Using radio with newspapers - Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 - How radio advertising enhances the effect of newspapers
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Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers How radio advertising enhances the effect of newspapers
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
Contents
Introduction page 2
Summary and conclusions page 3
Functional media characteristics page 4
Emotional connection characteristics page 10
Effectiveness evidence page 16
Can the RAB help you with your advertising plans? page 21
1Introduction
There is no doubt that single-medium campaigns are very unusual these days. Everyone knows –
planners and clients alike – that there are great benefits to combining different media, commonly
known as the “multiplier effect”.
But what is known about using radio in combination with newspapers? Both are very important,
high-reach media, very distinct from each other, and yet they are not often used together.
Yet, as this booklet hopes to show, they have strongly complementary features which suggest that
they make a very powerful pairing. Some brands have already been harnessing this power, but it is
still an unusual and innovative combination.
This booklet aims to give you the basic introduction: if you would like to know more, please see the
website RAB OnLine (rab.co.uk) or contact us on 020 7306 2500.
New learnings – should we be talking?
The RAEL research indicates that when newspaper budgets are partially re-deployed into radio,
there are significant gains for advertisers in terms of impact.
There is more to be learned about the way newspapers and radio work together in the real world,
and we are keen to collaborate with brands who are using them in combination.
Does this apply to the brands you work on?
Please give us a call if you would like to pursue a conversation about working together to develop
this area.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
2Summary and conclusions
Radio and national press offer a very powerful combination – despite this, they are still an unusual
and innovative media pairing.
While they do have some strengths in common – both are very high reach media, with pronounced
habitual patterns of consumption and great planning flexibility – it is the differences which make
them so complementary.
Functional media characteristics
Radio offers: Newspapers offer:
• real-time communication • room for detail
• high frequency of impacts • “keepability”
• reaches out-of-market consumers • well-segmented editorial environments
Emotional connection characteristics
Radio seen as: Newspapers characterised by:
• personal • public
• human • stature
• “at my level” • authority
Radio is a “push” medium: Newspapers are a “pull” medium:
• all ads reach all listeners regardless • readers select according to interest or
of relevance relevance
What does this mean for advertisers?
Brands which use radio in addition to national press stand to gain significant benefits. Apart from
increasing the impact of a campaign, for example by using radio for reaching out to consumers at
certain times of day, they can also add another dimension to their communication – a more
personal, friendly connection with customers via a trusted medium which “speaks at my level”.
3Functional media characteristics
To some extent radio and newspapers have similar strengths. Both offer exceptional flexibility to
planners, with short lead times, variable copy size/length and geographical flexibility among their
most important strengths.
They are both portable and personal media too, and habitual - used on a daily basis.
They also come in national, regional and local versions (although we have focused here on national
press, because planners tend to treat this separately from the more complex localised press market).
These are also both huge media – Commercial Radio (despite robust competition from the BBC)
reaches nearly 32 million people each week, and average issue readership for the national press is
over 33 million.
But that is probably where the similarities end. This section looks at the distinctive functional
characteristics.
Radio
Radio is a “real-time” medium
People listen to the radio in real time, in other words, the time when they consume it is the time
when it is broadcast (it is very rare for programmes to be recorded for later listening, although a
small but growing number of listeners use the internet to catch up on “appointment to hear”
programmes which they have missed).
For the advertiser, this means that radio messages can be broadcast at the times of day when they
are most likely to have an effect on the consumer:
■ messages about road safety heard while driving
■ messages about food ideas heard during meal-planning times
■ messages about entertainment venues heard during “launchpad” phase (early
evenings Thursday, Friday, Saturday).
Research has shown that context-relevant messages are more likely to be noticed by consumers.
By contrast, while it is possible to make general observations about the time at which newspapers
are read, readers’ habits vary widely, and time of reading is a tricky phenomenon to measure, since
it changes from day to day.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
41 Ad recall is higher at relevant moments
Index of those recalling advertised brand
165
100
Listeners not engaged in related activity Listeners engaged in related activity
Source: Newslink
Radio has low ad avoidance
Some media suffer more from advertising avoidance behaviour as the graph below shows.
However, radio is a low avoidance medium.
This appears to be because people listen to radio as a parallel activity while they are doing
something else (e.g. driving, cooking, working). Radio listening is not their primary occupation and
so they are disinclined to change channels when the ads come on.
This is very different from behaviour with TV. It’s also very different from paper-based media, where
readers can be as selective as they wish in terms of the ads they choose to spend time with.
