How Brands Win With Audio Through Authentic Messaging.

What do a local attorney, a home improvement leader, and a direct-to-consumer expert have in common? All three have benefited from audio advertising, whether via AM/FM or podcasts, and all give a detailed account of their campaigns' success during an Audacy Insights webinar.

“The power of radio is the talent that makes a difference in somebody's life in some way, shape or form,” ROI360+ The Radio Experts founder Gary Sarner says on behalf of the agency's personal injury law firm client Shulman & Hill. “[With radio] you get to be so authentic with the messaging that you want the public to know about, and why your business matters.”

For Sarner and his clients, key to that authenticity is being part of the community. “No other medium does [this] better than radio,” he says. “We try to touch local communities and say, we're here, we're with you. When radio stations do an event, we want to be a part of that event. We want to be in the community, always.”

Also important is using radio to build the brand. “Marketing campaigns are not built in weeks or months, they are built over years,” Sarner says. “If you don't stand out from your radio advertising, why would somebody choose you? You have told your story for months, for years, and people resonate with you.”

With many competitive law firms, Sarner runs 10 different types of radio commercial using various lengths. “It is all about frequency,” he says. “There are so many more choices today, so you need to be everywhere you can be, and on the air as often as possible, because people are not spending six hours listening to their favorite radio station any longer. My goal on any campaign is to out-share every other law firm on the radio in that market.”

Another believer in radio is Kris Santin, VP of Sales and Marketing at Ohio-based Choice Cabinet, who moved his business away from pricey TV and print campaigns, where results were not trackable, to radio, specifically to live reads from Audacy sports “92.3 The Fan” WKRK Cleveland midday host Andy Baskins. “Within two weeks of launching our campaign on The Fan, people were walking into our showroom saying they’d never heard of us before, but now they had because of the radio,” Santin says. “That was our first sign it was working.”

Sales in Choice Cabinet's showroom increased more than 30%, according to Santin, resulting in the company expanding its radio strategy into Pittsburgh, with Detroit next in line. “A bad month used to mean 50 or 60 leads. Now we’re seeing 20,000 strong leads,” he says.

For digital picture frame brand Aura Frames, hosts such as those on the comedy podcast “Are You Garbage?” were perfect for explaining and personally endorsing the product. “They can sell it so much better than a three-second ad on Facebook or something like that,” VP/GM of DTC Kait Karadimas says. “They know the value because it's brought value to their own lives. So podcasts really work for us because it just takes a little bit to explain the value of Aura Frames, and you kind of need to live with it to effectively sell it. The hosts that we've partnered with do an absolutely amazing job of that for us.”

Nearly half of Aura’s podcast budget is dedicated to testing new shows, which involves listening to past episodes, analyzing audience demographics, and reviewing other advertisers on the show before committing ad dollars. “Podcast is really an art and a science,” Karadimas says.

Performance is tracked via digital tools and post-checkout surveys, where customers not only cite podcasts as their first exposure but often name specific shows and offer enthusiastic feedback. “People who love podcasts are really loyal to their hosts,” Karadimas says.

One thing all three of these advertisers agree on: audio advertising success doesn't happen overnight.

“Have patience,” Karadimas says. “If you’re willing to hold on and build presence, good things come.”