Radio Advertising

When you search the radio dial, it's easy to hear that there's a station or format for almost every conceivable demographic audience. Radio is portable, highly targeted and tends to have a wide range of pricing options available to potential advertisers. However, radio listeners tend to be driving while they listen, which means that your message may end up in the background. The advent of commercial-free satellite radio, combined with the ubiquitous use of cell phones by drivers (even if unsafe), has reduced the effectiveness of radio messaging even more.

When deciding on the smartest way to spend your advertising dollars, keep in mind the following positive and negative aspects of radio advertising:

Positive

• Immediate audience appeal and fast campaign initiation capability.
• Wide ranging station formats makes highly targeted messaging possible.
• Low production cost and flexible pricing.
• High level of portability.

Negative

• Formats are often duplicated in same market, leading to message oversaturation.
• Small audiences make it difficult to build high audience reach.
• Radio audience tends to be driving and disengaged.
• Targeting small geographic areas can be difficult.