2 Low ad avoidance on radio
% who are Ad Avoiders by medium
68%
61%
52%
44%
16%
8%
TV Newspapers Magazines Direct Mail Radio Cinema
Source: Initiative Media
5Radio reaches “out-of-market” consumers
Because of the way radio works – elapsing in real time, and consumed in parallel to other activities
– it is very effective as an outreach medium.
This means that radio is very useful for bringing things to consumers attention even if they think
they are not particularly relevant to them. For example, a person may feel that personal finance
products are boring and irrelevant to them, and would never choose to read anything about them,
but they would listen to a commercial which addressed the subject in an interesting or engaging
way.
This is particularly relevant for advertisers in markets where there are clear barriers to engagement
(such as lack of interest in personal finance products) or where there is a long purchase cycle (for
example, holidays, where consumers only begin to actively engage with messages at certain points
in the year).
By contrast, newspaper readers tend to edit in and out as they go, and are quick to exclude or skip
over ads for brands which they think (rightly or wrongly) are irrelevant to them.
3 Reaching ‘out-of-market’ consumers
STATIC MEDIA INTRUSIVE MEDIA
(eg: press, posters) (eg: radio, TV)
IN-MARKET AUDIENCE
(ready to respond now)
WIDER AUDIENCE
(not yet ready to respond)
Intrusive media like radio go beyond the in-market audience
to create a brand impact on the wider audience Source: RAB
Radio is “the frequency medium”
Because of the way radio campaigns are generally planned and implemented, radio ads tend to
reach consumers 2-3 times more often than ads in press or TV, on average.
It’s important to note that this is “real time frequency” too – each time the campaign is heard again
(either the same or a different execution) it elapses for the full 30 seconds, rather than being
bypassed or foreshortened because the listeners feel they have heard it before.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
6This can strongly increase the listener’s sense of a brand’s presence in their lives.
4 Radio ads are on more frequently
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
31 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Press TV Radio Source: RAB
Radio offers greater “share of voice and share of mind”
Commercial Radio is a relatively young medium, first established only in 1973. This means that for
many product sectors it is still relatively under-exploited, leaving opportunities for ambitious brands
to dominate the medium.
For example, with an advertising budget of £1m a cosmetics brand can secure a 26% share of voice
in radio – far higher than in press or outdoor.
5 Share of voice that £1m buys by medium
amongst cosmetics advertisers
26%
8%
2%
1%
TV Press Outdoor Radio
Source: Nielsen Media Research Jan-Dec 2004
7But the increased share of voice on radio is particularly powerful because of the way people listen.
On average listeners spend about a third of their “media day” with radio, so any brand which
dominates the medium is likely to dominate that one-third of the media day.
So brands which use radio to secure a strong share of voice also have the opportunity to translate
this into a dominant “share of mind”.
6 Radio accounts for a third of the media day
MAGAZINES INTERNET
NEWSPAPERS 3% 4%
6%
TV
49%
RADIO
32%
DVD/VIDEO
6%
Source: Radio Days 3
Newspapers
Segmented editorial environments
National newspapers tend to be well-segmented anyway – attracting readers of a certain age or
class – but within this, further segmentation is offered by editorial context. So readers looking
through the travel section of a newspaper are far more likely to be interested in travel in the first
place, and this is clearly of benefit to advertisers in that area.
Newspapers can go into detail
Readers can spend as little or long as they like with an advertisement in a newspaper. While the
downside of this is ad avoidance, the upside is that if readers are interested in the content of an
advertisement they can spend many minutes looking at the detail. This is why press is widely used
by car dealers and electronics retailers, to show specific details of the products on offer.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
8Newspaper ads can be kept for reference
In the past, coupons used to be very important in newspaper advertising – a tangible piece of paper
allowing a link to be created between brand and consumer. These days coupons are rarer, but
people continue to tear things out of newspapers if they find them interesting or relevant –
candidate companies for car insurance, special offers for holidays etc. This “keepable” aspect of
newsprint is very different from radio messages, which arrive unannounced and disappear as soon
as they finish.
Benefit for brands
It’s clear from this analysis of the functional media characteristics of the two media
that some strong complementary features exist at this level.
While radio can play a role as the broadcast “outreach” medium, establishing
presence for a brand, newspapers can offer consolidation of that contact.
In addition, there is a useful series of overlaps between readers and listeners.
Individual stations and titles vary, but it is broadly true to say that each medium
effectively reaches the light users of the other.
Light commercial radio listeners (higher overlap among
who are reached by national press 78% older listeners)
Light national press readers who (higher overlap among
are reached by commercial radio 72% younger listeners)
Source: Rajar p/e Dec 2004
9Emotional connection characteristics
Radio and newspapers have a complementary set of strengths because they are consumed in rather
different ways and have a different status in people’s minds.
