Spot Advertising

Nick Hewat, sales director at Virgin Radio, discusses the importance of spot advertising in the medium of radio and its ability to reach the who, the when and the where…

Spot advertising accounts for nearly 80% of radio revenues. Branded content (S&P in old money) accounts for 20%. Yet, given the attention levels and seeming importance that one has over the other, you could be forgiven if you thought those numbers were reversed. Spot advertising is the mainstay of our business; it has proven to be valuable to advertisers in study after study, and continues to offer our customers advantages over other mediums.

For example, Sue Unerman, chief strategy officer at MediaCom, is quoted as saying: “I’m a big believer of sending messages out to listeners at the right moment, when they’re in the right mood to receive them”. Whilst she is not referring specifically to radio advertising, Sue offers a simple explanation of the targeting that radio can offer advertisers.

Radio has always been sold as part of multi-media campaigns, communicating a message in partnership with other forms of media. Yet with concepts such as “modal targeting” concentrating on listener locality, activity and mood, spot advertising can reach not only the ‘who’, but the ‘when’ and the ‘where’.

Radio is in the unique position that its audience consumes it whilst doing other things. This means that creativity within spot advertising is vital if you are going to convert a consumer from hearing to actively listening. What makes me optimistic about the future of spot advertising is my belief that there is still so much more to come from the creative community involved in writing radio ads. I’ve just listened to the Radio Advertising Hall of Fame CD from 2005, and there’s no doubt that the best of radio creative is magical.

The RAB has launched a project that will, amongst other things, try and more objectively evaluate the creative on the effectiveness of the campaign, and I’m really enthused about the positive implications that this project will have on the health of radio advertising.

Time and again (and we should never stop proving it), radio advertising has been proven to add sales or awareness to campaigns. From the sales and media multiplier studies from the RAB to individual case histories and anecdotes, we know that the medium works.

We also know that spot advertising lends itself to integration with other radio advertising, such as sponsorship and promotions. This integration can be particularly powerful if listeners have the opportunity to interact with a brand within a lively promotion – listen to Christian O’Connell for good examples of this – and then are reminded of the brand again during regular spot ads throughout the day. This can also drive direct response – listeners hear the advert on the radio whilst they’re at work and then type the brand or product into the big empty Google box in front of them.

Radio spot advertising however, doesn’t necessarily need to be a multi-faceted campaign. We, and other sales points, offer solo spot opportunities every hour. We know that they are only an implementational execution of a strategy, and not a strategy in itself, but the benefit lies in being a cost-effective means for advertisers to use radio to reach a national audience. And with a growing internet listener base, advertisers running solo spots could also find it worthwhile running a banner ad on a website, which will increase their reach at lower incremental cost. As for innovation, some stations are offering “live reads”, spots voiced by the DJ, with all the editorial endorsement that will bring.

So what does the future hold for radio spot advertising in this ever-evolving media landscape? The accepted wisdom is that listeners are increasingly intolerant of “mass advertising” and will only accept messages targeted at them. In addition, lengthy ad breaks are a turn-off – listeners will use better technology to flick between stations. It’s interesting to note, therefore, the research from Arbitron that has just come out of the USA. The headline? On average, 92% of the audience stay with the station across the ad breaks – in a country where six-minute ad breaks are not uncommon.

For industry watchers, it’s going to be fascinating to see how Capital, with its two-ad policy, is going to make progress against Magic, which commonly plays more spot advertising than any other station in London. In audience terms, the clear blue water currently between Magic and Capital would suggest that the number of ads played by a station isn’t the only factor when it comes to audience approval.

Going forward, my belief is that we will continue to cement spot advertising’s place on the media schedule through continuing to demonstrate its ability to intelligently target audiences, deliver value and results for advertisers and integrate with radio branded content and online as well as other media.

Listeners who tune in to commercial radio stations expect to be targeted by advertisers, a “commercial contract”, if you will. Spot advertising is an integral part of any commercial station – you cannot currently survive financially without it, so let’s get on with continuing to prove the case for the medium and the advertising opportunities it offers, and stop apologising for their existence.