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According to recent research exposure to radio advertising can boost brand browsing by an average of 52%. However, placed alongside other media, radio can play an extremely powerful role for advertisers. Throughout this blog we will focus on how brands can use radio as part of a wider media combination to maximise overall campaign performance.
Combining Radio and Podcasting
Podcasts are always available, allowing your brand to connect with listeners 24 hours a day. Just like radio, they can be listened to anywhere at any time of the day, meaning that you can catch all types of listeners, from the midnight shift worker to the early morning new mum, there will always be an audience awake. Although, 49% of podcast listening is done at home, many podcast audiences listen in the car, on the train, in the gym or even at work.
A study by Nielsen, found that almost 70% of podcast listeners gained brand awareness through ads in a podcast, 62% successfully recalled a brand's advert and a further 62% considered buying new products or services that had been advertised.
Podcasts have very quickly become the perfect customer engagement tool. Combining Radio and Podcasting can allow for your potential reach to stretch even further. A study from Nielsen (2022) found that 62% of people have taken direct action after hearing a brand message on a podcast. Those figures combined with the trust and awareness of radio means there is huge potential when it comes to building a strategy incorporating both radio and podcasting.
Reaching people at the right time is what radio does best, podcasting is another fantastic way to fine-tune when your ad is heard making them more impactful and effective than ever before.
What are the benefits of combining radio and digital advertising?
A study by Radiocentre has highlighted how allocating just 10% of a media budget into radio boosts brand browsing by 52%. This one stat alone proves just how potent radio and online are as a media mix.
(Source: Radiocentre)
Using low level ad avoidance, radio is the perfect medium to reach out and spread brand awareness amongst all consumers regardless of their interest in a brand. The internet complements this by allowing consumers to quickly pursue their interest in a product or service.
In this section, we explore the benefits of combining both radio and digital and how it could fit right in amongst your current media mix.
Radio and digital ads boost brand awareness
Consumers often interact with one business across multiple touch points before they decide on making a purchase. The potential customer may see an ad on Facebook and then hear a correlating ad on Smooth Radio that same day. By using multiple touch points customers instantly recognise and remember your brand.
The ads work together to create an impression in the mind of the buyer so when they come round to making a purchase, they go with the business they feel most familiar with. Not only will building brand awareness help boost sales but it can also encourage repeat purchases in the future.
On average, radio is four times more cost-effective at stimulating brand browsing online than any other media combined. With the airwaves proving to have an immediate effect on online browsing, it is said that 58% of all browsing stimulated by radio takes place within 24 hours of exposure to advertising.
Radio and digital ads help expand the reach of your business
Radio allows your business to reach an audience almost anywhere in the world. Similarly, the internet can deliver your advertising to anyone who is online. It is estimated that the internet currently has 4.66 billion users across the world with 65.3 million users in the UK alone. Working together, the two hugely popular platforms can help your business expand its reach and interact with new customers that you wouldn’t usually access.
Expanding your reach makes it easy to build your brand recognition. You get your name and service in-front of a new audience and a growing number of potential customers, which in turn can improve your market share.
Combining digital and radio advertising will increase advertising frequency
When combining both radio and digital advertising you will naturally boost the frequency with which your target demographic will encounter your advert. To build brand trust and recognition, people will need to see or hear your ad multiple times, it has been said that the brain needs to be exposed to messaging between three and thirteen times before it will inspire action. Once an audience starts to resonate with a brand, leads and ROI will naturally begin to rise.
You can strengthen a brand by combining digital and radio advertising
Using digital and radio advertising together gives your business the perfect opportunity to show off your brand on a whole host of platforms.
Strong, consistent messaging across multiple platforms such as radio, social media, paid ads and Google, will strengthen your brand, and make it easier for potential customers to make the connection between the ads. This will then increase brand recognition and increase a consumer’s level of familiarity with your business. However, if your branding is not done well, it could potentially be harmful as it may hinder the trust existing customers have in your business.
Want to find out more about what makes a great ad campaign, take a look at our short guide.
