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Research Outline
Prepared for Gabriel W. | Delivered April 10, 2020
Brand Awareness: Radio versus OOH
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Goals
To understand the impact of radio, out-of home (OOH) advertising (specifically, billboards), and print advertising in driving awareness for mass-focused brands to support advertising decision-making.
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Early Findings
Traditional Advertising
This
study
, by the American Marketing Association, demonstrates that traditional advertising (television, radio, out-of-home, and print) is more effective than social media in generating brand awareness, consideration, and equity.
Radio
According to leading market research firm, Nielsen, radio advertising reaches
92%
of adult audiences weekly, with adults over 18 spending
just under 12 hours weekly
listening to radio.
In a 2017 Nielsen survey across 38 podcast clips and 18 brand advertisements,
69% of respondents
said podcast advertising increased their awareness of a new product or service, while
62% correctly identified
a brand that was advertised during the podcast.
In a March 2020 Nielsen survey of 1,000 adults 18+,
28%
of respondents claimed they are spending more time listening to radio.
A Nielsen survey also found that a radio ad can boost awareness of a TV ad when used in an integrated campaign, with
35%
of respondents who heard the radio ad citing higher awareness of a TV ad, than those who only saw the TV ad.
A 2019 Nielsen Audio report concluded that, because radio reaches consumers throughout the day and on-the-go, when they are closer to the point-of-purchase, it is an effective means of
amplifying the effectiveness
of an ad campaign.
Billboard Advertising
According to a 2017 Nielsen survey, billboard drives
more online activity per dollar
spent compared to radio and print. Following exposure to a billboard (OOH) ad,
46%
of those who saw the ad visited a search engine, and
40%
visited a Facebook page.
According to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), outdoor digital billboard spending has grown
35%
from 2010 to 2018 and will overtake traditional outdoor advertising spend by 2020.
The PWC survey showed that outdoor ads were the only
traditional media category
to grow in 2018, with the increase to
$33.5 billion
, driven by
16%
growth in digital out of home advertising (DOOH).
Growth in
DOOH
is traced to a shift in overall digital advertising. A number of large firms, including Netflix, are moving toward this
variation on out-of-home advertising
.
While this research was undertaken by an industry group, Outdoor Advertising Association of America, it provides some
visibility into returns
for out of home advertising. This research found that every dollar spent in OOH yielded
$5.97
in ROI.
Online grocer,
Fresh Direct
, leveraged out of home billboard advertising in New York City to drive website traffic. This campaign drove
41,000
website conversions.
Traditional Media Spending Trends
Marketing agency Zenith, as reported by Ad Age, tracked the t
op 200 advertisers
between 2000 and 2020. They found magazine ad spending in the United States fell from
15.3% to 5.6%
of total advertising spend, radio fell from
13.8% to 8.1%,
newspaper
31.1% to 5.6%
, and out of home increased from
3.1% to 5.1%
.
Summary of Early Research Relevant To The Goals
We leveraged as many primary, objective sources as possible to determine the effectiveness of radio advertising versus billboard advertising (and where possible, print advertising). We found that primary sources (market research industry and consultancy surveys and studies based on consumer input, advertiser input, scanner and panel data, industry expertise), provided the most informative, while still objective, source of information. We did provide information from one potentially biased source, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, given the value of their 'ROI versus dollar spent' finding.
W
e
also found that of the three traditional sources of media, out-of-home is growing, due to the influence of digital spending. Radio still appears to offer some potential, given its reach and potential to drive awareness (specifically with respect to new products and more so for podcast advertising than traditional radio advertising),
If we make an assumption that the shift of advertising spend toward digital and away from traditional reflects brand results (which would likely include, amongst other variables, brand awareness, engagement, and conversion to purchase), print advertising appears to be the least appealing to advertisers, with both newspaper spend and magazine spend declining most from 2000-2020. Several sources indicate out-of-home spend is growing, due to the rise of DOOH.
We found a number of
case studies
highlighting out of home advertising campaigns as well.
Our recommended next steps are below.
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