• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 17, 2004

Study Reveals The Synergistic Benefits of Radio

The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) has released its second study revealing the striking impact on various measurement criteria when Radio is added to the media mix. Specifically, the study charts what happens to several effectiveness measures when Radio is used to replace a balanced portion of the investment in television or newspapers. The results demonstrate that a media mix that includes Radio can be more powerful than television-only or newspaper-only campaigns.

In a test environment, the switch from two television or two newspaper exposures to a mix that included one television or one newspaper plus two Radio exposures yielded significantly better measures of effectiveness on almost all scores, especially unaided recall, aided recall, and first-choice brand selection.

"With the information from the study, advertisers and agencies can fine-tune their media plans to the way consumers react to the various media," explained Gary Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and Co-Chairman of RAEL. "In particular, the study shows that Radio advertising significantly impacts communication with consumers who are already reached with other media."

"The results of this study will be important to advertisers seeking to maximize ROI through multi-media solutions," explained Janice Finkel Greene, Executive Vice President, Associate Local Broadcast Director, Initiative.

Study Highlights

In this controlled, laboratory-style test of advertising synergy, the results were striking, revealing that a media mix that includes Radio can be more powerful than television-only or newspaper-only campaigns:

• Swapping out one of two TV ads for two Radio ads increased unaided brand recall by 34%.
• Replacing one of two newspaper exposures with two Radio ads almost tripled unaided brand recall.
• When two Radio ads replaced one of two TV exposures, more people chose the advertised brand as their first-choice product. The newspaper swap-out was even more striking.
• And consumers that heard two Radio ads (and only one TV ad) could play back a campaign's main message just as well as those exposed to two TV ads. Trading one of two newspaper ads for two Radio exposures gave much better message playback than seeing two newspaper ads.

RAEL says that this new research suggests something different-that Radio is also an important way to communicate with consumers already reached with other media when Radio is present in meaningful weights.

Most importantly, perhaps, is the recognition that synergy is good-that sometimes the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole. We can now demonstrate to an advertiser that moving some money into Radio may increase the total power of the campaign. Our study amplifies the RAB/UK's "Radio Multiplier" work that showed what powerful ROI benefits can come from shifting part of an ad budget into Radio.

The full version of RAEL's new research report, The Benefits of Synergy: Moving Money Into Radio, can be downloaded here.