Radio can generate advertising awareness over and above television and
it can be as effective at driving additional awareness when only
‘minimum’ TV is used.
These are some of the findings from a Millward Brown radio effectiveness
study commissioned by Initiative Media on behalf of its client,
Unilever.
The objective was to measure whether the effect of radio ads could be
observed across a number of unnamed researched brands.
Last year, Unilever decided to assess the effect of radio advertising in
the absence of any regional ITV support in the North-west and Scotland.
Only Channel 4, GMTV and satellite TV campaigns ran in the region, while
ITV was used to support brands in the South and South-east region, as
well as Channel 4, GMTV and satellite.
Millward Brown was then asked to conduct a radio advertising monitor to
assess the effects of the radio support over a 16-week period.
Continuous awareness tracking was conducted in three main areas:
Scotland and the North-west as ‘test’ regions, where radio was used, and
the South and South-east as the ‘control’ region.
The research not only measured the effect of radio, it also addressed
brand-specific issues such as whether ‘daytime’ radio could be effective
as ‘all-time’ and the effect of different patterns of activity.
Other conclusions were that radio effectiveness is clearly measurable
and that the initial use of 30-second radio ads can generate awareness
more quickly than a mix of 30-second and ten-second spots.
The study found that ‘daytime’ ads could generate greater radio
advertising awareness than ‘all-time’ for particular products.
