Radio is showing increased interest among brand marketers and ad agencies as they look to make human connections with consumers during the ongoing global health crisis. This is based on new B2B buyer intent data from Bombora, which analyzed content interest spikes among MediaPost 500 brand domains.
Intent data is data collected about business web users’ observed behavior – specifically web content consumption – that provides insights into their interests and from this indicates potential intent to take an action.
Bombora's latest data, as reported by MediaPost, shows radio is one of three topics where search intent has surged among brands and agencies. “[Radio] has been at the forefront of generating COVID-related messaging in recent months,” writes Michael McLaren, CEO at performance marketing agency Merkle B2B Group, in a MediaPost op-ed column devoted to analyzing Bombora intent data. “Studies have shown the effectiveness of radio ads that highlight the human connection in the current state of betweenness, which have attracted the interest of advertisers and led many to rework their ad creative to reflect the new post-pandemic American.” This, he adds, illustrates the power of radio during difficult times and how advertisers can become authority figures during a time of crisis.
Increased interest in radio among advertisers to make human connections with consumers isn’t all that surprising when you consider how media buyers frequently point to the relationships radio personalities have with their audiences as one of the biggest attractions to the medium. Endorsement ads, or influencer marketing as it’s now called, has been growing in popularity as evidenced by even a cursory listen to almost any station, especially spoken word outlets.
The other two topics showing brand interest spikes are “digital disruption” and “lead-to-account matching.”“Digital disruption has been climbing among brands since early May as disruption to global supply chains continue to impact every industry in every region,” McLaren writes.“This trend shows no sign of slowing and we should expect more disruption, as static sectors are turned on their heads.” Lead-to-account matching provides visibility into sales and marketing engagements with all parties at the account level.