Sound Answers

A Regional Utility Company was looking to build awareness, web traffic and online engagement for their Home Services division in a key market, and decided to turn to radio for the first time to promote this particular offering. The Utility Company partnered with Katz Radio Group for a Q2 campaign, which ran on 7 stations across ownership groups, and included a mix of :30 brand spots, :30 endorsements, and :15 traffic sponsorships.

Katz worked with AnalyticOwl to match radio log times with the Regional Utility Provider's web traffic data to measure the impact in traffic on their Home Services site. The study was able to provide a holistic, market-wide, view of the campaign performance for the client.

What Katz discovered is that the radio campaign successfully drove web traffic to the Utility Company's Home Services site. The study found a +21% lift in web traffic attributed to the radio campaign. Radio endorsers were the most successful at driving consumers to the website for each spot airing, outperforming the campaign average by +13%. Short duration spots (:15s) also proved to be effective drivers, delivering +3% more visitors per spot airing than the campaign average. Looking at on-air days vs off-air, the Utility Company's Home Services site saw +21% more web traffic on days when radio spots aired.

Chart is interactive; click to enlarge.

Case study featured in the RAB's Radio Pulse, published by the ANA

RADIO BOOSTS TV + DIGITAL/SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

As the Republican National Convention comes to a close, there are less than 70 days left until Election Day. The window for campaigns to make an impact on voters is even smaller than that, since many Americans will be casting their ballot prior to November 3rd in early voting states, or with mail-in voting. In order to take advantage of the precious remaining weeks ahead, agencies need to focus on using the right media mix to reach and influence the most local voters. According to a recent series of Nielsen Media Impact case studies, the right media mix must include radio.

Overall, political campaigns tend to allocate under 5% of their budget to radio. Nielsen Media Impact case studies illustrate how re-configuring a campaign's existing budget to allocate 20% to radio can improve reach, impressions, frequency and cost efficiency.

Looking at a Los Angeles case study that explores optimization options for a a $1.5M ad budget, Nielsen finds that adding Radio into the media mix of TV and Digital / Social Media improves reach by +28% and frequency by +5%, without adding any money to the total budget.

Chart is interactive; click to enlarge.

In an election where every vote counts, reaching the most voters with effective frequency is paramount. Radio is the key to optimizing media mixes to ensure a candidate's voice and message make an impact. And beyond offering scale, radio is a reliable ad vehicle in today's volatile times - safe, trusted, and nimble.  

For more information from Inside Radio

If you're interested in more of Katz's political insights, visit our Political Insights Hub.

WITH POLITICAL & HOLIDAY ACTION, OCTOBER WILL BE A BUSY MONTH FOR ADS

Traditionally, the Winter Holiday Season begins on Black Friday, or by extension, Thanksgiving Day. But if 2020 has proven to be anything, it is nontraditional. This year, COVID-19 related restrictions are putting a damper on major Black Friday in-store sale events, causing some major retailers to break with tradition and completely change the look of 2020's Winter Holiday Season. 

A growing list of retailers are announcing they will close for Thanksgiving this year, including Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Kohls, Target, and Walmart. In addition, Reuters reports many of them, including Target, Best Buy, and Kohls, are choosing to bypass Black Friday events and focus their Winter Holiday promotions as early as October. Retailers are moving sales up not only to draw consumers back into stores sooner, but also to get a jump on what is sure to be an eCommerce-heavy shopping season, one potentially fraught with shipping delays, limitations, and surcharges.

Also coming into play for consumers this October is Amazon Prime Day. Previously taking place in July, the pandemic has pushed the major eCommerce sale event into Q4, likely to land in early October (10/5 according to rumors). 

RADIO IS BEST BET FOR BRANDS AS POLITICAL & HOLIDAY SEASONS COLLIDE

Retailers looking to advertise their early holiday sales in October will be feeling the crunch on television as political advertising will be extremely active in the weeks leading into the election. Brands face being shut out of TV, placed in less preferred inventory, or being adjacent to polarizing political ads. According to Kantar, non-political advertisers undergo a -26% reduction in their share of TV inventory in the final weeks of the election cycle. 

Radio offers a more accessible environment than TV for non-political advertisers. A Katz analysis of the 2016 election found that political spots take up an average of two-thirds less inventory on radio than TV in key states, meaning a retailer's best bet for being heard in October is on radio.

For more information from Reuters

In the countdown to Election Day, let Katz help you navigate the media landscape and reach local voters across the country with the Local Vote 2020 Political Interactive Guide.

In it you will find:

• Governor, Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives races
• Political windows
• State political leanings
• Voter media usage by state, market, and party affiliation
• Winning 2020 with Multicultural Americans
• Battleground state "fast facts"

Click to launch the interactive guide. 

September 1st - Nielsen - Understanding the Total Audience: Insights, Trends & the Path Forward Amidst COVID. Webinar will explore the findings from the recently released Nielsen Total Audience Report: Special Work From Home Edition. Register here.

September 1st - ANA & RAB - The State of Audio Today: ANA Virtual Half-Day event, presented by RAB, where you will hear insightful case studies, best practices, and actionable takeaways on audio storytelling, attribution, and how to adapt to rapidly-changing consumer preferences and behavior. Register here.

September 3rd - Nielsen Audio - Two-Book Market Audio Client Update. Webinar will offer Spring 2020 insights for two-book diary markets, providing radio listening trends  across the 168 radio diary markets, which are measured twice per year. Nielsen clients register here. 

September 9th - Merkle - Get Local: Making your Media Relevant for Today. Webinar will discuss the tools and ingredients needed to deliver a personal, localized experience with media. From data and tech to localized media and demand tools, Merkle will share real examples and case studies to help businesses get local and stay relevant with your media. Register here. 

States have been taking steps to ease business restrictions to varying degrees, while some are reevaluating and pausing the process. Marketers need to carry on reassessing and adapting their actions in response to local regulations. Keep updated on state-by-state and category-specific actions with the links below. 

For more information on reopening status and regulations by state, from the New York Times

For more information on tracking America's recovery in terms of employment, finances, leisure, and travel, from CNN

Click here for previous releases of Katz's Sound Answers.

For more insights from Katz Radio Group, visit our Insights Hub.