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Is Creative Wearout a Thing?

Contributor: Angela Jeffrey, Vice President Brand Management, ABX Advertising Benchmark Index

Is Creative Wearout a Thing … in radio? RAB recently asked ABX Advertising Benchmark Index to investigate this question and come up with a definitive answer.

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Radio Delivers Furniture Buyers

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

During the height of the pandemic, consumers found themselves not only reevaluating where they lived, but also the furniture they had in their homes. Dining rooms and kitchens became makeshift offices. Consumers quickly realized that they needed to look at their home furnishings with a different perspective.

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Radio is the Perfect Partner

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

Partnerships are important. Ask anyone who is trying to grow their business, and they will admit that along with their own hard work, the partnerships and relationships they build with both consumers and other businesses has helped their own growth and impact.

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It’s Never Too Early to Get into the Spirit of the Holiday Shopping Season

Author: Nick Arias, Research & Insights Assistant, RAB

As incredible as it may seem, the end of the 2023 calendar year is fast approaching. This means that the countdown to the holiday season is right around the corner. To many, this means the start of seasonal shopping for gifts.

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Using Radio to Drive Growth in Local Markets

Author: Tammy Greenberg, SVP/Business Development, RAB

Supporting and connecting with local communities can pay dividends for brands, studies show

The phrase “Think globally, act locally” was popularized by the environmental conservation movement in the 1970s, but it holds relevancy today for marketers looking to drive brand growth. Regardless of the size and scope of a brand, the ultimate point of purchase and consumption is often within a local community.

In a recent CMO Council report based on a survey of more than 140 marketing leaders in B2C and B2B brands, a third of respondents say 40 percent or more of their company’s revenue comes from local business partners. Yet, the report says, less than 30 percent of small businesses have fully recovered from the pandemic. The report underscores national brands’ responsibility to drive local demand to grow revenue and aid the performance of local partners.

Supporting local economies and resonating with people in local communities (i.e., keeping them informed, entertained, and connected) is a fitting definition for radio. As CMOs face pressure to reach profitable goals and are often expected to do more with less, radio can help brands drive local demand and sustainable growth in neighborhoods coast to coast.

The Local Connection

Eighty-nine percent of radio listeners believe that one of radio’s primary advantages is its local feel, and appreciation for local content among listeners is on the rise, up 33 percent over the past five years, according to the 2023 Jacobs Media Techsurvey. Couple that with Horizon Media’s finding that 72 percent of adults appreciate brands that try to get to know their local culture and community and using radio becomes an obvious path for brand marketers to drive local engagement and action.

According to a recent Katz Radio Group survey, localizing radio messaging leads to increased attention and impact among listeners. The study tested generic and localized versions of audio advertising for a retailer, insurance brand, and healthcare provider in different geographical areas. The study found that while every ad improved purchase intent, ads that incorporated local elements averaged a 24 percent lift in effectiveness.

The same is true for contextual messaging. When there is synergy between an audio ad and the content, the better the outcome up and down the purchase funnel. Reaching people at the exact right moment and place with relevance and with local nuances can move KPIs.

Arguably, part of the effectiveness of local radio can be attributed to the bond shared between radio’s local on-air influencers and their listeners. “Imagine picking up the phone and calling a friend and chatting twice a month for a few years,” Damon Amendolara, host of The DA Show for CBS Sports Radio, told Barrett Sports Media in a recent interview. “With how much we text today and how infrequent we all actually call one another, a caller to a radio show may actually have a closer bond to you than some of your friends or family. Hearing that person’s voice regularly creates a deep connection.” Brands can leverage these connections in authentic ways for more effective campaigns.

Getting Involved

Community engagement and experiential marketing can build strong connections and foster a positive brand image. Arguably, radio pioneered experiential marketing to mass audiences through live, in-market events that provide entertainment and information to local communities. And now that live, in-person events are back following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, brands can leverage the immersive experience of radio-hosted events such as music festivals, fundraisers, and block parties to build relationships, boost demand for local products and services, and, ultimately, drive growth for their local business partners.

