The Pros of Radio Advertising
By T.E. Cunningham
Radio advertising is quantitative and qualitative. With a music or talk format, assumptions can be made about the kind of person listening: age, sex, income, interests, and more. When considering utilizing a station in your marketing plan, ask the Account Executive to pull this research for you!
Radio often reaches people when they are out and about—eating, getting a haircut, buying clothes, etc. This can create a stronger immediacy for a call to action. Someone in their car driving close to the lunch hour may be easily swayed to stop for a mouthwatering lunch special that they hear advertised. As such, many advertisers use radio as a traffic driver versus as a branding tool.
One of the advantages of Radio advertising is that personalities are allowed to do commercials and endorsements, which Television doesn’t allow for due to journalistic integrity concerns. In addition, radio disc jockeys are “local celebs” and a radio remote for a retail operation can bring new faces into your doors.
Another advantage of Radio advertising is that typically you get sixty seconds with a radio commercial vs. TV’s standard thirty-second commercial units. Both allow for variations, but radio provides a longer format to explain your product, service, special and so forth.
The Cons of Radio Advertising
Radio is “theater of the mind”. It does not provide a visual aspect, as its more powerful competitor television (and online video) does.
Because many listeners are in cars or doing other things such as working, cleaning the house, etc., while listening, the radio message may not get the same attention other advertising does. Radio can sometimes be “background noise”, whereas with Television the viewer’s focus is often on specific programming.
Radio also doesn’t have the same “reach’ as popular television, and as a rule of thumb, you must run far more radio spots to reach the same number of people than when utilizing Television advertising.
Not sure which media to include in your marketing plan? Reach out and we’ll help you navigate the complex world of media choices!