WWO: Amazon Prime Day and AM/FM Radio
The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group blog looks at the Amazon Prime Day event and heavy users of AM/FM radio and podcasts. Several studies indicate that these heavy users are more likely to make purchases during these sales which is a good reason for retailers to use AM/FM and podcasts in their holiday marketing plans. Some of the takeaways from the blog include: 1) AM/FM radio and podcasts are
ideal medium platforms for retailers and e-commerce brands: Heavy audio listeners are more likely to shop online. Heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners also spend more online than TV viewers. AM/FM radio listeners and heavy podcast listeners over-index on Amazon Prime membership and purchase intent; 2) AM/FM radio makes your TV better – “20 gets you 50”: Nielsen Media Impact optimizations reveal shifting more media weight to AM/FM radio generates significantly more reach, especially among younger demographics 18-49. AM/FM radio does an extraordinary job increasing campaign reach among light TV viewers, who are far less likely to see retailer TV ads. The rule of thumb is “20 gets you 50”: a 20% shift of a TV media budget to AM/FM Radio generates a 50% increase in reach; and 3) Audio holiday AM/FM radio campaigns work: Consumers exposed to an Amazon holiday AM/FM radio campaign have higher brand equity (awareness, ad recall, prior purchase and purchase intent). Nielsen sales effect studies reveal AM/FM radio campaigns for retailers generate significant return on advertising spend: $15 dollars of incremental sales for every dollar of AM/FM radio advertising. See the full blog post here.
content, providing an accurate assessment of the audience’s attentiveness and engagement.” Some of the key findings include: 1) Despite lacking “sight, sound, and motion,” AM/FM radio programming was +13% more engaging than Mediaprobe’s norm for television in the U.S. For advertisers, this means the AM/FM radio context for their ads has greater engagement than the TV context; 2) Overall, AM/FM radio advertising’s Emotional Impact Score (EIS) outperformed TV advertising by +12%. These new findings validate the recently released Dentsu/Lumen study, which revealed audio ads outperform video for attention and brand recall; 3) AM/FM radio news was the most impactful genre, consistently measuring as a high-quality contextual environment for advertising (+14% greater than Mediaprobe TV News norms and +8% than total AM/FM radio); 4) Mediaprobe audio benchmarks reveal the sound contrast between AM/FM radio programming and the ads drives higher attention and brand recall. For example, ads with music and jingles perform very well in spoken word programming due to the contrast; and 5) Creative best practices: Use female voiceovers, jingles, and include five brand mentions. 
small attributed lift (0% to +3% lift) to excellent (+15% or more). Across the 17 campaigns analyzed, the average attributed lift was +14%. Three tax preparation service campaigns achieved “excellent” status ranging from a +30% to +48% attributed lift; 2) On average, the 17 AM/FM radio campaigns saw the highest percentage of impressions at the start of the week, peaking on Mondays and Tuesdays. Compared to the Nielsen impressions, the AM/FM radio campaigns outperformed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Advertisers should increase their use of AM/FM radio on the weekends. AM/FM radio campaigns on weekends drive impact and results; and 3) On average, evenings have a greater share of attributed web sessions due to available devices and free time of consumers. Mornings historically underdeliver their share of impressions since consumers are busy getting ready for work and school. This expected pattern should not be a reason to move campaign weight out of morning drive. Morning drive exposure results in web sessions during later dayparts when consumers have the time and available devices to respond. 
a host-read ad on a podcast or AM/FM radio show drives powerful brand impact and sales effect and positive emotional impact is what measures a successful campaign. System1 studied host-read ads and devised a rating system that correlates creative quality with long-term share growth – in layman’s terms, “the more you feel, the more you buy.” But the study found that only 17% of the ads tested rated high enough to have the sufficient emotional impact necessary to lift long-term brand share by between 1% and 3%. 
advertising. In 2016 and 2017, direct response represented the vast majority of podcast advertising. From 2018 to 2021, the proportion of podcast ad spend was equally split between brand and direct response.” The post says there are four major implications of the shift to podcast brand advertising: 1) Targeting will become much broader: Wide campaign reach will become the priority with a goal of “being known before you’re needed”; 2) Creative will shift to become more entertaining and emotion based: The objective will be to stir passions and create positive feelings and associations with ads that people find interesting and enjoyable; 3) Brand safety and suitability measurement will become more crucial: Firms like Barometer will become powerful resources to help marketers find the right context for their campaigns with nuanced data; and 4) Measurement will focus on how well campaigns build memories to ensure brands are “easy to mind and easy to find”: Key performance indicators are brand awareness, brand consideration, and brand preference. 
monthly, and 77% have ever listened to podcasts. “All of this podcast and AM/FM radio audience duplication means there are great cross-promotion opportunities.” Among the podcast audience, over half the ad-supported time spent goes to podcasts themselves at a 53% share. AM/FM radio follows with a 37% share. Distantly following are ad-supported SiriusXM (4%), ad-supported Spotify (3%), and ad-supported Pandora (3%). Additionally, MARU/Matchbox was commissioned to study Cumulus Media radio listeners who listened for at least an hour to stations in Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and Atlanta and were exposed to promos for eight Cumulus Podcast Network podcast titles. Overall, 54% of the Cumulus radio audience were aware of the eight Cumulus Podcast Network podcasts. A much larger promotion of heavy AM/FM radio listeners (67%) were aware of the podcast titles, and a whopping 75% of the heavy AM/FM radio streaming audience were aware of the podcast titles. 
These DMA analyses are based on all radio stations in the U.S., not just Nielsen subscribers. The top DMA is Glendive, Montana with 72.1% of the population using AM radio. While the most AM radio listening tends to be done in Midwestern DMAs, there is still substantial AM listening done in Eastern markets. For example, Chicago is the #8 DMA for AM listening with 51.2%, but Seattle-Tacoma is not far behind at #14 with 42.8%, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose is #20 with 41.3%, and the top two DMAs by population – New York and Los Angeles – show AM listenership is done by 31.8% of the population. 
