Marketing Effectiveness Firm Effie Names AM/FM Radio And Podcasts “Super Touchpoints,” Media That Create Immediate Sales And Lasting Brand Effects
Click here to view a 15-minute video of the key findings.
Click here to download a PDF of the slides.
A major new study from Effie released this year at the prestigious Cannes Advertising Festival named AM/FM radio and podcasts as deserving of the “Super Touchpoints” effectiveness honor.
Of nineteen media examined, the Effie study revealed AM/FM radio and podcasts ranked fourth in achieving sales effect within six months. Podcasts and AM/FM radio also performed strongly in long-term brand building with impressive brand effects beyond six months.
Effie runs one of the worlds more important marketing effectiveness competitions
While there are many advertising awards that bestow creative honors such as the Radio Mercury Awards and the Cannes Lions, few advertising competitions focus on business results generated by advertising. The Effie Awards are based on growth factors such as incremental revenue, profit, market share, new customers, loyalty, and price sensitivity.
Recently, Effie teamed up with System1, the leading creative effectiveness measurement firm, to create a new effectiveness databank based on 1,265 campaigns. The brands consisted of entrants, finalists, and winners of the Effie effectiveness competition. The diverse group of brands in the study fell into three categories:
- Challenger brands: new firms with minimal market share
- Scale up brands: those who rank below third in market share
- Leading brands: those who are in the top three in market share
The brands studied represent $139 billion+ of revenue with campaigns running between 2007-2023. Nineteen media platforms were studied.
Brands that win Effie Awards drive impressive revenue, profit, and brand effects. The stronger the Effie performance, the greater the ROI and business results.
Given the impressive business performance of the Effie brands, it is an excellent report card on media performance and a great source of marketing effectiveness best practices.
The “Super Media Touchpoints” matrix reveals short-term sales effect and long-term brand building performance
On the vertical axis, Effie assesses the performance effects of nineteen media studied. Performance effect is defined as the % of brands that saw sales effect in less than six months.
The horizontal axis scores media on their ability to build brands. The measure examines the average number of lasting brands effects. These measures include brand awareness, brand image, brand equity, consideration/intent, trust, fame, differentiation, and distinctiveness. Here is the layout of the Effie “Super Media Touchpoints” matrix:
Media that score above the dotted line are deemed “super touchpoints,” which create immediate sales and lasting brand effects.
As a “Super Touchpoint,” AM/FM radio and podcasts can both convert existing demand with impressive short-term sales impact and create future demand with strong branding building
Now, let’s drop in the nineteen media and consumer touchpoints into the matrix.Podcasts and AM/FM radio rank fourth of nineteen media for short-term sales effect and perform strongly for long-term brand effects.
AM/FM radio and podcasts excel at both short- and long-term effectiveness.
Audio works for “the long and the short of it.” In the short term, audio can convert existing demand. In the long term, AM/FM radio and podcasts create future demand with branding building. Audio places fourth in short-term sales effect and performs strongly for brand building and creating future demand.
Some media do well with short-term impact but have a harder time creating future demand (contesting, promotions, search, digital display). Other media are adept at brand building and creating future demand but have difficulty with short-term sales effect (creators/influencers, TV, PR, online video/CTV, and print). AM/FM radio and podcasts are unique in their ability to drive both short-term sales as well as long-term brand effects.
Be patient: Campaign profit takes place over an extended period of time
The Effie massive study of the profit trajectory of ad campaigns over time reveals marketers need to be patient in waiting for the outcomes of marketing investments. The visual below shows the % of campaigns with profit impact over time.
Notice at less than three months very few campaigns report profit impact. As campaign duration hits a year, the number of profitable campaigns has grown significantly. The number of campaigns reporting profit keeps growing at year two, year three, and beyond.
Best practices: Broad targeting and emotion-based ads have the greatest profit impact
Take another look at the trend of campaigns that report profit. Two major strategies stand out: broad targeting outperforms narrow targeting and emotion-based ads do much better than rational creative (i.e., boring and dull ads).
Best practice: Brand early and often; To be effective, your ads have to be strongly associated with your brand
System1 measures the effectiveness of your creative on three dimensions:
- Star rating: Predicts long-term impact via the strength of the overall emotion felt by consumers. The more you feel, the more you buy
- Spike rating: Short-term effect is determined by how well your ad brands early enough and how interesting the ad is.
- Brand linkage: The % of consumers who can correctly associate an ad to your brand.
You can have an amazing emotion-based ad with wonderfully broad targeting but none of that means anything unless the ad is strongly linked to your brand. How to ensure strong brand association? Brand early and often!
Your brand should appear in the audio track within the first two seconds and another five times thereafter in a thirty second ad. Brand early and often!
Use a sonic device, brand character, or a jingle to ensure strong brand linkage
Effie and System1 studied nine different distinctive brand assets to measure how well each element increases the chance of an ad correctly being associated with a brand. The most successful elements consisted of a sonic device, a character or a jingle.
Make your ads more entertaining and watch your share growth improve
The best ads “put on a show” in addition to selling. Effie/System1 data reports entertaining ads generate much stronger share growth than uninteresting ads.
Creative consistency generates far greater sales and profit
Effie and System1 found brands with creative foundations, a long-term creative agency relationship, and a culture of consistency and consistent execution are far more successful.
Marketers with long-term creative agency relationships have greater creative quality.
The most consistent brands generate far better business outcomes.
Key findings:
- Effie, the marketing effectiveness competition, names AM/FM radio and podcasts “super touchpoints,” media that create immediate sales and lasting brand effects.
- Be patient: Profit from campaigns take place over an extended period of time.
- Market wide and make them feel: Broad targeting and emotion-based ads have the greatest profit impact.
- Brand early and often: to be effective, your ads have to be strongly associated with your brand.
- Use a sonic device, brand character, or a jingle to ensure strong brand linkage.
- Make your ads more entertaining and watch your share growth improve.
- Marketers with long-term creative agency relationships have greater creative quality than brands that change agencies frequently.
- Creative consistency and execution generate far greater sales and profit.
Click here to view a 15-minute video of the key findings.
Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group®.
Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.