The insurance industry is one of radio’s most consistent ad categories, frequently placing numerous brands in the upper reaches of the medium’s top advertisers. It’s also one of the most proficient users of sonic branding, producing three of the top performers in Veritonic’s annual ranking of the brands with the best sonic signatures. For the week of June 14-20, two of these 2021 Audio Logo Index winners were also among radio’s highest volume advertisers.
Liberty Mutual, which tied several fast food brands for third place on the 2021 Audio Logo Index, roared back into radio’s top 10 radio advertisers based on spot volume with 35,281 occurrences, according to Media Monitors which tracks national advertising in 110 markets. State Farm, No. 2 on the Logo Index, placed No. 33 with 16,311. Yet Farmers Insurance, which topped the 2021 Audio Logo Index with a Veritonic Audio Score of 88, was a no-show on the latest Media Monitors tally.
“With some exceptions, most insurance brands seem to tick every box of best practices: they use their brand name in their audio logos, incorporate melody, and they’re very consistent in how they use their mnemonics in ads,” says Veritonic. “Moreover, going beyond logo alone, insurance brands are clearly big on the use of brand characters in their ads. That consistent combination of brand elements clearly drives recall.”
Veritonic scores audio ads run on broadcast radio, streaming and podcasts and stacks them up against other marketers in their industry to determine which are best using sound to connect with consumers.
Quick-serve restaurants have also mastered the art of sonic branding with Popeye’s, Arby’s and Red Robin each scoring an 86 on the 2021 Audio Logos Index. That put them in a five-way tie with Liberty Insurance and Ace Hardware for third place. While none of these winning QSRs made the latest spot count list, several others in the category are regular radio users, including Dairy Queen (advancing 14-7 on the latest spot count list with 33,125 spots), McDonald’s (No. 13, 27,554), Panera Bread (No. 27, 18,784), Chick-fil-A (No. 38,15,747), Wendy’s (No. 39, 15,648), Taco Bell (No. 46, 13,865), Church’s Chicken (No. 56, 11,294), Little Caesar’s (No. 77, 8,326) which ranked fifth on the Veritonic 2021 Audio Logo Index, and Dunkin (No. 83, 8,128).
In a crowded media world, Veritonic says its data shows that saying a brand name has never been more important. The big winner this year is AutoZone, which moved from using a “whistle only” version of its audio logo to a fully sung slogan, resulting in a 62% jump in its brand recognition score. The auto parts retailers placed No. 21 with 21,354 spots.
For the week of June 14-20, 2021, the top 10 on the Media Monitors tally are iHeartRadio Music Festival at 1, Progressive at 2, Indeed at 3, The Home Depot at 4, “The Ron Burgundy Podcast” at 5, Liberty Mutual Insurance at 6, Dairy Queen at 7, iHeartRadio at 8, the “Algorithm” podcast at 9 and Grainger at 10.
Comments