Digital and radio ads both use targeted advertising to help reach consumers
Both digital and radio advertising is the perfect way to reach people when they are at their point of purchase. Targeting an audience is the most important aspect of your campaign, you would not advertise life insurance to Generation Z and ‘hope for the best, it is important to get your targeting right and when advertising is planned correctly it can be a very powerful communication tool.
Another good example is situational advertising, radio ads can reach people in the car when they get ready to go to the supermarket, whilst digital ads can speak to consumers online before they visit a website.
This method of advertising is brilliant for increasing revenue as you pique interest in the minds of customers just as they prepare to act. It is almost that final chance to remind them why they should choose your business over others, increasing sales and ultimately ROI because of your marketing mix.
Ultimately, radio and online are a very potent mix and can achieve results far higher than some of it's media counterparts. Whether you would prefer more radio over paid ads, or organic social over on-air branded content, our in-house digital team can find the right balance for your business. Get started here.
What are the benefits of combining radio and outdoor advertising?
When combined, radio and outdoors can be hugely influential media pairing. The two media sharing many characteristics – both are generally consumed whilst doing other activities and can reach people in a variety of specific mindsets in and out of the home.
Whilst driving radio can contextually provide the brand voice to the brand image displayed on outdoor advertising, completing the full, immersive marketing experience. In this section we will investigate the benefits of combining the airwaves with OOH.
Radio and outdoor ads occur naturally and do not interrupt consumers
Radio and out-of-home (OOH) advertising work so well together as they are not an intrusive form of marketing. Unlike digital marketing methods such as display ads or video, OOH and radio adverts appear spontaneously without interrupting the activity that you are doing.
Both methods of marketing are omnipresent in our lives, organically integrated within our everyday movements, therefore not bothering consumers. So, if you ever wanted to immerse your target demographic, the mix of radio and out-of-home is the perfect way to blend your messaging and make your advertising seem subtle to the audience.
Radio and outdoor ads use economical pricing and targeted strategies to reach consumers
Compared to the likes of television or digital advertising, radio and outdoor marketing is well-known for its fair pricing, which considering the size of its potential reach, is highly competitive.
Radio is famed for its ability to target a certain demographic or marketing segment. This is generally down to the station that a brand selects. Adverts on the airwaves are also generally targeted around certain times of day, for example, an advert around a ‘back to school sale’ would be targeted between 8am and 9am when people are more likely to be doing the school run.
Alternatively, an OOH advertisement such as a billboard can be perfect for local advertising – if you own a local hotel or café, simple place the ad close to your business and customers will be able to find you in that perfect moment!
Read our short guide on reaching your audience in the moment to find out more on how seamless targeting can maximise a campaign.
Radio and outdoor ads appeal to your consumer’s core senses – improving awareness
By integrating radio and outdoor marketing campaigns, you will be appealing to your audience’s most crucial senses – sight and hearing. By combining the two, your brand will maximise their mutual efforts and improve awareness for a brand/business.
When it comes to radio advertising, it is important to make the ad memorable. Catchy songs or phrases often make an advert stand out, however if you are unsure on how to make your message standout, Mind Field‘s fantastic team of creatives have produced hundreds of impressive ads and can help your business cut through the noise.
Out-of-home adverts such as print and digital billboards use punchy visual elements such as bold imagery and colours that are proven to have strong effects on a consumer’s habits. By combining both, at a particular time of day will appeal to both a buyer’s senses and wallets.
Radio and outdoor ads are famed for their simple and actionable format
A memorable advert lies in simplicity – radio and outdoor adverts are the perfect evidence of that. Using short formats – textual or visual – allows for these types of advertisement to be rather simple, containing only the most important information.
Due to the ‘to the point’ nature of these ads, they often contain a very strong and straightforward call to action, that is easily available to the audience of a first hear/glance. This sits perfectly with the short attention span of adults when they are taking part in another activity.
Strengthen the reach of your brand by combining radio and outdoor advertising
Out of home advertising reaches 98% of the UK population at least once a week. The ads can reach a huge audience ranging from drivers, shoppers, commuters, parents, teenagers, and grandparents (we will not list everyone, but you get the gist!). Combine this with the 90% of UK adults that are listening to radio from home and work, and the two methods become the ultimate marketing power couple, basically covering a whole population.
