Radio boosts brand browsing

Good news for our clients today as a new survey reveals that radio advertising grows brand browsing online by 52 per cent.

The RAB says more than half of brand browsing stimulated by radio takes place within 24 hours of exposure to advertising.

The Radio Advertising Bureau's biggest ever survey to quantify how offline media drives brand browsing online is the first study of its kind measuring actual browsing behaviour of respondents that have been exposed to 'live' radio campaigns.

Twenty three brand campaigns were measured in the research which reveals that when listeners are exposed to radio advertising for a specific brand, they are 52 per cent more likely to include that brand-name in their internet browsing. Not only that but it has an immediate effect on browsing – the research highlights that 58 per cent of all browsing that was identified as being stimulated by radio takes place in 24 hours of exposure to advertising.

The insight was gained by analysing the detailed internet browsing patterns of people who were exposed to a random sample of 23 ‘live’ radio campaigns and comparing them to a sample of people who were not exposed. The campaigns measured in the study represent five different produce categories: Travel; Telecomms; Motors; Insurance; High Street Retail.

The radio effect was isolated by comparing detailed internet browsing behaviour (captured from all respondents using new software developed specifically for this study) amongst people actually exposed to the radio advertising (identified amongst a wider sample of 1,200 Commercial Radio listeners by matching J-ET spot transmission data with their listening patterns) with a matched sample of 600 people who were not exposed to the radio advertising campaigns.

Simon Redican, managing director at the Radio Advertising Bureau said: “The internet has become an incredibly important interface for customer marketing but the problem is that it also allows access to all your rival’s brands which means the key challenge is to ensure that customers seek out your brand specifically – marketers are increasingly turning to offline media to direct consumers to their brands online.”

Mark Barber, planning director at the Radio Advertising Bureau: “This is the first ever study quantifying how offline media influences the actual behavior of consumers online. Previous studies have highlighted radio’s complementary characteristics with the internet but this is the first piece of insight that shows the extent to which radio advertising drives online success for brands. The findings are highly significant for brands in markets where the internet provides the crucial final stage of customer buying - radio advertising offers these brands the chance to “turbo charge” this part of the marketing process”.

Other findings from the research showed that on average the brands involved in the study allocated only 10 per cent of their total spend on media to radio, meaning that radio is highly cost-effective at stimulating brand browsing online when compared to other media. Creative execution and a straightforward URL also were identified as vital factors in optimising radio's online multiplier effect.