Indeed, when brands make the most of what radio offers, the results can exceed expectations. In 2022, Nissan, in collaboration with iHeartMedia, the Black Effect Podcast Network, and popular on-air host and podcaster Charlamagne Tha God, developed a campaign to invite students from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to sign up for a groundbreaking mentorship event focused on professions in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM). The vast majority of HBCU scholars who participated in The Black Effect Podcast Network’s Thrill of Possibility Summit indicated the event met or exceeded their expectations and provided an unforgettable learning experience.

Lanae Jackson, senior manager of multicultural marketing strategy at Nissan, speaking at the 2023 ANA Advancements in Measurement Conference, said the campaign “performed better than they ever could have imagined.” The combination of efforts to promote the Nissan-sponsored event leveraged iHeartMedia and Charlamagne Tha God’s platforms, including broadcast radio, digital and social media, and podcasts, to not only drive massive lift for the auto brand, which saw a 73 percent increase in upper funnel metrics, including unaided awareness, but also worked to solidify the brand’s commitment to increase Black representation in STEAM-related careers.

Local Reach, Global Outcomes

The concept of thinking globally and acting locally brings together a brands’ global aspiration with relatable local value.

As consumers continue to seek out local businesses and prefer brands that understand the nuances of their community, brands that drive resonance within these communities and at national scale through the power of their local and national radio partners will undoubtedly achieve sustainable growth.

Set The Frequency – Trends Heard from the 2023 Radio Mercury Awards

Author: Madison Wright, Associate Producer, Radio Mercury Awards

This year’s Radio Mercury Awards, held on June 8 at SONY Hall in NYC as well as virtually, celebrated winners from across the country. Produced by RAB, it’s the only awards competition that exclusively honors creativity in radio and audio since its creation in 1992. Approximately 21,000 commercials have competed to bring home an iconic Radio Mercury Awards trophy, and the ultimate Best of Show award.

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How Radio Builds Effectiveness for RMN Campaigns

The complementary effectiveness of radio’s always-on audience and retail media networks’ deep dataset

Author: Tammy Greenberg, SVP/Business Development, RAB

The marketing industry has long leaned into results-driven marketing efforts that square up against specific goals, audiences, and strategies. Today, due in part to the current financial climate, seemingly all marketing is performance marketing, with metrics defined by cost per audiences reached, served, and, ultimately, converted.

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Be a Marketing Resource for Your Advertisers: Here’s How

Contributor: Bo Bandy, GM Digital & SVP Marketing, Marketron

Building relationships with your clients starts and ends with earning their trust. Being transparent, asking the right questions and sharing informed recommendations can make you a valuable resource. Over time you become an ally because the connection is much more than transactional. 

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Radio and Small Businesses are Perfect Partners

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

During the pandemic, while many businesses were impacted, the role that small local business within communities was magnified. Many small businesses had to pivot to survive or struggled to keep their doors open.

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Radio Listeners and Cocktail Selections

Authors: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights and Victor Texcucano, Content Coordinator, RAB

There is nothing better than a cold beer at the end of a long workday, or a few alcoholic seltzers in the backyard while grilling with family or friends – though the world of alcohol is steadily changing.  

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Radio Paves the Way for Growth

New Ways Marketers Can Deepen Their Engagement with Audiences

Author: Tammy Greenberg, SVP/Business Development, RAB

It has been proven time and again that innovation drives growth. In fact, according to Kantar BrandZ, brands that continue to innovate in difficult times and beyond grow seven times faster than competitors.

The same is true for media brands. As the media landscape continues to be disrupted, audio is innovating and providing new channels for growth, new listeners to connect with, and new creators that deliver exceptional, must-consume content. No wonder its forecast for growth is solid.

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2022 – The Year of Local

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

Businesses. Retailers. Restaurants. Community. There has been incredible focus on everything local as consumers looked around and realized the role and impact local has in their lives. After all, it is great to travel, but “there’s no place like home.”

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The Three Holidays of America Under Inflation

Contributors: Maxine Gurevich, SVP/Cultural Intelligence and Steve Grant, SVP/Human Intelligence, Horizon Media

While the National Retail Federation reports that the 2021 holiday sales grew 14.1% from 2020 to $887B, inflation’s historic high will mean a different shopping season for 2022. Our data shows that 69% of all people are concerned or very concerned with inflation’s effect on their overall finances. But like much in the contemporary U.S. landscape, inequality and division are affecting the holiday retail season – people are experiencing three entirely different holidays depending on psychological reactions to inflation.

