• by Karl Greenberg , August 31, 2010

It's hard to believe that with the proliferation of digital media platforms, and the visual nature of the product, radio is still a good place for auto marketers to stack their media chips.

But a 2009 report by Nielsen, "How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio," had some surprising results: despite the proliferation of satellite radio, MP3s, and online radio channels like Pandora, terrestrial radio on FM and AM bands still dominate listening time -- particularly among younger listeners.

Nielsen says broadcast radio is second to TV in daily reach in minutes of use. The study, in which the Council for Research Excellence also participated, said that more adults 18 to 34 listen to radio every day than does the general population. Seventy-nine percent of them listen to AM/FM, and only 13% listen to satellite bands. Also, adults over 18 listen to more broadcast radio every day than all other audio options -- including CDs, satellite radio, and digital file players -- combined.

Marketers at car companies might counter that radio is the side salad, not the steak: a car is inherently such a visual tactile experience that marketing should not be wasted in a place where the experience of the vehicle can't be translated visually. Not so, says Chris Hamer, SVP of Katz Marketing Solutions, a unit of Clear Channel.

Hamer, who at one time was on the Cadillac marketing team, says it is likely that as part of tier-one or national marketing programs for automakers, broadcast radio constitutes probably only "a couple of percentage points. It's quite small." He says, however, that there is more to marketing than seeing the vehicle. "It's also lifestyle -- it's the feel of owning a car; what does a car mean?"

However, he says it isn't functional for automakers to use radio solely to mirror TV ads with an audio experience. Rather, he says, radio is best understood as a community experience, with local-market flavor, driven by the personalities that listeners make part of their day. For regular listeners, radio is not a monologue. "What radio does is encourage dialogue with listeners, and there is a tight relationship between radio personalities, the station, and the public," he tells Marketing Daily. "For marketers, it can supercharge great TV campaigns."

Hamer says that while auto marketers can get inexpensive advertising by doing audio versions of TV ads, getting endorsements from personalities is powerful because listeners trust the radio jocks they like. "Dialogue between radio personalities, stations and listeners is an entirely different category," he says. There's a real personality involved. It's not just the radio station talking."

From the VP marketing's perspective, it's a national campaign; from the listener's perspective it's market-by-market, station community by station community. So the local New York stations might be at Jones Beach one weekend, or an arts fair on Columbus Avenue or in the Hudson Valley doing things to enhance the listener community. And they love to have ad sponsors to tie into that."

As for endorsement by radio personalities, the automaker must invest in getting the jocks to know the product and drive it. "You have to make sure people endorsing it are using it. You would find the target audience and then the stations that best connect with them, then arrange ride and drives with personalities."

Hamer says the right media mix is when across all media, a marketer is not spending past saturation level. "And it is easy to do in national TV, and be nowhere near saturation in other areas."