Radio Media Meaning, Factors affecting Selection of Radio Media Decision, Advantages and Limitations

Television has often been referred to as the ideal advertising medium, and to many people it personifies the glamour and excitement of the industry. Radio, on the other hand, does not enjoy much of a respect from many advertisers. Dominated by network programming and national advertisers before the growth of TV, radio has evolved into a primarily local advertising medium.

Radio advertising sales represent the sale of airtime on local radio organizations, typically to local businesses and nonprofit organizations. This type of advertising is one of the oldest forms of business advertising. Different factors can affect radio advertising sales made to businesses, and many of these factors depend on the local market and radio station. These factors include time of advertisements, competition with other stations, types of advertisements available and cost of advertisements. Other economic factors might result in times of greater or lesser sales, just like with any other business.

Factors:

Radio Advertising Cost 1: Time and frequency

The time of day and frequency of playing your ad are important factors for radio advertising costs.

Time

A 15-second ad played during prime hours may cost the same as a 60-second ad played outside of peak periods. Keep in mind the morning and evening hours are more expensive than airtime in the middle of the day since many listeners turn on their radios during their commute.

Because the size of the radio audience changes drastically during the day, the radio rates will reflect the number of listeners you are expected to reach at any given time. For instance, during the midday, or from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there may be few employed listeners tuning in to the radio station. This situation is because many people do not listen to the radio while at work.

The best airtimes to maximize the size of your audience are from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. After this hour, people tend to switch to television time. Note that radio stations often provide their audience data when you enquire about the slot you are interested in taking.

Aside from the time slot, another factor that may cause a price surge is when there are events in your area, such as festivals or elections. Many companies or candidates may want to advertise during these times, so expect to shell out extra money during these times.

Frequency

Another factor that will affect your radio advertising costs is the frequency of playing your ad. The key to a successful ad campaign is consistency. If your target audience only hears your ad once, it may not stick in their mind. If you want to engage current and future customers, your ad should run regularly over a suitable period of time. This tip will not only lead to increased foot traffic but also improved social media statistics.

Most brands use the 21/52 strategy, which specifies that your ad should run 21 times per week throughout the year. By following this, you will have around 1,100 opportunities to connect with your audience in the span of one year.

Radio Advertising Cost 2: The Market

One of the major factors that can affect your radio advertising costs is the radio market size of your preferred station. This consideration covers the surrounding area and communities, as well as the households and listeners that tune in to a particular station.

If you run a marketing campaign in large cities such as New York, expect to pay a higher fee compared to fees in a small town. When a radio station has a broader reach, this larger audience commands higher advertising costs.

Radio Advertising Cost 3: Ad quality

When it comes to your radio advertising costs, you get what you pay for. This factor is not only true when it comes to the time slot, but also your radio ad quality. The efficiency of the production, creative side, copy, and even call to action of your radio ad will significantly impact its effectiveness in urging customers to act. Your radio ad should be consistent across all marketing channels. So, it is highly recommended that you invest in hiring experienced professionals that can tailor your ads perfectly to your goals and vision.

Radio Advertising Cost 4: Regional rates

You may run your radio ad on local stations and pay less because they do not have the same number of listeners compared to a national radio station. If you have a small local business, there is no need to invest in national exposure. You just have to shoulder the flat rate of the local radio advertising costs. Because of this, you can run radio ads even if you’re on a tight budget.

Radio Advertising Cost 5: Negotiating Factors

When considering radio advertising costs, what you see isn’t always what you get. In other words, keep in mind that prices can be negotiable. For example, a local radio station might give you a larger discount if you commit to running an ad for a longer period.

Advantages of Radio Advertising

Radio has many advantages over other media, including cost and efficiency, selectivity, flexibility, mental imagery, integrated marketing opportunities etc. Some of the important ones are listed as under:

Selectivity: Another major advantage of radio is the high degree of audience selectivity available through the various program formats and geographic coverage of the numerous stations. Radio lets companies focus their advertising on specialized audiences such as certain demographic and lifestyle groups. Most areas have radio stations, which format such programs as adult contemporary, classical music, news, talk shows, top 20, to name a few. Some of the radio programs are meant exclusively for women and children. This provides radio geographic selectivity as well as target audience selectivity.

Cost and efficiency: One of the main strengths of radio as an advertising medium is its low-cost. Radio commercials are very inexpensive to produce. They require only a script of the commercial to be read by the radio announcers or a copy of the pre-recorded message that can be broadcast by the station. The cost for radio time is also low. The low cost of radio means advertisers can build more reach and frequency into their media schedule within a certain budget. Radio commercials can be produced more quickly than TV spots, and the companies can run them more often.

