Author: Pat Walsh, President & Chief Operating Officer, Emmis Communications
When the team at Emmis sits down to talk about what sets radio apart for our advertising clients, the discussion always leads back to the power of connection. Radio’s connection is an intensely personal relationship with personalities and content that has become a central part of the lives of nearly every American. The fact that this powerful connection comes in the form of an entertaining and ever expanding LOCAL content portfolio that includes broadcast audio content, events that excite and engage, and digital content that combines the power of audio, video and social, makes radio a truly special partner to the advertising community. Delivering on this intimate and connected local relationship makes radio a trusted friend in just about every American’s daily life. This type of relationship is what enables radio to continue to reach and resonate in the lives of 93% of Americans but it’s the trusted partnership radio has with its vast audience that feels special at this time of year.
I began to write this short commentary on Valentine’s Day, a time to remember the power and value of our most important relationships. One of the most important things a loving, connected relationship provides is an ability to lift up our significant other and support their goals and success. There are lots of reasons radio is a Valentine of sorts for our key agency and brand partners. Radio’s vast reach, largest of any medium, coupled with an intimate connection allows us to amplify the impact of everything our brand partners try to accomplish. In a series of studies over the past few years by Nielsen and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, adding radio to a print, video, digital or an outdoor campaign has a dramatic impact on campaign awareness, increasing recall anywhere from 40% to 250% When you combine the right two people you make Valentine’s Day and every day special. In the case of radio, when marketers build campaigns that add a major component of radio to become Radio+Print, Radio+Video, Radio+Outdoor, and/or Radio+Digital, the impact is more meaningful and lasting for marketers. Just like the right Valentine, radio as a partner can help ensure marketers’ campaign goals are met.
Like a perfect Valentine, radio can also create a lasting impact for our agency and brand partners. The Radio Advertising Bureau conducted research last year with Sequent Partners demonstrating that radio campaigns produced a nearly 30% incremental lift in brand search activities. Similar to a perfect romance, radio delivers long-lasting impact that drives results for advertisers in terms of research, discovery and trial.
Having the right Valentine romance can have a profound impact on improving the quality of our lives. Radio offers its agency and brand partners an opportunity to partner in a way that, when combined with all other elements of your multi-media campaign, can improve results. Whether it’s greater recall, discovery, search, trial or driving consumers to point of purchase, adding radio is proven to dramatically improve your results, making radio the ideal date for Valentine’s Day and all year long.