Radio Ads Helps Brands Become ‘Known Before They’re Needed.’

In an unrated media market of about 175,000 people, AM/FM radio advertising is proving to be a powerful driver of brand awareness and business growth for local service companies, according to a new study conducted in Lake Charles, LA.

Across automotive repair, HVAC, and plumbing services, businesses that invested in sustained AM/FM radio campaigns emerged as the most recognizable brands in their categories, demonstrating the medium’s effectiveness at helping advertisers become “known before they’re needed.”

The findings come from a Quantilope study commissioned by the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group, which measured unaided brand awareness among Lake Charles consumers. One hundred residents were surveyed between August and October 2025 and asked to name service providers they could recall without being prompted.

The study focused on unaided awareness, a key measure of brand strength that reflects whether a business comes to mind when consumers think about a category. As marketing research consistently shows, advertising creates memories, and those memories later translate into sales.

In plumbing services, Able Plumbing recorded the strongest unaided awareness in the market. Fourteen percent of respondents named Able Plumbing when asked to recall a plumbing service, outperforming national brands such as Roto-Rooter, Lowe’s, Ace, and Home Depot. At the same time, 29% of consumers were unable to name a single plumbing brand, underscoring the opportunity for advertising to educate the market that a business exists in the first place.

HVAC services showed a similar pattern. Six percent of Lake Charles consumers named Burnworth’s AC unaided when asked to recall a heating and air conditioning firm, making it a leading local brand in the category. Notably, 25% of respondents could not name any HVAC company at all, highlighting what researchers described as a major opportunity to “expand their mind share to grow their market share.”

In automotive repair, Means Automotive led local competitors, with 10% of respondents naming the business unaided. Nearly one out of four consumers, or 23%, were unable to recall a single auto repair brand, reinforcing the role of advertising in building familiarity long before a need arises.

The Lake Charles results align with broader research on brand building and memory-based advertising. As Jon Lombardo, former Global Head of Research at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, explains, “One of the primary things people misunderstand is how advertising works. People think they just put an ad in front of you, and you immediately buy. That’s not how it works. Generally, you don’t generate any sale from an ad, what you do is generate a memory and then at some point later they consult their memory.”

Lombardo adds, “The ‘most important search engine’ is your brain. It’s your memory that got you to Google in the first place and your memory is going to pull strong brands. Strong brands are not built on clicks, but on memories.”

Industry experts say AM/FM radio excels at building those memories when advertisers follow four core principles: broad reach, high frequency, consistency, and emotionally engaging creative. Les Binet and Sarah Carter, authors of “How Not To Plan: 66 Ways To Screw It Up,” emphasize the importance of reaching as many category buyers as possible and advertising continuously, warning that “Advertising memories fade.”

Emotion-based creative also plays a central role. Marketing effectiveness expert Dale Harrison notes, “Creative effectiveness is the only growth lever marketers actually control. It’s the only variable you can improve tomorrow.”

The Lake Charles findings echo standout results seen elsewhere, including Steve’s Pest Control of Columbia, MO, which has achieved 34% unaided awareness through long-term radio use.

Ultimately, researchers say unaided awareness closely tracks market share, reinforcing the idea that “mind share equals market share.” With most consumers not actively shopping at any given moment, AM/FM radio’s ability to build future demand helps businesses remain top of mind until the moment they are needed.

In Lake Charles, Able Plumbing, Burnworth’s AC, and Means Automotive demonstrate how radio advertising can turn familiarity into sustained success.