In a long, data-infused, and fascinating research summary, Pierre Bouvard at the Westwood One Blog examines how media plans can grow sales without increasing their budgets. (See The Two jobs of Marketing.)
In this work, two case studies illustrate shifting campaign resources to podcasts and to AM/FM radio.
We’ll start at the five key findings below, with podcast emphases in bold:
- A brand needs to create future demand by advertising to that much larger group of consumers who are not in the market and are not ready to buy now but will be in the future to grow.
- To enhance the impact of your media plan, select media audiences who have interest and usage in your category.
- The Harris Poll Brand Tracker reports a meal kit service and a subscription management app generate extraordinary results with podcast ads. TV’s impact is non-existent while AM/FM radio audiences are highly engaged with the brands despite no AM/FM radio ads running.
- To optimize the media plan, maintain podcast allocation and shift TV investment to AM/FM radio.
- Shifting media weight from TV to AM/FM radio increases campaign reach by +16% to +17% at the same budget, according to Nielsen Media Impact.
Valley of Death
This dire condition occurs when sales plateau, and a brand fails to create “future demand.” The concept of future demand is key to this entire thesis, and comes into play when demand for a brand stops rising and stays flat.
The key to future demand is this: “Brands have to be ‘known before you’re needed’.” This is accomplished by advertising to that much larger group of consumers who are not in the market and are not ready to buy now, but will be in the future. The goal is making them feel familiar with and positively toward your brand, so they gravitate to you when they enter the category.
Mental Availability
From the study: “The single most important factor driving brand preference is ‘mental availability’: how well known a brand is, and how easily it comes to mind. Brands with low mental availability tend to struggle, rejected in favor of more familiar rivals. Or not considered in the first place. Brands with high mental availability don’t have to push so hard to sell, so tend to have higher market shares and better margins.”
And that is decisively accomplished by podcast marketing, according to the study. (TV advertising also, but not AM/FM.) A case study of a meal kit service details a brand which spent a quarter of its budget in podcasts for three years. Alongside that layout, a subscription management app spent nearly a third of budget on podcasts:
“According to the Harris Poll Brand Tracker, podcasts dramatically outperform the impact of TV. The meal kit service is much better known among podcast listeners compared to the TV audience, despite devoting the same proportion of its budget to each media.” — “The Two Jobs of Marketing,” Audioactive Group, Cumulus Media & Westwood One
This info is part of a 26-page data-stuffed deck that is freely available HERE. It covers many other topic, and an entire second set of key findings. Downloading is strongly recommended.