Radio is “at my level”
Listeners feel that radio is at their level – while some media can feel superior or removed, radio feels
close. In the RAB’s 2004 Media Values survey, this was one of the attitude statements in the
questionnaire, and chart 7 shows that radio was the medium that scored most strongly in this
respect.
7 This medium talks at my level
Variance of each medium from the mean score
- 0.22 Internet
Magazines 0.16
- 0.27 Local papers
National papers 0.02
TV 0.15
Radio 0.22
- 0.30 - 0.20 - 0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30
Base: All who ever consume each medium, commenting on
most consumed media brand Source: RAB Media Values Study, Dipsticks Research
Implicit in the idea of “at my level” is also a sense of identification (see chart 8). Listeners feel that
their radio station is aimed at people like themselves – whatever that means (“people like me” can
clearly imply all sorts of variations depending on who is answering the question).
By contrast, press does not have the same claim to being “at my level” or “for people like me”.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
108 This medium is for people like me
Variance of each medium from the mean score
Internet 0.07
Magazines 0.06
- 0.16 Local papers
- 0.15 National papers
TV 0.04
Radio 0.13
- 0.20 - 0.15 - 0.10 - 0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15
Base: All who ever consume each medium, commenting on
most consumed media brand Source: RAB Media Values Study, Dipsticks Research
This must be partly because newspapers use the written word, rather than the spoken word.
Everything on radio is spoken by a person, where printed words can exist in black & white in their
own right – there is often no sense of who has written them, or the effort that may have been
involved in the writing.
While this impersonal aspect of print keeps the content of newspapers at a distance, it also brings a
strength – it allows press information to be more official. The very fact that printed words can be so
impersonal allows them to be more authoritative.
This concept of relative distance is encapsulated in the media relationships map – chart 9 below.
9 Media relationships map
Bigger than me
TV
Posters
National
papers
Magazines
Radio
Me
Further from me
Source: RAB
11Radio’s role as “a friend”
The friendly relationship which exists between radio listener and station (and presenters on that
station) is extraordinary. Listeners feel the friendship very strongly, and this becomes very apparent
when a friend is lost – as in the case of the late John Peel, where so many listeners felt they had lost
a “personal friend”. (It is interesting to compare the rather different reaction to the death of the
late Linda Lee Potter, who had been touching people’s lives through the Daily Mail for many years –
there was not the same sense of the population feeling she was their personal friend).
As chart 10 shows, this sense of radio being a friend is one of its strongest distinguishing features.
10 This medium is like a friend
Variance of each medium from the mean score
- 0.37 Internet
Magazines 0.22
Local papers - 0.14
National papers - 0.23
TV 0.06
Radio 0.47
- 0.60 - 0.40 - 0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60
Base: All who ever consume each medium, commenting on
most consumed media brand Source: RAB Media Values Study, Dipsticks Research
It also leads to a situation where the listener feels that the station is benign in its dealings with
them.
As Chart 11 shows, radio again comes top when the question concerns the extent to which media
care about their consumers: they feel that the radio station does care about them, and this
impression is cultivated by the stations.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
1211 This medium cares about its readers / viewers / listeners
Variance of each medium from the mean score
- 0.36 Internet
Magazines 0.14
Local papers 0.12
- 0.16 National papers
TV 0.05
Radio 0.23
- 0.40 - 0.30 - 0.20 0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30
Base: All who ever consume each medium, commenting on
most consumed media brand Source: RAB Media Values Study, Dipsticks Research
Another side to this is seen in Chart 12, concerning the level of trust in each medium. Again radio
comes top for being trusted – or more accurately, it is the medium where people feel less distrustful
about the things that are said.
12 Radio is a more trusted medium
“I don’t really trust what they say (in medium)“
40% 36%
60%
33%
34%
30%
25% 29%
9%
TV Papers Radio
■ Agree ■ Neither / Don’t know ■ Disagree Source: Radio Days 2
13Radio as push-medium, newspapers as pull-medium
The internet has crystallised the concept of pull-media and push-media. Pull-media are those where
the user can select only those parts of the content which interest them, while ignoring other parts.
Push-media are those which push content towards the user, who then finds ways to edit the
content when it arrives.
Many media are a mixture of both, but radio is definitely much more a push-medium and
newspapers definitely much more a pull-medium.
This puts them at different ends of a spectrum, and makes them strongly complementary.
