Radio advertising

What radio is for

Repetition. Radio is the cheapest frequency on the plan, and frequency is what makes a name familiar enough to be chosen later. A television flight builds reach quickly; a radio schedule keeps the name in the ear for the eight weeks afterwards at a fraction of the cost.

It is also the most immediate channel available for anything time-bound. A weather-driven business — roofing after a hailstorm, heating in a cold snap — can be on air in a day, which nothing else on the plan can do.

How we buy it

On rate, position and weight, negotiated. Radio is sold in packages designed to look comprehensive, and the difference between the package as offered and the package as negotiated is usually substantial. Specifically:

• Daypart honestly. Morning and afternoon drive carry the audience in this market. A cheap schedule loaded into overnight and weekend inventory is cheap for a reason.
• Enough spots per week to register. A schedule thin enough to be unnoticeable is not a cheap campaign, it is a wasted one. We would rather run fewer stations properly.
• Endorsement reads where they fit. A host reading your copy in their own voice outperforms a produced spot in some categories by a wide margin — and does nothing in others. We will say which yours is.

Where radio gets wasted

Spread too thin across too many stations, bought on cost per thousand alone, or asked to do a job it cannot do. Radio is poor at anything that needs to be seen — a product with a visual selling point, a complicated offer, a phone number nobody will remember. That is what television and direct mail are for.

It also cannot be measured cleanly on its own. Radio works best measured as a lift against the rest of the plan, which means somebody has to be watching the whole plan rather than each line separately.