Click here to view a 10-minute video of the key findings.

The evidence of AM/FM radio’s marketing effectiveness for pharma is quickly accumulating. According to multiple case studies, AM/FM radio drives incremental reach and action, grows share of voice, and delivers high creative scores at a fraction of TV CPMs for pharmaceutical brands.

In support of the growth in the category, the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® now has access to a new capability for pharmaceutical brands developed with data from Swoop, the precision healthcare marketing experts, and Nielsen that will allow data-driven targeting.

“Using Swoop data to inform broadcast radio planning and measurement for pharmaceutical brands is now a reality,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Marketing for Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. “Not only can you now find the right audience on radio, but pharma marketers can generate quantifiable reach and impact.”

“Bringing Swoop’s precision audiences to Westwood One’s AM/FM radio ecosystem of more than 250 million listeners per month empowers healthcare marketers to better engage with the patients most likely to benefit from a specific treatment,” said Scott Rines, Chief Revenue Officer, Swoop. “Through this partnership, healthcare and life sciences advertisers can apply the same audiences they’re activating digitally to network radio, optimizing reach and frequency with target patient populations having a high propensity of engagement, driving better outcomes.”

“Nielsen is committed to incorporating advanced audiences across the media ecosystem, which allows advertisers and agencies to plan, optimize and measure beyond age and gender,” said Angela Girardin, SVP of Audience Intelligence at Nielsen. “Nielsen data delivers valuable insight and analyses for our clients, allowing them to better understand key segments that have been reached.”

The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® commissioned a first ever historic study with Nielsen for a pharmaceutical brand powered by Swoop, the leader in privacy-safe AI-generated audiences for healthcare marketing

As pharmaceutical advertising dollars continue to pour into network radio, this study makes the case for even greater investment in the medium, showcasing AM/FM radio’s significant reach and time spent among a key segment.

The Nielsen/Swoop analysis period occurred from October 2021 through December 2021. The Nielsen Portable People Meter panel size averaged 2,459 (October 2021 – 2,539, November 2021 – 2,559, December 2021 – 2,279).

Here are the key findings of the analysis:

The profile of a patient segment via age/gender, income, education, household size, presence of children, and employment

Connecting the Swoop data to Nielsen’s Portable People Meter panel permits the development of a socio-economic profile of a patient segment. In the case of the modeled psoriatic arthritis segment, we find the consumer centers on 35-64 with a slight female skew.

AM/FM radio generates significant audiences among a modeled psoriatic arthritis segment with a weekly reach of 83.2% and average weekly time spent listening time of eight hours

Television has long been the centerpiece of pharma media plans. While TV’s 65+ weekly reach has held up, reach under the age of 60 has been plummeting.

In Nielsen’s Q1 2022 Total Audience Report, linear TV has sunk to a 71% weekly reach among persons 25-54. Each week, nearly one out of three American 25-54s will never see any linear TV ads.

AM/FM radio to rescue. AM/FM radio’s massive 87% weekly reach among 25-54s can supplement TV’s lost reach.

Among the psoriatic arthritis segment, Nielsen finds more than eight out of ten are reached weekly with over an hour a day of listening.

The modeled psoriatic arthritis segment has the highest composition of AM/FM radio time spent listening during Monday-Friday 6AM to 7PM

Day time is prime time for AM/FM radio. Within the modeled psoriatic arthritis segment used, the highest composition of time spent listening to AM/FM radio occurred during the weekday, equally distributed during Monday-Friday 6AM-10AM (25%), Monday-Friday 10AM-3PM (26%), and Monday-Friday 3PM-7PM (26%). The remaining share of listening occurred on the weekends (14%) and during weeknights after 7PM (9%).

Among the psoriatic arthritis segment, there is broad diversity of AM/FM radio programming formats generating a weekly reach of 50% or greater: Spanish, Christian, Album Rock, Sports, Classic Rock, Oldies, News/Talk, and Alternative Rock

A media planner’s dream: AM/FM radio programming format shares among pharma segments

The huge benefit of connecting Nielsen Portable People Meters to pharma segments is the ability to inform a media plan and allocate impressions to reach the right audience. Over-the-air AM/FM radio listening can be examined among patient segments.

Within the Swoop modeled psoriatic arthritis segment, AM/FM radio programming format shares can be compared to overall U.S. format shares:

• The Sports format has a 6.5% share among the psoriatic arthritis segment, which is 22% greater than the Sports format share (5.4%) overall in the U.S.
• The News/Talk share is 17% larger among the pharma segment.
• The Urban format share is 64% greater in the patient segment.

A media plan can now be created using AM/FM radio programming format allocations via format shares within the patient segment.

Key takeaways:

• The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® now has access to a new capability for pharmaceutical brands developed with data from Swoop, the precision healthcare marketing experts and Nielsen that will allow data-driven targeting.
• This study makes the case for even greater pharma investment in the medium, showcasing AM/FM radio’s significant reach and time spent among key patient segments.
• AM/FM radio generates significant audiences among the modeled psoriatic arthritis segment with a weekly reach of 83.2% and weekly time spent of eight hours.
• The Swoop/Nielsen integration permits the development of a socio-economic profile of a patient segment.
• The modeled psoriatic arthritis segment has the highest composition of AM/FM radio time spent listening during Monday-Friday 6AM to 7PM.
• Among the psoriatic arthritis segment, there is broad diversity of AM/FM radio programming formats generating a weekly reach of 50% or greater: Spanish, Christian, Album Rock, Sports, Classic Rock, Oldies, News/Talk, and Alternative Rock.
• A media planner’s dream: AM/FM radio programming format shares can now be examined among pharma segments to build allocations.

Click here to view a 10-minute video of the key findings.

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group®.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.