Click here to view a 12-minute video of the key findings.

Click here to download a PDF of the slides.

One of the largest tests of AM/FM radio advertising was conducted in Spring 2024 in just over twenty local markets. The campaign ran across a broad mix of small, medium, and large markets.  

The two-month AM/FM radio campaign featured heavy media weight with ~500 monthly GRPs, generating a monthly reach of 75% and a 7 frequency. The campaign featured a two-week burst followed by two dark weeks and then another major two-week pulse. In the test markets, three out of four people were exposed to the campaign monthly an average of seven times.

Four monthly AM/FM radio campaigns (minimum, maintenance, high impact, launch): Nielsen reach and frequency reveal the monthly gross rating points needed for each campaign

The campaign measured consisted of significant “launch” GRP weight that generated substantial reach and frequency.  

Measuring campaign impact: MARU/Matchbox revealed the brand effect and Claritas quantified website conversions and purchases

MARU/Matchbox, the brand tracking firm, conducted two studies: one just before the campaign launched and the second after the AM/FM radio campaign ended. This “pre/post” approach allowed MARU/Matchbox to measure growth in unaided awareness, aided awareness, advertising recall, and aided ad recall (which exposes consumers to the AM/FM radio ad that aired).

Claritas, the attribution measurement firm, placed their tracking pixel on the advertiser’s website and studied the impact of the AM/FM radio campaign on website home page visitation, leads, signups, registration, and purchase.

How advertising works

Les Binet and Peter Field are the legendary team known as the “godfathers of marketing effectiveness.” Field is a world-renowned marketing consultant and Binet is the Global Head of Advertising Effectiveness at adam&eveDDB London. Here is their simple explanation of how advertising works:

Advertising works via broad reach enjoyable ads that create positive memories that make the brand easy to think of. In addition, targeted relevant sales event campaigns drive short-term sales effects. The driver of successful advertising is the creation of positive memories.

Advertising creates memories and memories generate sales; Clicks don’t generate sales

Jon Lombardo, former Global Head of Research at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and the founder of newly launched AI driven Marketing strategy and measurement  firm Evidenza, reports, “One of the primary things people misunderstand is how advertising works. People think they just put an ad in front of you and you immediately buy. That’s not how it works. Generally, you don’t generate any sale from an ad, what you do is generate a memory and then at some point later they consult their memory.”

AM/FM radio worked: Total unaided brand awareness grew +10%; Among heavy AM/FM radio listeners, unaided awareness soared +16%

MARU/Matchbox surveyed 1,000 adults 18+ in the test markets in early April 2024 before the campaign began. Another 1,000 people were surveyed after the campaign at the end of May 2024.

There was significant growth in unaided awareness despite the short two-month campaign. Unaided awareness is the hardest brand equity measure for a marketer to grow. It requires consumes to name a brand in a category without any help. 

Post campaign, aided awareness and ad recall surged

MARU/Matchbox provided consumers with a list of brands and asked how familiar they were with each brand. Consumers who said they were “extremely/very familiar” with the advertised brand grew by +9%.

The AM/FM radio campaign generated a strong lift in ad recall for the brand. Total ad recall grew +12%. Aided ad recall, where consumers were exposed to the AM/FM radio ad, also grew by +12%.

Ad recall is the brand equity measure that is most sensitive to recent advertising. Double digit growth in ad recall indicates strong impact from the AM/FM radio campaign.

Claritas attribution measurement: The AM/FM radio campaign generated an +8% lift in leads, +8% increase in signups, +9% in registrations, and +12% growth in purchases

The closer to the bottom of the purchase funnel, the greater the conversion increases.

Claritas examined AM/FM radio’s impact on the daily conversions. The first month of the campaign generated an +8.7% lift in conversions. Conversions then dipped during a dark period of the campaign.

Conversions then surged +13.6% in the second month of the campaign. After the AM/FM radio campaign, there was a powerful lingering sales effect from the AM/FM radio ads as conversions continued to grow +6.2%.

Tracksuit: Be known before you’re needed: A strong brand makes your performance marketing work harder

A great new study from Tracksuit, the brand tracking firm, reveals how aided awareness drives conversion rate and improves performance efficiency. The study, conducted in partnership with TikTok, analyzed a large number of campaigns and compared sales response with the advertisers’ brand strength. Tracksuit found:

• The greater the awareness, the greater the conversion rate: There is a direct relationship between aided awareness and conversion rate.
• Stronger brand awareness improves performance marketing impact by as much as 2.86X: The stronger your brand, the greater your performance efficiency. Compared to low-awareness brands, medium-awareness brands generate 1.48X greater conversion. Brands with high aided awareness have 2.86X greater conversion rates compared to low awareness brands.
• Brand awareness is a controlling factor for the outcomes of performance marketing: Brand is the foundation on which performance success is built: the stronger the brand, the stronger the foundation.

At an Advertising Research Foundation event, the legendary Irwin Gotlieb, former Global CEO and Chairman of GroupM, the world’s largest media agency, explained:

“… Foundation principles in marketing continue to be relevant. They’re probably more relevant today than they ever have been. Yes, you have to do top of the funnel marketing. If you don’t have awareness, you can’t create consideration and you can’t create preference and you can’t create a transaction.”

Key takeaways:

• Advertising creates memories and memories generate sales. Clicks don’t generate sales.
• A significant test of AM/FM radio advertising in over 20 markets found AM/FM radio worked: Total unaided brand awareness grew +10%. Among heavy AM/FM radio listeners unaided awareness soared +16%.
• Claritas attribution measurement revealed the AM/FM radio campaign generated an +8% lift in leads, +8% increase in signups, +9% in registrations, and +12% growth in purchases.
• A series of Tracksuit brand studies for TikTok revealed successful brands need to “be known before they’re needed.” The greater the awareness, the greater the purchase conversion rate.A strong brand makes performance marketing work harder.

Click here to view a 12-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.