8-12-2013
Radio?s greatest opportunities over the next decade lie in helping our advertisers increase their business through emotionally engaging radio commercials.
A study released by OMD in 2007 found that emotionally engaging commercials can achieve up to eight times the return on investment compared to non-engaging ones. We also know that being ?on emotion? is even more important than being on message. But the true key to success is being able to predict whether a commercial will engage emotionally before it airs. I have discovered a way radio can produce engaging commercials 100 percent of the time. This is a game-changer for our industry and our advertisers.
I have access to a system of testing creative that has been developed by a leading consumer behaviorist named Dan Hill, president of Sensory Logic in Minneapolis. Dan has used the science of facial coding to accurately determine a commercial?s engagement level. In collaboration with Dan, we have created a webinar at www.WriteToEngage.com. All of our copywriters use this tool, and I suggest anyone interested in growing their business take a half hour to view it as well.
According to Gallup and Robinson, emotionally engaging radio commercials are even slightly better than engaging television commercials. Now consider that advertising on radio is less than half the cost of advertising on television. This in itself shows that radio can produce more than double the return for each dollar spent on television.
Another advantage of radio is that it?s personal. Keith Reinhard, the legendary chairman of DDB, shares the story of watching a commercial on television for a Thanksgiving dinner. The family he sees on TV is a nice family, but it?s not his family. Similar creative on radio introduces your family into the commercial. Listeners picture their own families sitting around the dinner table, and, when they do, they are engaged emotionally. This more than doubles the effectiveness of the commercial, potentially giving an advertiser four times the sales for every dollar spent on radio as opposed to television.
Let me share two specific success stories with you.
The first one is a carpet and flooring store. Prior to advertising with my radio station, their top-of-mind awareness score was 11.1 percent. A competitor was leading the field with a score of 17.5 percent. Fourteen weeks after launching their engaging radio campaign, their score soared to 23 percent, making them the highest top-of-mind advertiser in their category.
Around the same time, we had similar results with a heating and air conditioning company. Their TOMA score was only 6.3 percent before their spots aired. After 14 weeks, their score increased dramatically to 27 percent and they became the top-of-mind leader in their category as well. These are just two current examples of radio done right.
There is another opportunity for radio: It?s called granularity analytics, offered by a group led by MRI along with Arbitron and Media Monitors. With this technology, ad agencies can, for the first time, measure radio?s ROI within their media mix.
This can be a blessing or a curse. Since only 20 percent of radio commercials produced are engaging, we risk losing major pieces of business that we are currently getting. Or we can test our advertisers? commercials and offer creative assistance to guarantee their success.
My challenge to the radio industry is simple: We now have a system that can produce results for our advertisers. Are you willing to step up to the plate and seize the opportunity?
I am willing to offer my expertise and work in tandem with the RAB. But in order to make this plan work, I need your financial support.
Send me a note at jerryl@101-fm.com if you want to grow radio in cooperation with Erica Farber and the RAB.
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