With pharmaceuticals now network radio's top ad category – with spend up 59% from 2018, from $95 million to $151 million, according to Miller Kaplan – there are plenty of good reasons for brands stuck on TV to move some of that money to AM/FM radio to recapture lost audience, as Procter & Gamble, Pfizer and others have done.
As Westwood One's weekly blog points out, research leads the way with data giving the medium the credit it's due. “Marketers no longer have to be concerned about the perceived inequities of audio creative,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says, citing the results of ABX's study of nearly 3,000 pharma ads across all media showing AM/FM radio to be 94% as effective as TV at one-fourth the CPM. “They've also proven that [the] audio ad has the same disclaimer as the TV ad, [which] is not as bad a listening experience as one would think.”
The blog's analyses of optimization models showing AM/FM's impact when added to, or boosted in, an ad campaign prove ABX President Gary Getto's assertion that “moving some TV funds to AM/FM radio produces significantly higher reach.”
Case in point: Novartis' psoriasis biologic Cosentyx, one of the few such brands including a celebrity endorsement with Cyndi Lauper's “five years clear” claim. Using media planning platform Nielsen Media Impact to move 20% of Cosentyx's November 2022 TV spend of $3.4 million to AM/FM radio – where none of its ad budget currently goes – reach of its 35-54 target moves from 39.5% to 61.1%, for an increase of 55%. Putting some of that money on classic hits stations, where Lauper rules with her 1984 smash “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” would appear to be a no-brainer.
The reallocation to AM/FM not only significantly ups Cosentyx's 35-64 reach, but positively impacts every demographic, with a greater lift the younger the age cell. “Every TV buy looks like this: extraordinary reach over the age of 65, [and] as you get younger, reach drops off sharply,” Bouvard says. “Look at 35-44, less than a 25 reach, so 75% of Americans 35-44 will never see this TV campaign. Radio to the rescue: 35-44 sees its reach double, [and] 45-54 with the addition of network radio sees a 56% increase in reach.”
The 20% shift also results in a 152% lift in Cosentyx’s light TV viewer reach, moving from 16.8% to 42.4%. “This is how radio makes your TV better,” Bouvard says. “It gives you significant incremental reach among folks under the age of 60 and light TV viewers.”
The blog also shows how, when Cumulus Media/Westwood One commissioned healthcare marketer Swoop to develop with Nielsen data-driven targeting for AM/FM radio campaigns for the digestion ailment segment, campaigns show a potential reach of 82.3% of the segment listening for more than an hour a day.
Format-wise, Urban AC, news/talk and sports show larger shares among this segment vs. pharma overall, and a comparison of the segment's AM/FM format listening shares vs. Media Monitors' share of impressions show where to increase or decrease by-format spend to optimize the buy. “This allows you to understand for future buys, which programming formats to dial up or dial down,” Bouvard says. “In this case, you would need maybe a little bit less impressions from adult contemporary, and more impressions from alternative rock, classic rock, oldies and classic hits.”
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