How to Use Radio Effectively

Radio is a very effective advertising medium when used properly. And based on 16 years of buying and creating very successful radio campaigns all over the country, here is my theory on how to use radio effectively:

1. Use a jingle, stinger or music bed. The power of music in radio advertising is a key factor to understand and harness. Please read my blog post on this site on “The Power of Sound in Advertising” July 20th, or click the title to this post.
2. Buy as much frequency against a targeted audience as you can afford.
3. If you are building a brand and want long-term growth, stay consistent on the air and make radio a long-term strategy. The longer you use it, the better it works.
4. Leverage the unique assets of radio when possible and appropriate: live remotes, live reads, contesting, sponsorships, sampling, promotions, giveaways, and online ads.
5. Find a good rep and help them help you by explaining your objectives, and how you will be measuring your success. Get the station sales, production, web and promotional managers involved. They have a lot of insights and ideas. Think long-term and build win-win relationships.
6. Don’t buy stations you like, buy stations your customers and prospects like.
7. To gain frequency, buy :15s and :30s instead of just :60s. Frequency is king. Buy more spots on fewer stations. Buy enough spots to get a 3 frequency per week.

The benefits of radio:

• Radio can be used very effectively to create or strengthen a brand name and image.
• Radio can be used for targeting a particular demographic or lifestyle group
• To build campaign frequency
• As a promotional tool using live remote broadcasts, program or segment sponsorships, and live-read announcements using the station on-air personalities, and contesting and give-a-ways.
• An excellent medium for building frequency and momentum fast for sale events, grand openings, concerts, shows and other special events or limited time announcements.
• Radio is a logical and effective choice to add to your media mix to support a campaign when you are using direct mail, print, outdoor, transit, cable or broadcast TV. And radio can also support an online campaign to increase pay per click advertising effectiveness, banner ads, and drive traffic directly to your URL.

As an advertising professional, I personally love the power and flexibility of radio advertising for many reasons, and I have used it very successfully for my clients. Unfortunately, I see too many people using radio ineffectively, and wasting their money.

If you are considering radio, or already using radio, think about the points and case studies discussed in this post to maximize its impact for you.

Radio is a targeted medium because each radio station attracts a specific demographic group based on the station format, which means that every station has a “best demo”. For example, an Album Oriented Rock station is dominated by males 18-34 years of age. A Big Band/Nostalgia station is dominated by adults 65+. A Classical station reaches upscale adults 35-54, and a News/Talk format is dominated by males 45+.

Because everyone has a favorite radio format, they also have a favorite station. And because “birds of a feather flock together,” any given format will attract a certain and predictable audience who share a similar demographic profile. A typical person has one favorite station, and two others they listen to less frequently. By knowing the demographic cell in which your target audience falls, and if your target demo is narrowly defined, you can hit many of them with a one or two radio station buy in many instances. However, it is best to hit both your primary and secondary demo for maximum reach and effectiveness in any given media buy.


Each station also has a best time slot or day part where rating points and audience listenership are the highest, making your spot more effective. Some stations have more listeners in morning drive (Monday-Friday 6am-10am in major metros, and 7am-9am in smaller metros), and others have more listeners during mid-day (Monday-Friday 10am-3pm) as they are the listen at work format or talk radio.

As a general rule, you want to buy only the radio stations that deliver the highest number of your primary and secondary demos. And of those stations, you only want to buy the best day parts that deliver the highest number of these target listeners. But don’t forget, that people are creatures of habit, and they have listening patters that are nearly set in stone. Which means that in order to reach the entire target audience of any one station, you will want to run your spots Monday - Friday in the morning drive, mid day, evening drive, and Saturday and Sunday 10 am - 3 pm. With the majority of your spots running in the morning and evening drive times, unless the station programming and audience listening curve tell you otherwise.

When looking at the Arbitron data, be aware, that you must compare the audience share (the % of people listening to that station in that day part out of all people listening to all radio stations in the market in that day part) AND the total number of people listening in that day part (given in quarter hour averages). A station may have a very high audience share in a particular day part, but only 1,200 people are listening.

Next time we will discuss case studies of successful radio campaigns.