So, for a statement like “This medium helps me feel connected to the outside world” – Chart 13 -
radio and national press may score similarly, but the nature of that connection is very different.
13 This medium helps me feel connected to the outside world
Variance of each medium from the mean score
- 0.20 Internet
- 0.18 Magazines
Local papers - 0.04
National papers 0.10
TV 0.12
Radio 0.18
- 0.30 - 0.20 - 0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20
Base: All who ever consume each medium, commenting on
most consumed media brand Source: RAB Media Values Study, Dipsticks Research
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
14Benefit for brands
It’s clear that in terms of creating emotional connections, newspapers and radio speak
a rather different language.
This is useful for brands who want to engage consumers on different levels.
Where newspapers score highly in terms of authority and stature, radio’s
communication is seen as personal, human and “at my level”.
The pull/push aspect of the combination also allows brands to have appropriate
conversations with customers depending on their level of interest and/or involvement
with the brand.
15Effectiveness evidence
Radio and press, despite their clearly complementary nature, are not a common media
combination, and one result is that little research has been done into their joint effectiveness. This
section summarises the work which has been conducted and released into the public domain.
The benefits of adding radio to newspapers (RAEL)
This is a 2004 study by the US Radio Advertising Effectiveness Lab (RAEL). It shows how advertising
effects can be increased by substituting radio into newspaper campaigns (i.e. greater effects for
approximately the same cost). The test is lab-based rather than real world, but the methodology
seeks to replicate normal exposure - for example, respondents were watching a video about road
signs when the radio ads were played to them.
Summary
The study demonstrates that by partially substituting newspaper exposures with radio exposures,
advertisers can achieve the following benefits over newspaper exposures alone:
■ Unaided and prompted brand awareness increases dramatically
■ Consumers are able to provide much better message playback
■ People are more likely to choose the advertised brand as their first-choice
Introduction
The RAEL study was a lab test that set out to explore the incremental effects, against a variety of
different metrics, of replacing TV and newspaper exposures with radio exposures.
The research was carried out using central-facility distraction methods for testing advertising
impact. In English, this meant that the respondents were unknowingly exposed to the advertising in
an attempt to replicate the distracted exposure to advertising in the real world.
In the case of radio, respondents were asked to view a video taken during a “test drive” in a car,
and requested to look for certain specified road signs. Respondents were given a choice of three
simulated “radio stations” to listen to with the test ads embedded in the audio.
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
16In terms of newspapers, respondents were asked to read through a current copy of an appropriate
newspaper (with the test ads placed in it) in order to comment on its editorial content. It is
important to note that respondents were asked to examine each page of each section of the
newspaper.
In both cases, measures were taken both before and after exposure.
The test campaigns
To create this test, RAEL used a series of real, recent ad campaigns that had used both media, using
similar themes. Five campaigns were deemed appropriate for the test taken from a range of
product categories:
■ A fast food chain
■ An OTC allergy medicine
■ A car brand
■ A mobile phone service
■ A credit card brand
Evaluating different media mixes
The Newspaper only group received two forced exposures to each of two of the test newspaper
ads (they also participated in a radio session but that session contained no test ads).
The Newspaper and Radio group received one forced exposure to each of two of the test
newspaper ads, and two forced exposures to the matching radio ads.
Thus, RAEL were able to contrast the effects of two newspaper exposures compared with one
newspaper exposure in combination with two radio exposures.
The decision was taken to replace one newspaper exposure with two radio exposures as it was
decided that this was the best simulation of moving ad budgets that could be achieved in a lab
setting, given the lower relative costs of radio ads.
17Brand name recall
On an unaided basis, the group exposed to radio generated almost three times the unaided brand
recall compared to the group exposed to newspapers only.
14 Unaided brand name recall
Q: Please tell me all of the names of brands of products that you can remember being
advertised either in the newspaper or during the drive
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
70%
30%
20%
10%
25%
0%
Newspapers only Newspapers + radio
Base: c. 100 respondents per group Source: RAEL - The benefits of synergy
Even with prompting, the group exposed to radio in addition to newspapers showed over double
the recall of those exposed to newspapers alone.
15 Total brand name recall
Q: Here is a list of brand names. Some of these were advertised in the newspaper you
read or during the simulated drive, while others were not. Apart from the ones you
previously mentioned, which ones do you definitely remember seeing or hearing?
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40% 79%
30%
20% 39%
10%
0%
Newspapers only Newspapers + radio
Base: c. 100 respondents per group Source: RAEL - The benefits of synergy
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
18Communication playback
With an open-ended question, the respondents were asked to recall what the ads were trying to
say overall in their own words. The answers were then assessed on a simple right-or-wrong
measure (clearly involving a degree of judgement by the researchers) to evaluate what proportion
of each group got the message “about right”. The results suggest that adding radio advertising to
newspapers significantly enhances the depth of communication.
