Claritas And MARU/Matchbox: Major AM/FM Radio Campaign Drives Significant Brand Awareness And Growth In Leads And Sales
One of the largest tests of AM/FM radio advertising was conducted in Spring 2024 in just over twenty local markets. The campaign ran across a broad mix of small, medium, and large markets.
The two-month AM/FM radio campaign featured heavy media weight, generating a monthly reach of 75% and a seven frequency. The campaign featured a two-week burst followed by two dark weeks and then another major two-week pulse. In the test markets, three out of four people were exposed to the campaign monthly an average of seven times.
Measuring campaign impact: MARU/Matchbox revealed the brand effect and Claritas quantified website conversions and purchases
MARU/Matchbox, the brand tracking firm, conducted two studies: one just before the campaign launched and the second after the AM/FM radio campaign ended. This “pre/post” approach allowed MARU/Matchbox to measure growth in unaided awareness, aided awareness, advertising recall, and aided ad recall (which exposes consumers to the AM/FM radio ad that aired).
Claritas, the attribution measurement firm, placed their tracking pixel on the advertiser’s website and studied the impact of the AM/FM radio campaign on website home page visitation, leads, signups, registration, and purchase.
AM/FM radio worked: Total unaided brand awareness grew +10%; Among heavy AM/FM radio listeners, unaided awareness soared +16%
MARU/Matchbox surveyed 1,000 adults 18+ in the test markets in early April 2024 before the campaign began. Another 1,000 people were surveyed after the campaign at the end of May 2024.
There was significant growth in unaided awareness despite the short two-month campaign. Unaided awareness is the hardest brand equity measure for a marketer to grow. It requires consumers to name a brand in a category without any help.
Post campaign, aided awareness and ad recall surged
MARU/Matchbox provided consumers with a list of brands and asked how familiar they were with each brand. Consumers who said they were “extremely/very familiar” with the advertised brand grew by +9%.
The AM/FM radio campaign generated a strong lift in ad recall for the brand. Total ad recall grew +12%. Aided ad recall, where consumers were exposed to the AM/FM radio ad, also grew by +12%.
Ad recall is the brand equity measure that is most sensitive to recent advertising. Double-digit growth in ad recall indicates strong impact from the AM/FM radio campaign.
Claritas attribution measurement: The AM/FM radio campaign generated an +8% lift in leads, +8% increase in signups, +9% in registrations, and +12% growth in purchases
The closer to the bottom of the purchase funnel, the greater the conversion increases.
Claritas examined AM/FM radio’s impact on the daily conversions. The first month of the campaign generated an +8.7% lift in conversions. Conversions then dipped during a dark period of the campaign.
Conversions then surged +13.6% in the second month of the campaign. After the AM/FM radio campaign, there was a powerful lingering sales effect from the AM/FM radio ads as conversions continued to grow +6.2%.