The radio as a tool in modern marketing

100 years of radio

In 2020, it was a century old, but the radio continues to innovate and attract new audiences, managing to range in spite of its omnicanality.

Radio advertising is often seen as rather irrelevant and often neglected marketing activity.

However, radio is the second most important means of communication for Europeans and has a greater reach than any other platform.

How radio advertising is born

Radio was the primary form of family entertainment. Its power certainly did not go unnoticed by companies, who decided to use it to increase consumer awareness of their products and services, thus giving rise to radio advertising.

The first form recognized as radio advertising came in early 1922, when AT&T Radio began selling paid broadcast opportunities, where companies could either subscribe to or fund a broadcast, in exchange for mentioning their brand name on the air.

Also in 1922, the radio station WEAF was the first to run an official pay advertisement.

Gradually these forms of advertising became increasingly popular, quickly bringing radio stations into their golden age.

The pros and cons of radio advertising

Radio is an extremely powerful tool: let us now analyze the 9 pros and 4 cons of radio advertising that I consider relevant.

The pros 

1) Loyalty

75% of listeners always listen to the same radio frequency and stay true to their favorite DJ or radio presenter over time. In addition, the listener's choice of the radio station is always based on a type of entertainment and/or preferred music choice.

2) Trust

Connected to the previous point, combined with loyalty, there is also immense confidence in the radio, so much so that more than 63% consider his favorite station as a friend. This allows you to influence your buying behavior in a very significant way.

3) The range

Radio is an incredible medium, capable of hitting 76% of Europeans and even 92% of Americans at least once a week.

The best time to launch a radio commercial is certainly during their car journeys, which usually take place during the weekdays, especially from 6 to 9 am and from 5 to 7 pm.

4) The frequency

Almost 70% of listeners stay on the same frequency without ever-changing stations, so they are unlikely to miss a radio commercial. This fact underlines once again how easy it is to create the memory of our brand in the mind of a potential customer.

5) Targetable

To each radio station, corresponds a specific pool of listeners, which can become even more targeted, depending on the musical genres that a time slot offers, but also on the radio shows.

6) Portable

The radio is often heard outside the home, during commuting hours, or it accompanies us in all the activities where we are not exposed to other media, such as while shopping, at the restaurant, or at work.

7) Convenience

The cost of creating a radio commercial is much cheaper than other marketing levers. In addition, the performance of a commercial is often evaluated 6 times its cost.

8) Close to the purchase decision

71% of people surveyed make purchasing decisions by trusting the radio. In addition, people are often exposed to the radio when they are in the car or at work, and this leads to radio advertising providing a lot of food for thought for listeners, influencing the final decision.

9) The memory

People remember what they hear twice as much as what they read. This is due to the fact that sound drives emotions, involving the listener's imagination.

Cons

1) The length

A radio commercial has several formats, the most common are 30 or 60 seconds. The commercials may be shorter, but never longer.

2) Lack of images

Humans are incredibly visual creatures, which is why images and colors have the task of enhancing the impact of the advertised product or service. However, you can change this disadvantage in your favor by creating a vivid picture in the listener's mind with just words and sounds.

3) Too much choice

The number of radio stations in both Europe and America is very large. We need to do a great deal of analysis before we know which radio station is best suited to our needs.

4) Too much noise

Most radios will broadcast too many commercials during each break, often exposing listeners to too many commercials at once. However, you can overcome this problem by choosing the best radio stations, which have a limited number of commercials for each break.

From traditional radio to online radio

Online radio is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet, which offers all the available formats of traditional radio, such as news, sports, talk, and various music genres.

The first Internet radio service was launched in 1993.

Just like traditional radio, online radios offer the possibility of paying for commercials, which can be broadcast only one at a time, in the midst of otherwise free music, or grouped together as in traditional radio.

Generally, the cost of advertising on online radios is lower than in traditional radio advertising.

In addition, most online radio stations have the ability to target potential customers more precisely than regular radio, for example, by reaching people outside or within a specific geographical area of interest.

A new marketing lever: the podcast

By podcast, we mean a radio broadcast via the Internet, downloadable and archivable. Generally, a podcast focuses on a specific topic, generating a series of episodes in which the topic is discussed in detail.

 It differs from radio in various aspects, the most important of which are:

1) Programming vs On-demand

The radio has well-defined programming, while the podcast is free from any planning and listenable when and where you want, just a click away.

2) Live vs Pre-recorded

Another big differentiation is on the typology: the radio has live programs, while the podcast is pre-recorded.

3) Mass Media vs Niche

Radio is one of the levers of the mass media and on this is based its aim to produce content for a mass audience. A podcast is a niche tool, which produces content for an audience interested in a specific topic.

The podcast is extremely interesting for advertisers because it allows them to listen to content whenever the audience wants, wherever they want, and on whatever platform they choose to consume it. In addition, it is often regarded as a very important tool to promote a startup and set it on a rapid upward trajectory.

In order to launch a podcast effectively, it is necessary to fully understand whom our audience is, first of all, analyzing basic information such as gender, age, educational level, employment, income level, family situation, geo-location, hobbies, interests, etc. We then move on to identify the best networks for the distribution of the podcast, in order to hit the target that was in the market survey carried out before the launch, working side by side with the sales staff, which will allow us to understand which shows reach our audience and if it is in line with our budget.

It is very important not to confuse the podcast with a traditional radio ad, but to try as much as possible to create content that is close to the interests of our potential customers. Another interesting point to leverage is to create podcast campaigns with at least five episodes: according to one study, podcast campaigns with multiple episodes attract up to 40% more listeners than those with only one commercial.

In addition, podcasting has now become a daily routine of ours, whether it's news or sports. Podcasts make the journey easier and life more interesting, allowing us to expand one or more topics in those moments without stimulus.

Key concepts at a glance

The radio can be an excellent choice, both to make a brand or service better known and to convince listeners to take a specific action. The pros of radio far outweigh the cons, not to mention that in addition to the radio, there are many similar platforms on the rise.

The biggest disadvantage comes mainly from the lack of images, which must be masterfully balanced by highly creative content, able to generate images and sensations in the listener's mind that can excite.

The right dose to create a good radio investment is good planning, detailed market research on our audience and choose the best mix based on the will to achieve the best results.