16 Main message playback scores
Average newspaper + radio score indexed against average newspaper-only score
180
160
140
120
100
80 162
60
100
40
20
0
Newspapers only Newspapers + radio
Base: c. 100 respondents per group Source: RAEL - The benefits of synergy
Impulse brand selection
Both before and after the ad exposures, the respondents were presented with a booklet that
included the question “If, today, you were going to purchase a product or utilise a service in each of
the categories featured in this book, which would be your first choice in each category?” This
enabled measurement of any brand preference shifts that could be directly attributable to the
forced ad exposures. The results showed pronounced shifts in brand preference as a result of
moving exposures into radio.
17 Impulse brand selection
Q: If, today, you were going to purchase a product or utilise a service in each of the
categories featured in this book, which would be your first choice in each category? If
this was unavailable, what would be your second choice?
7%
6%
5%
4%
3% 6%
2%
1%
0%
-1%
-1%
-2%
Newspapers only Newspapers + radio
Base: c. 100 respondents per group Source: RAEL - The benefits of synergy
19Career Development Loans – a landmark case study
This case study was conducted in the 1990s, and was designed to answer the question “what
happens to response when radio is added to press?”
Career Development Loans were being advertised on inserts in national press, and radio was added
to the schedule in the hope that response would improve. Both awareness and response were
measured in three different areas:
■ area with no radio – inserts only
■ radio area – listeners
■ radio area – non-listeners
Response levels did improve, by a very significant 60%, in the radio-advertised areas but –
importantly – this was not response to the radio campaign, it was response to the press inserts,
which had been boosted by the presence of radio advertising.
This test launched the concept of “indirect response” and suggests that this phenomenon is strong
in the case of a radio and print schedule.
RAB Case Study Database
Four brands have case studies which offer insights into the way radio and national press work
together.
Brand Insight
VW – Value campaign Findings suggested that while press alone was achieving
little, press with radio was most effective at raising recall
and conveying key brand messages
Nicotinell Radio spots here were timed to target “smokers
contemplating the first cigarette of the day”
BT Call Waiting service – launch Newspaper advertising did the announcement, but radio
was used to “dramatise the benefits” of this new
telephony service from BT
British Midland – business people Radio doubled the awareness-raising achievements of
national press advertising in the radio areas
For more details on these case studies please go to RAB OnLine (rab.co.uk)
Multi-media effectiveness: No 1 Using radio with newspapers
20RAB services offer
Can the RAB help you with your advertising plans?
The Radio Advertising Bureau exists to help guide national advertisers and their agencies towards
more effective use of radio advertising, and offers a selection of services to help advertisers in
achieving this goal. These include:
■ Strategic roles workshops
to help identify the best role radio can play
■ Radio creative workshops
to help optimise radio creative work
■ Research audits
examining past use of radio by your brand and rivals
■ Training courses
regular monthly courses for advertisers, media planners, account handlers
■ General consultancy
including confidential enquiry service/helpdesk
■ Online information resource – RAB OnLine (rab.co.uk)
contains just about everything in terms of radio information
■ Access to competitor radio ads
using the online Radio Ads Library
We offer all of these services free of charge to national advertisers and their agencies, with no
obligation.
So whether you're considering using radio advertising for the first time, or already using the
medium, and would like to explore how to optimise the effectiveness of your investment, do not
hesitate to contact the RAB:
RAB OnLine (rab.co.uk)
T: 020 7306 2500
E: info@rab.co.uk
Radio Advertising Bureau
The Radiocentre
77 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 5DU
21Using radio with newspapers
Radio and national press offer a very powerful combination – because their differences make
them complementary.
Functional media characteristics
Radio offers: Newspapers offer:
• real-time communication • room for detail
• high frequency of impacts • “keepability”
• reaches out-of-market consumers • well-segmented editorial environments
Emotional connection characteristics
Radio seen as: Newspapers characterised by:
• personal • public
• human • stature
• “at my level” • authority
Radio is a “push” medium: Newspapers are a “pull” medium:
• all ads reach all listeners regardless • readers select according to interest or
of relevance relevance
The RAB exists to guide national advertisers and their agencies towards effective advertising on
Commercial Radio. The RAB is funded by the Commercial Radio industry and is impartial within the
medium. To find out more go to RAB OnLine (rab.co.uk) or call 020 7306 2500You can also read
