficient to deliver the guaranteed ROI.

The ROI Guarantee comes at an opportune time for advertisers. In the face of current media trends, iconic American brands are rediscovering radio.

Digital fraud and alarming TV audience erosion cause P&G to return to radio
At the recent NAB Radio Show John Fix, Analyst and Manager at Procter and Gamble, told broadcasters, “You saw 93% of households are listening to radio. That’s the scale I need for my brands to reach the people that buy them.”

Inside Radio reports that P&G and other CPG giants have grown frustrated by narrow digital-ad targeting. “P&G wants to speak to everyone, not a narrow target,” Fix explained. “The brands are looking to get the reach they want and they can’t get it with TV.”

TV audience issues are “scary” — but radio can make TV buys better
AdAge recently reported, “Almost half of adults 22 to 45 years old are watching absolutely no content on traditional TV platforms, according to a new study by Omnicom Media Group agency Hearts & Science.”

“It’s pretty scary,” says Hearts & Science CEO Scott Hagedorn, referring to the demo as “unreachable” by marketers. “We are not reaching young audiences effectively, just over-indexing on older viewers on TV.”

AM/FM radio can supplement the loss. According to Nielsen it reaches 92% of Millennials weekly and Nielsen’s Commspoint media planning system finds that allocating 20% of a TV buy to network radio grows reach by an astonishing 40%.

Putting our ROI where our mouth is
Westwood One’s Suzanne Grimes concludes, “Marketers demand solutions to reach customers and generate results, and the Westwood One ROI Guarantee elevates radio as the measurable mass reach medium that, simply put, delivers.”

Sales results have a way of ending arguments. Guaranteeing ROI takes the risk out of putting AM/FM radio, America’s number one mass reach media, into the plan.

In summary:

  • Right consumer: Westwood One will build a media campaign to target ideal consumers with sufficient reach
  • Right message: As half of ROI is due to creative, Westwood One will pre-test the creative executions to ensure strong performance
  • Prove impact: A Nielsen ROI study will measure campaign sales impact
  • Guaranteed: If ROI is not positive, Westwood One will run no cost supplemental media weight to deliver the guaranteed ROI

To learn more about the Westwood One ROI Guarantee, email MWildman@westwoodone.com.

The ROI Guarantee is the latest in a series of industry firsts from Westwood One in 2017 in data driven targeting, measurement and accountability:

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus | Westwood One.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.