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Why Radio Still Has the Ear of Consumers, Influencing Buying Decisions for a Variety of Advertisers

Contributor: Jenn Hoff, Digital Sales Director, Marketron

Radio continues to be a channel that engages and influences listeners across all demographics. While much has changed since its inception, radio holds strong as a medium that people trust and truly tune in to, making it a great opportunity for any advertiser.

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Raising the Volume on Radio Creative

Experts discuss what it takes to create great radio ads.

Author: Tammy Greenberg, SVP/Business Development, RAB

“The beauty of a creative field like advertising is that you are always learning,” says Mark Gross, co-founder and chief creative officer at Highdive Advertising. Gross is the real genius behind the iconic Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” campaign. “Great ideas are a team effort,” Gross says, reflecting on that campaign. “Great ideas for radio aren’t always great ideas for other [media] and you never really know when you have an award-winning idea on your hands.”

For more than 30 years, the Radio Mercury Awards, produced by the Radio Advertising Bureau, have celebrated creativity in radio with hundreds of chief creative officers from a range of agencies and brands listening, discussing, and collaborating to ultimately identify and award the best audio campaigns and radio commercials. Here, a select group of those celebrated professionals share guidance, inspiring campaigns, and best practices for raising the volume on radio creative.

How to Train Others to Create Great Audio

Creating an unforgettable ad requires creativity and a mind for solving business problems; creating unforgettable and effective radio requires a passion for the craft. “While there are things you can train people for as far as craft, there are also things that, as a writer, you need to work on yourself,” says John Fiebke, head of copy at FCB Chicago. “Becoming a great writer requires falling in love with language – and love requires obsession.”

Teaching how to create, regardless of media, is grounded in inspiration, and every creative professional interviewed for this story agrees that when it comes to radio, the first step toward finding inspiration is to listen. Erik Fahrenkopf, creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, inspires his team with examples of the smartest, funniest, and most unexpected radio campaigns he has ever heard. He encourages them to “nerd out” on spots they love and to analyze why they like them.

“Radio,” says Aldo Quevedo, CEO and creative chairman at BeautifulBeast, “is the best way to exercise the craft and push beyond visual crutches.” His advice to writers is to outline the story, turn an ordinary situation into something interesting, invent characters that are central to the story, and see where it goes.

While that process can be frustrating, if not downright scary, Wendy Mayes, creative director and writer at Plot Twist Creativity, suggests it’s just the starting point to learning how to write for audio content. “Go to work with a dozen concepts before writing a 30- or 60-second spot,” she says. “Make sure it sounds solid as an idea before filling out the spot. Then once it is written, plan on re-writing it over and over and over until every single part of it works.”

Dissecting the Best of the Best

When asked about the best radio creative he’s ever heard, Fahrenkopf from Wieden + Kennedy points to Bud Light’s Radio Mercury Award Best in Show–winning “Real American Heroes” campaign. Highdive Advertising’s Gross, who created the campaign, says what made it so special was how the writing immediately painted a picture for the listener. As soon as the announcer says “Mr. Bowling Shoe Giver Outter,” Gross says, the listener gets it.

When Josh Grossberg, executive creative director at McCann Health, was asked about the best radio creative of all time, he likened it to identifying the best dessert because there are limitless answers. However, he says it’s hard to beat the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s campaign created by Devito/Verdi. “The second it starts, you’re immediately in the world of horse racing,” he says. Instead of simply being told how exciting it can be, “[the ad] made you feel it,” Grossman adds.

Chris Smith, principal and chief creative officer of Plot Twist Creativity, points to Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man” as another iconic campaign. “The writing … made me envious,” he says. “I found myself repeating the lines all the time. To me, lines are 85 percent of what you’ve got, and it doesn’t have nearly as much weight in any other medium.”

But for Smith, it was the Motel 6 “We’ll Leave the Light On” campaign that perhaps had the most influence. “It is why I decided to do this for a living,” he says. Prior to founding Plot Twist Creativity, Smith spent 22 years at the Richards Group where he was a creative director working on the Motel 6 account. Thirty-six years later, the campaign, famously voiced by Tom Bodett, is at its core unchanged, but it’s unique and refreshed executions are still as relevant as ever.

