Radio Centre in UK recently partnered with Neuro-Insight to investigate how speaking to consumers at relevant moments affects advertising engagement and memorability.

One of the driving factors for this research was a prior study completed in 2018 called “Re-evaluating Media”. It found that advertisers and agency decision-makers highly valued ‘targeting the right people in the right place at the right time’ but they perceived radio as being a weak performer against this attribute.

Neuroscience was used to measure the impact of radio adverts on audiences carrying out regular tasks such as driving, cleaning, cooking and working. It measured memory encoding - the process of turning an experience into a memory which is crucial for advertising effectiveness. Changes in recall and the level of engagement were also measured.

Overall the study concluded that the impact of radio advertisements were significantly higher when the adverts were targeted at audiences as they carry out relevant activities.

Ads that were relevant to the activities saw a 23% rise in engagement as well as a 22% increase in memory encoding. This finding disproves the myth that consumers don’t process radio advertising because they’re occupied with other activities because the activities actually reinforce the messages from the adverts.

Another finding was that relevant ads also had higher unprompted recall (56% increase) which proves once again that speaking to people at relevant times helps brands be top-of-mind when customers are in-market.

This research demonstrates how advertisers can further improve the effectiveness of their radio advertising campaigns by considering targeting activities in the moment.

Lastly it found that people feel twice as happy when they’re listening to radio and often listen to radio to help uplift their mood when engaged in every-day tasks. This mood-boosting effect of radio content is proven to increase engagement with advertising.

The take away for advertisers and marketers is that situational relevance helps increase the effectiveness of radio advertising. Making explicit references in the creative to the activity being targeted helps consumers make the link between the ad and the task they’re performing which in turn helps their brain process the information better. Establishing this link earlier on in the creative further increases the chances of the listener processing the information.

Read the full report here: https://www.radiocentre.org/he...