Building Shelf Awareness

1. Radio advertising that reaches shoppers in-car increases brand visibility on-shelf by 11.3%

In the background to this study we reviewed Nielsen’s data revealing how most shoppers don’t decide which brand to buy until they’re standing in front of the shelf and how the limited time spent in front of each self leads many brands to go unnoticed.

So how can exposure to radio advertising in-car on the way to the supermarket help brands overcome these challenges?

When asked to look at the relevant supermarket shelves following the video of the car journey, the passive eye-tracking analysis revealed that the visual attention of participants exposed to the test ads was drawn towards the advertised brands. On average, visibility of the test brands was 11.3% greater among the radio advertising exposed sample. We can conclude from this that radio advertising primes shoppers to take more notice of brands they hear on the way to the supermarket. But what effects does this have on purchase behaviour?

2. Purchase intent increases significantly across all buyers, underpinning loyalty and encouraging switching

After looking at the relevant supermarket shelves relating to the test brands, participants were then asked which of these products they would have bought.

The data shows that radio advertising exerts a significant and powerful effect on purchase consideration in the store environment, increasing overall intention to purchase by a third.

Interestingly, this uplift effect was equally powerful among participants who currently feature the test brands in their purchasing repertoire and those that don’t (but who are non-rejecters of the brands). This suggests that exposure to radio advertising just prior to

Which of these products would you have bought from this shelf?

the shopping occasion can reinforce existing brand loyalty and, additionally, encourage brand switching.

The IPA’s Effectiveness in Context report highlights the importance of both new customer acquisition and targeting existing customers in optimising sales activation results for FMCG brands – so this is an important learning about the effective role that radio can play in helping to achieve this.

3. Uplifts vary significantly across brands

As with any study of this nature there were significant differences in effect by brand. While the average uplift in overall purchase intent was 33.1%, the top performing brand experienced an increase of almost double this at 65%. At the other end of the spectrum the brand with the lowest uplift only saw purchase intent increase by 4%.

This pattern of effects by brands was broadly consistent across both repertoire and non-repertoire buyers.

Clearly, a large degree of this variation will be attributable to category effects but advertising creativity may also play a role. What can the data tell us about factors that differentiate the better performing ads and what can advertisers learn from this to optimise results from their own campaigns?

4. The best performing ads stimulate a stronger emotional response

In the IPA study The Long and the Short of It the authors highlight how emotional campaigns produce considerably more powerful longterm business effects than rational persuasion campaigns. Research company System1 have also demonstrated the link between strong emotional response to advertising and more effective outcomes.

To capture emotional response, Shoppercentric recorded the micro emotions involuntarily displayed on the face of each participant as they were hearing the radio ads. Micro emotions are the behavioural expression of neurological response and as such are made spontaneously – their neurological response base means they are universally common to humans regardless of race or culture.

As we can see from the aggregate emotional response score by brand shown in the chart above, the advertising that generated the strongest emotional response correlates closely with higher purchase intent.

FMCG advertisers often use radio creatively to promote rational tactical offers. This analysis suggests that radio effects could be enhanced through greater use of emotional messaging.

5. Established campaign ideas and distinctive audio assets help optimise effects

Further structural analysis of the radio ads featured in the test revealed that the three best performers were all strongly linked to and consistent with long-running and well-established creative campaign ideas.

This learning is consistent with findings from the Radiocentre study Profit-Driving Radio featuring analysis from Ebiquity demonstrating how profit ROI for an FMCG radio campaign was doubled when the creative work was more closely aligned with that shown on TV.

The effectiveness of consistent audio assets is further explored in the IPSOS Power of You study which reveals how audio branding is three times as effective as visual branding yet is currently used by only 8% of advertisers suggesting that many more advertisers could benefit from taking a more strategic approach to using sound in their advertising.

Brand D was the exception in that it was a relatively new campaign to air. However, the use of audio assets consistently across media suggest that campaign effectiveness will improve over time if this strategy is maintained and the campaign becomes established.