Backing Brilliant Business
See how radio can help back your brilliant business with our step by step guide to radio advertising. From how radio can help your business grow to how to get on air.
Why radio?
Whatever your objective, radio advertising can play an important role in growing your business. Many small businesses use radio to drive immediate results, based on the medium’s core strengths. Keep scrolling to find out more about the benefits of advertising on radio.
1Core strengths of radio advertising
- Immediate results
- Revenue returns
- Cost-effective
- Targeting flexibility
- Builds stronger brands
Radio offers short lead-times and relatively low cost production, making it ideal for promoting tactical advertising messages at short notice as well as being able to buy more audience impressions for your money than with any other medium. It can be efficiently targeted by station-type; age, social grade, and gender; and geographical region as well as by time of day and day of week, and is used by people to accompany tasks and activities across the day, making it easier for brands to reach people at relevant times and in relevant places.
Radio can also play a powerful role in helping to build brands in longer term:
- Boosts online brand browsing by 52%
- Increases awareness of advertisers by 48%
- Listeners are 12% more likely to consider advertised brands when buying
- Campaigns that use radio grow market share 4x faster than those that don’t
To be effective, brand building campaigns need to reach a wide audience, spark an emotional response, and create fame for the advertised business. With high levels of listening (two-thirds of adults tune in to commercial radio every week) radio is effective at delivering high reach for advertisers, and its main content – music – is inherently emotional. Industry research shows that campaigns that use radio are on average generate 60% more likely to make brands famous.
What brilliant results you can expect
If you are using radio either as a one-off test campaign or as part of a longer term strategy it is important to consider how you are going to measure the effects of your investment. To evaluate the success of a radio campaign based on specific business outcomes such as website visits, footfall in store, and/or sales, it is important to monitor the base level in these metrics in the weeks leading up to the activity to act as a comparison point for how they change during and post the radio advertising.
2Brilliant success stories
We’ve collated a selection of brilliant businesses for you to explore and be inspired by how they’ve used radio advertising effectively and the impact it’s had.
3Thompson's Solicitors
Moneypenny
Smile in a Day
White Rose Shopping Centre
Radio can deliver brilliant search results
If your brilliant business relies on consumers to “google you” to drive sales then you will know that it’s not always brilliantly easy. It can be expensive and competitive to stay at the top of those search results. Radio advertising could be a crucial and cost-effective way of making all the difference.
If people hear the name of your company or product on the radio, then they are 52% more likely to include it when they search for you. And the effects will be immediate, because 58% of all searches triggered by a radio ad, take place within 24 hours of hearing it play out. It’s quite simple, and well… brilliant. Find out more here.
4Planning & booking
your brilliant campaign
Whatever your business goal, radio can flex to help you deliver it. Spot airtime is the most adaptable radio format and can be bought across different stations, day parts, and days of the week to best meet your needs. But where do you start? The information in this section aims to help you scope out your own radio advertising campaign. Explore stations in your target catchment area here.
5Creating a brilliant radio ad
The quality of your radio ad can have a huge impact on its commercial success – advertising studies show a strong link between creative excellence and effectiveness.
But where should you start to ensure that your ad uses radio to its full potential? And what is the process involved in getting your own radio ad written, produced, and ready to air?
6What works well in radio advertising
- Consistency counts – radio ads are more effective over time when linked through the use of common features (e.g. characters, strapline, music, voice).
- Consistent voice is particularly effective
- Consider which audio elements you could use in subsequent campaigns
The creative idea and the quality of your ad can have a huge impact on its commercial success. Advertising studies (from the IPA as well as our own) show a strong link between creative excellence and effectiveness.
See our how to guide on planning your campaign.
Briefing your brilliant ad
- Context for the campaign e.g. what is the business problem you’re trying to resolve? Who are your main competitors? How will you evaluate success
- Defining the role for radio advertising: how does it fit in with the other media you are using?
- Target audience: who is the main focus for this campaign? Are they already in the market for your product?
- Desired response: what do you want people to think, feel, and do as a result of hearing your ad?
A good brief will encourage creatives to think differently about your brand and respond with a fresh perspective. Some past examples of great radio creative may help inspire some creative stimulus.
Valuable tips and insights
- How to get the most from using radio alongside other media
- How to improve return on investment with radio
- How to boost ad effectiveness by reaching people at relevant times
- Creative teams at radio stations can help bring your campaign to life
We also offer live training sessions as well as our new in-app training for those who want to hone their skills and understanding of radio. These training sources highlight key facts about the audio market, explains how sound influences our behaviour and showcase inspirational creative campaigns.
Audio Series
In this new audio series, business owner Saira Khan, most famous for being runner-up in the first series of business-reality show, The Apprentice and panellist on Loose Woman, will front the new 16 episode series and explore what it takes to grow a successful business. Speaking to some of the biggest names in British business Saira will discuss the challenges they have faced and how they overcame them. Each guest will provide listeners with guidance, insight and inspiration to help them develop the skills needed to grow a business.
7Book your brilliant campaign
Whether you have your ad ready, want some advice, or are ready to book, you can search for local and national stations in your desired area. Simply put in the location below and we’ll find the stations best suited to you.
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