A national health and nutrition products retailer utilized AM/FM radio to drive awareness for a new product launch. CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One retained MARU/Matchbox to measure brand effect and LeadsRx to quantify search and site traffic.

Here are the key findings:

AM/FM radio is an ideal media platform to target vitamin and supplement category purchasers

Heavy AM/FM radio listeners are 72% more likely to be heavy category purchasers. Heavy AM/FM radio listeners were also more likely to be a customer of the health and nutrition retailer and shop there the most.

Among heavy AM/FM radio listeners, awareness, interest, and consideration grew

The AM/FM radio campaign increased ad recall and brand equity for the retailer’s new offering. Awareness (+50%), interest (+30%), and consideration for the new service (+52%) grew, according to the MARU/Matchbox study conducted in October and December 2019.

Versus the overall market, heavy AM/FM radio listeners were twice as likely to want to try the new service

Given that heavy AM/FM radio listeners are strong category users, it is not surprising that awareness, interest, and consideration of the new service are significantly greater among heavy AM/FM radio listeners compared to the overall market.

The impact of the AM/FM radio campaign is evident as MARU/Matchbox found awareness of the new service among heavy AM/FM radio listeners (24%) to be nearly three times greater than in the market overall (9%). 44% of heavy AM/FM radio listeners said they would be very likely to try the new service versus 17% in the total market.

AM/FM radio drove an +8% lift in the retailer’s web traffic

LeadsRx is a multi-touch attribution firm and a leader in measuring the impact that off-line media, like TV and AM/FM radio, has on search and site traffic. LeadsRx analyzed all of the AM/FM radio ads in the campaign from Media Monitors. LeadsRx found that the AM/FM radio campaign generated site and search lift of +8%.

In DMAs with the heaviest AM/FM radio weight, web traffic grew +16%

LeadsRx analyzed the DMAs with heavy, medium, and light GRPs to understand the relationship between media weight and search and site traffic. CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One matched Nielsen GRPs by DMA against the ad occurrences measured by Media Monitors.

Markets with light GRP exposure saw a +7% lift in site traffic. Markets with the heaviest GRP weight from the AM/FM radio campaign saw a massive +16% increase in visitation to the retailer’s web site.

Reach is the number one media sales driver

Nearly 500 sales effect studies conducted by Nielsen reveal that reach is the number one media factor that drives sales. Reach represents 22% of all sales lift generated.

It’s noteworthy that reach beats targeting as a sales driver by two and half times. The godfathers of marketing effectiveness, Les Binet and Peter Field, advise to reach as many category buyers as possible.

How can reach be optimized?

At CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One, when we conduct our many advertiser studies, we seek to learn how the campaign can be optimized. How can the creative be enhanced? How can the media plan improved?

One of the most useful exercises in a client brand study is to examine the AM/FM radio programming preferences among category users to look for ways to grow campaign reach.

First, we examine which AM/FM radio programming formats have the greatest reach among category shoppers. Then we study the mix of the buy for opportunities to rebalance programming format allocations.

In the chart below for the health and nutrition retailer, the column on the left represents format shares among heavy users of the category. The second column represents the programming format impression share of the buy. What are the opportunities to increase or decrease the weight of the formats in the mix?

Among frequent purchasers of this category, the top AM/FM radio formats are Classic Rock, Rock, News/Talk, and Country. The client buy was very light in composition of Rock and News/Talk. It could use more Classic Rock. Country, AC/Soft Rock, and Top 40 can be dialed down.

Aligning the format mix of the media plan to listening preferences of heavy category purchasers is a great way to smartly optimize reach with the right audience.

Key takeaways:

• AM/FM radio is an ideal media platform to target vitamin and supplement category purchasers: Heavy AM/FM radio listeners are 72% more likely to be heavy category purchasers.
• AM/FM radio is an ideal media platform for health and nutrition products retailers: Heavy AM/FM radio listeners are twice as likely to be customers of the health and nutrition products retailer and to shop there the most.
• AM/FM radio increased ad recall and site traffic: The AM/FM radio campaign increased ad recall and brand equity for the health and nutrition products retailer’s new service. The campaign drove an +8% lift in site traffic. In DMAs with heavy AM/FM radio GRP weight, retailer site traffic lift doubled to +16%.
• Reach optimization opportunity: In a typical month, the health and nutrition products retailer’s AM/FM radio campaign reached 28% of the U.S. Reach can be increased via AM/FM radio programming diversification and broadening schedule rotation.

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer at CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.