Flexibility: Radio is probably the most flexible of all the advertising media because it has a very short closing period, which means advertisers can change their message almost up to the time it goes on the air. Radio commercials can usually be produced and scheduled on a very short notice. Radio advertisers can easily adjust their messages to local market conditions and marketing situations.

Mental imagery: A potential advantage of radio that is often overlooked is that it encourages listeners to use their imagination when processing a commercial message. While the creative options of radio are limited, many advertisers take advantage of the absence of a visual element to let consumers create their own picture of what is happening in the radio message. Radio may also reinforce television messages through a technique called image transfer, where the images of a TV commercial are implanted into a radio spot. The idea is that when consumers hear the radio message, they will make the connection to a TV commercial, reinforcing its video images. Image transfer offers advertisers a way to make radio and TV ads work together synergistically.

Widest possible geographic coverage: Radio can and does reach almost every where, in India. Even at those places, where there is no television connectivity, people cannot read and write, still, they do have a radio or a transistor with the help of which they connect themselves with the rest of the world. This makes radio a truly mass media.

Mobility: Radio is extremely mobile. It follows the listener’s from room to room, goes to the beach, and rides in the car. There are few places it cannot go. It can even follow workers to their place of business.

Integrated marketing opportunities: Radio provides marketers with a variety of integrated marketing opportunities. Radio stations become an integral part of many communities, and the DJs and program hosts may become popular figures. Advertisers often use radio stations and personalities to enhance their involvement with a local market and to gain influence with their local retailers. Radio also works very effectively in conjunction with place-based/point-of-purchase promotions. Retailers often use onsite radio broadcasts, combined with special sales or promotions to attract consumers to their stores and get them to make a purchase. Live radio broad casts are also used in conjunction with events marketing.

Mass appeal: Radio as a medium is good for people from all the backgrounds, whether they are rich or poor, literate or illiterate, from every religion, caste, creed, or sex.

Sales promotion schemes: Radio is a very effective medium for the introduction of a new product, or a special announcement or for the promotion of a new sales promotion incentive.

Audio element: It depends solely on the spoken words in human voice. Listeners can hear the programs and the commercials, while doing other things such as driving a car or doing other household work. The touch of human voice also adds to the reception of radio commercials. Human voice has a warmth and persuasiveness in conveying a message that can be most effective. So, radio commercials call for least effort on the part of the target audience to listen to the commercials and get the message across.

Limitations of Radio Advertising

Several factors limit the effectiveness of radio as an advertising medium, among them, creative limitations, fragmentation, chaotic buying procedures, limited research data, limited listener attention, and clutter. Media planner must consider them in determining the role the medium will play in the advertising program.

Fragmentation: Another problem with radio is the high level of audience fragmentation due to the large number of stations. The percentage of the market tuned to any particular station is usually very small. The top-rated radio station in many major metropolitan areas with a number of AM and FM stations may attract less than 10 percent of the total listening audience. Advertisers that want a broad reach in their radio advertising media schedule have to buy time on a number of stations to cover even a local market.

Creative limitations: A major drawback of radio as an advertising medium is the absence of a visual image. The radio advertiser cannot show the product, demonstrate it, or use any type of visual appeal or information. A radio commercial is, like a TV ad, a short lived and fleeting message that is externally placed and does not allow receiver to control the rate at which it is processed. Because of these creative limitations, many companies tend to ignore radio, and agencies often assign junior people to the development of radio commercials.

Limited research data: Audience research data on radio are often limited, particularly compared with TV, magazines, or newspapers. Most radio stations are small operators and lack the revenue to support detailed studies of their audiences. And most users of radio are local companies that cannot support research on radio listenership in their markets. Thus, media planners do not have as much audience information available to guide them in their purchase of radio time as they do with other media.

Clutter: Clutter is just as much a problem with radio as with other advertising media. Most radio stations carry an average of nearly 10 minutes of commercials every hour. During the popular morning and evening rush hours, the amount of commercial time may exceed to 12 minutes. Also contributing to the clutter problem is the practice of some stations to offer “commercial-free” blocks of music to attract listeners.

Limited listener attention: Another problem that affects radio is that it is difficult to retain listener attention to commercials. Radio programming, particularly music, is often the background to some other activity and may not receive the listeners’ full attention. Thus, they may miss some or all of the commercials. One environment where radio has a more captive audience is in cars. But getting listeners to pay attention to commercials can still be difficult.

Transient Quality: Radio, like any time medium, is fleeting. The message is not available for reference or for rereading.