To wrap up, integrating radio and out-of-home advertising is a cost-effective marketing mix that brings a huge number of benefits to businesses. Not only does the method enable increased brand awareness but can increase recognition amongst prospective clients.
To maximise the reach of your marketing further, adding digital marketing to the same campaign will allow your business to be present throughout all stages of a customer’s purchase process.
Would your brand like to cut through the noise? Our team can help create the perfect mix of OOH and radio for advertising for your brand. Find out more here.
What are the benefits of combining radio and television advertising?
Radio and television are two of the most widely consumed media methods across the UK and account for a huge share of the average consumer’s media day. Combined, radio is often used to broaden the impact of a television campaign and can exploit strong audio brand cures to readily trigger visual recall on the visual aspects of a TV ad. Consumers who came across both the TV and radio ad for a brand had a 35% higher ad recall than those who only saw it on television.
In this part of the blog, we look at the benefits of combining both radio advertising and television and how it could work for your brand.
Combining radio and television advertising will boost brand awareness
According to Radiocentre’s recent study, adding radio to a TV campaign has a 15% multiplier effect. If 10% of a given TV budget is alternatively used on radio, the efficiency in building awareness increases on average by 15%.
With TV and radio often consumed at different times of the day, (for example, you cannot consume television when driving), your branding can be across several touchpoints throughout the day. Not only can these be targeted by demographic but can be targeted to the activity you are doing at that moment in time.
Using radio and TV ads together will massively expand advertising reach
According to the Broadcasters Audience Research Board, 94% of UK households have a ‘licensable’ television set, equating to around 64 million people. Couple this with radio, which reaches over 88% of the UK population, your messaging will be at the forefront of the consumer’s mind often.
Expanding your reach helps build brand recognition through several touchpoints. Your business will be in-front of millions of new consumers, in-turn helping you grow the number of potential customers, and eventually ROI.
Strengthen your brand by using radio and TV advertising at the same time
By simultaneously advertising across both of these huge platforms, it would be very difficult for a consumer to forget your brand. Couple this with strong creative and branding, the familiarity of your brand will skyrocket.
Strong and consistent messaging across both television and radio will make it easier for potential customers to make the connection between ads, placing the brand at the forefront of their minds. However, if branding is not done well, it could potentially harm your brand and maybe hinder the trust of your current customer base.
Television and radio give you a huge set of demographics to choose from
Both radio and television are known for their ability to target a certain demographic. Both media sources have hundreds if not thousands of options when it comes to targeting. Whether you want to get your product in-front of the masses on prime-time shows with your family restaurant or target Manchester mums on the 3am feed with Smooth Radio North West, there is always an option catered towards your business.
Communicorp UK is home to some of the biggest radio brands in the UK including Capital, Smooth, Heart and XS Manchester. Take a look at our short guide on radio targeting to help you find the right station for your business.
What are the benefits of combining radio and cinema advertising?
Although radio and cinema seem very different at first glance, their strengths are very complementary. Both mediums have the lowest levels of active ad avoidance of any media and both also exert strong emotional influence over their audiences. Whilst cinema mostly delivers irregular but hugely powerful messaging to smaller but highly valuable and targeted audiences, radio plays a role as a broadcast “high outreach” medium, able to improve advertising effectiveness and build mental availability by reaching people across a range of occasions and locations.
What are the benefits of combining radio and print advertising?
Radio and newspapers complement each other in several ways. By working together, radio can play a role as an ‘outreach’ medium, creating a presence for a brand, whilst newspapers can consolidate the fact by providing further details on the business or offer.
Due to the linear qualities of radio, messages can be timed perfectly to reach people when they are likely to have the greatest impact. It has been proven that radio can be an effective driver of awareness when used alongside newspapers and magazines.
Again, as with most media mixes, radio advertising can be aligned with the correlating ad in the morning newspaper. Not only will this create brand recognition but instil trust in a consumer due to the established nature of radio and print.
Think your business is right for radio, but a little unsure where to start? Take a look at our mini site to guide you through the process. Have a question? Just give our team a shout here.