As 2018 comes to an end, we’re looking back at which blog posts resonated the most with a list of the top 5 most popular Sales Insights posts of the year.

5. Groundbreaking Research Proves AM/FM Radio Delivers Strong ROI for Personal Care Brand: In March we unveiled results from a men’s personal care brand sales effect study. Nielsen Catalina Solutions matched Portable People Meter panel data and shopper card data to determine the impact of the AM/FM radio campaign. The results? AM/FM radio exposure delivered growth in sales, market share, and a positive return on advertising spend for the personal care brand and the parent brand.

4. Marketers and Agencies: Take the “Me” Out of “Media”: Media decision makers believe their media habits are pretty much the same as everyone else. But how do Americans actually spend their time with media? In April, we got to the bottom of these misconceptions and showed the staggering differences between how Americans spend their media time versus how media decision-makers perceive consumer behavior.

3. The Relationship Between AM/FM Radio Personalities and Listeners is Personal: A major theme we covered this year was the power of radio personalities. Having a familiar DJ behind the microphone gives listeners a person to connect with. This strong affinity and trust can be used to the advantage of marketers in their audio creative. Trusted personalities can provide immediate credibility, endorsement, and relevance to ads, amplifying the power of AM/FM radio as a medium that connects.

2. Share of Ear Highlights: Q1 2018: Edison’s Research’s “Share of Ear” report continues to be a cornerstone of the Westwood One blog. As the gold standard for understanding how Americans consume audio, the highlights from Q1’s report included AM/FM radio’s continued dominance in share and daily reach as well as Pandora’s share losses and Podcast reach increases. We also covered the most recent Q3 2018 release of the report which showed similar audio trends as well as new data on smart speaker adoption.

And our most popular post…

1. Pandora and Spotify: Shouldn’t Ads Be Heard?: At the start of the year we wanted to answer one simple question. How many Pandora, Spotify, and AM/FM radio listeners actually hear ads? According to a MARU/VisionCritical study of 2,617 consumers, we found that listeners pay more attention to AM/FM radio. While Pandora and Spotify suffered from “empty room syndrome” with only half of their audience hearing ads, on average, 84% of the AM/FM radio audience hear ads when they listen at home, at work, or traveling in the car.

Lauren Vetrano is Director of Content Marketing at CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.