• July 8, 2005

The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL), a collaborative research initiative of the radio industry and major ad agencies and advertisers, Thursday refuted a Television Bureau of Advertising attack on its recent "Radio's ROI Advantage" study. The TVB's analysis contended that portions of the RAEL report actually demonstrated that TV, not radio, delivers a superior return on advertising investments, but RAEL said the TVB used only a small portion of the analysis, took it out of context and ignored actual media costs, which are the key factor driving radio's ROI relative to TV. The 37-page research paper was recently released at and vetted during the Advertising Research Foundation's and ESOMAR's WAM conference in Montreal, where it was recognized as one of the best papers presented. "Of course, the TVB is welcome to conduct its own million-dollar study of ROI to seek a more precise answer to that question. In the meantime, however, the study unequivocally established that on a national-to-national basis radio demonstrated a 49% better ROI -- a 49% better value," said RAEL in a statement released Thursday. -- J.M.