Procter & Gamble held steady as the No. 1 parent company radio advertiser in the first half of 2022, according to fresh data from Media Monitors. The consumer-packaged goods giant aired 3.55 million spots on U.S. broadcast radio from January through June, after commandeering the top parent company berth in full-year 2021 with a whopping 9.10 million spot occurrences.
Last year saw a major boost in P&G’s investment in radio as it rose from No. 2 in 2020 when it aired 5.86 million spots.
P&G, which regained the distinction as the world’s largest advertiser in 2021, per AdAge, spent $11.5 billion on worldwide marketing in the fiscal year ending 2021.
The Cincinnati-based company has slowly increased the number of brands using radio to increase their incremental reach. According to Nielsen Media Impact, the average P&G brand experiences a 36% lift in TV reach due to the addition of AM/FM radio.
Because it makes products most people use every day, like toothpaste, toilet paper and dish detergent, P&G needs to reach as many Americans each week as possible. It uses a multimedia mix that includes broad reach media to do that.
In the first six months of the year, it used radio to market cleaning products brand Swiffer, dish detergents Dawn and Cascade, cold remedy Vicks, household cleaning product Mr. Clean, Bounty paper towels, toothpaste Crest, laundry soap Tide, skin care brand Olay, sleep medicine ZzzQuil, heartburn medication Prilosec and nutritional supplement Metamucil, among others. It also took to the airwaves to introduce the pest control brand Zevo this year.
Uncle Sam Needs Radio
As with full-year 2021, the U.S. Government was the second largest top parent company advertiser on U.S. radio in first half 2022 with 1.99 million spot airings. Last year it racked up 5.37 million occurrences, after topping the parent company list in 2020 and 2019. Like P&G, the federal government divvied up its ad dollars across a range of agencies and branches, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Centers For Disease Control & Prevention, U.S. Postal Service, Department of Health & Human Services, Army National Guard, and the Department Of Veterans Affairs.
Ranked third is Indeed Inc., which allocated all of its 1.67 million spots to its namesake online employment recruiting service. Indeed, which ranks as radio’s top individual account of first half 2022, is followed by Progressive Casualty Insurance Co., the fourth largest parent company with 1.26 million ads for its insurance brand. Ranked fifth among parent companies is live events giant Live Nation Worldwide which aired 1.25 million spots for various concerts and events, including the iHeart Country Festival, iHeartRadio Wango Tango and the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Upside Services, Inc. (1.14 million), ZipRecruiter, Inc. (934,718) and Babbel GmbH (931,322) follow at sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively for their namesake services. Telecom giant Comcast Corp. ranked ninth with 783,708 spots spread across its Xfinity Int-Wireless, Xfinity Internet and Comcast Business services. TracFone Wireless rounds out the top 10 with 718,803 spots for its Straight Talk and other no-contract wireless services.