Creating the Theater of the Mind

“Radio requires more imagination than almost any other medium. You’re trying to make other minds imagine a world that’s not actually there. With static image-based executions, it’s all there. You see what you get,” FCB Chicago’s Fiebke says. “When the mind is triggered by sound, it imagines something far more amazing than what any affordable video special effect is capable of.” This may be why radio and audio creative, with some exceptions, is often the last box to be checked by brands and their agency partners — it’s difficult to do, and there is no special visual effect to hide behind.

But Quevedo of BeautifulBeast advises brands to lean into that challenge and start with radio when developing campaign work. Dedicate time to the work and create with an understanding that the message will be consumed when people are doing other things, he says. Make it hard to ignore, he emphasizes, and all other media will fall into place.

Plot Twist Creativity’s Mayes makes a similar point to Fiebke’s and Quevedo’s: “Whether it’s radio, podcasts, in-store announcements, or a guy with a microphone and a sandwich board, it needs to be entertaining and grab the listener’s attention within seconds,” she says. “There are no visuals to rely on, so what a person hears needs to make an impact. Don’t wait for a slow build. Entertain from the beginning.”

recent neuroscience study conducted by Alter Agents for Audacy reinforces what Mayes and many of the other experts are saying: In measuring immersion, which the study defines as attention plus emotional connection, before, during, and after hearing a radio commercial with frequency over time, the study shows that the best radio commercials hook the listener from the beginning. Spots with high rates of immersion did a great job of explaining “What’s in it for the customer?” and carrying that message through to the end, the study found.

Creating a spot that builds an entire world for the reader and still drives home the brand’s key message takes a deceptively large amount of work. Editing, the experts say, is key.

“Edit mercilessly,” says Robin Fitzgerald, chief creative officer at BBDO Atlanta. “Cut lines and words, even though you hate to do it. You need to give the idea room to come to life.”

CLICK HERE FOR TIPS TO CREATE GREAT AUDIO.

Radio Works to Drive Business and Brand Growth

Author: Tammy Greenberg, SVP/Business Development, RAB

Radio can help brands and businesses grow in a number of ways. Whether the goal is to drive awareness, traffic, or sales, radio can be a key player in a brand’s media plan. In fact, according to a 2020 iHeartMedia survey, radio is the No. 1 trusted medium in the U.S., with 75 percent of respondents saying they trust radio for the information and entertainment it delivers.

Through a Radio Works series of online, members-only events, the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) has taken a deep dive into more than 18 categories of business, including healthcare, automotive, retail, and restaurants, among others. While each category is unique, one thing remains consistent across the board: radio can be an effective way to drive business and brand growth.

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We Are All Ears – Radio and Audio Trends from the 2022 Radio Mercury Awards

Author: Madison Wright, Associate Producer, Radio Mercury Awards

After two years of virtual awards events, on Thursday, June 9, radio and advertising creatives gathered at Sony Hall and others gathered virtually to celebrate the winners of the 31st annual Radio Mercury Awards. Produced by the Radio Advertising Bureau, it is the only awards competition that exclusively honors creativity in radio and audio since its creation in 1992. Approximately 20,000 commercials have competed for close to $3.6 million in prizes.

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Radio Reaches an Underserved and Wealthy Consumer Group

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

When it comes to consumer groups, most businesses focus on reaching millennials or the upcoming Generation Z. While these groups may be seen as influencers as well as future retail and services consumers, businesses may be missing an affluent and powerful consumer group – baby boomers.

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Radio Reaches the Auto Buying Market

Contributor: Casey Taylor, VP of Client Success/CivicScience

The pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to the automotive market, from used car price spikes to rising fuel costs forcing consumers to dream about electric vehicles. Has the dust started to settle, or is there still more change to come?

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Radio Can Help Jewelry Retailers Outshine Their Competition

Author: Annette Malave, SVP/Insights, RAB

Graduations have begun, as have weddings. Festivities and gatherings are in full swing. As is the case with many events like these, jewelry of some sort is given to mark the occasion.

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