Radio Results Blog

Portland radio's perpetual dominance over internet-fueled media defies the persistent and pervasive prophecies that traditional AM/FM would succumb to the wrecking ball of all things digital.

In August 2007, eMarketer predicted, "Data from a number of researchers indicates that traditional radio is losing its significance in people's lives. US adults are spending more time each day on the Internet and watching TV than listening to the radio."

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Last week, according to Nielsen, 700,000 adults tuned into a Portland radio station. This is, by far, more southern Maine consumers than watched TV or read a newspaper. It is even more than visited a social media site; streamed Pandora or Spotify; or did a Google search.

Comparative data released last month demonstrates, yet again, that radio reaches more adults than all other media, digital or otherwise. Substantively more.  This is great news for Maine small business owners who depend on Portland radio to market their products and services.

Maine small business owners depend on Portland radio stations to successfully advertise and market their goods and services.

Among the radio advertising faithful are Cathy Manchester of Keller-Williams Realty in Gray and Scott Libby of Royal River Heat Pumps in Falmouth. Both business owners have credited their commercials on Southern Maine stations with doubling sales at their respective companies.

Nielsen, the research company that is able to link advertising campaigns to sales results, recently analyzed which elements of an advertising campaign have the greatest effect on growth. The research found that ad-creative and reach are the primary sales drivers.

There are 3 Rs Maine small business owner need to know when advertising their goods and services: Reach. Recall. Return.

Spoiler alert. Conclusive research proves Portland radio delivers all three Rs more effectively than any other medium.

Reach, as it applies to advertising, is defined as the total number of people who are exposed to a business owner's message. Regardless of what your Maine small business sells, Portland radio can reach, by far, more of your current and prospective customers than TV, newspapers or streaming media.

It is time we all stop talking about John Wanamaker. Who?

John Wanamaker was an 19th century department store owner in Philadelphia. He is known for inventing the price tag and the return policy. But, perhaps, his greatest legacy, is the well-worn quote: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." These days, we might call that a meme.

For many years, especially during his lifetime, Mr. Wanamaker's observation had a grain of veracity. Today, however, Maine small business owners can understand what works and what doesn't. Especially, when it comes to adverting on Portland Radio.

For a Maine small business owner's advertising to be effective, it must find its way into the brain of prospective customers. The fastest path to success is through the ear.

Our brains can process a sound in 0.05 seconds.  This is 5 times faster than it takes for our minds to process visual stimuli. We can recognize the beginning of the 5th symphony by hearing just one or two notes, but we would need to interpret millions of pixels to recognize that it is actually Beethoven sitting on the piano bench hammering those notes out.

Of all sources of audio input, Maine consumers are partial to Portland radio. Last week alone, according to Nielsen, more than 700,000 adults living in Southern Maine tuned into their favorite station. The latest data reveals this is by far more than watched TV, read newspapers, used a smartphone app or listened to Spotify and Pandora combined.

In the olden days, finding new employees for a growing Maine small business was pretty simple. The owner would put a help wanted sign in the window and maybe a classified ad in the Portland Press Herald. After just a few days, the perfect candidates would present themselves.

Over the past year, however, Maine's unemployment rate plummeted from 3.8% to 3.0%. It seems everyone who wants a job has a job. This drop only intensifies the drought of qualified job candidates that is plaguing Maine small business owners.

The state's chronic labor shortage has even drawn the attention of The Washington Post.

In a recent story headlined, "2018’s Challenge: Too Many Jobs, Not Enough Workers", the Post reported, "In Maine, where flurries can fall as late as April, the state transportation department is struggling to find snowplow drivers, thanks to the increasingly tight labor market. Ski resorts in the state, meanwhile, are still looking for employees to run the slopes."

Many Maine businesses cannot grow, let alone survive without an infusion of new employees. To combat this existential challenge, these desperate business owners are turning to Portland radio to help recruit qualified candidates away from their current employers.

If you were one of the 706,000+ listeners tuned into a Portland radio station last week, then chances are you heard one of Warren Buffett's radio commercials.

Mr. Buffett's company owns Geico. And last week, like most other weeks, Mr. Buffet's company invested in more radio commercials than any other advertiser.

Mr. Buffett has a personal net worth of $87.5 billion dollars, according to Forbes Magazine's Real Time Net Worth Monitor. This makes Mr. Buffett the 3rd richest person in America.

Mr. Buffett's wealth has been built on investing in value, not by chasing "the next big thing." Mr. Buffett makes his investments based on solid fundamentals, not on, as he says, "chatter."

If a Maine small business owner depend on "chatter" to forge their advertising investment decisions instead of media fundamentals, then they cannot hope to achieve a substantial return on investment.

So let's look at radio's advertising fundamentals, or as I call them, the three "R's"...Reach, Recall, Return.

The Maine unemployment rate in December dropped to 3.0%. This is down from 3.8% a year ago, according the state's Department of Labor. This drop only intensifies the drought of qualified job candidates that is plaguing Maine small business owners.

Maine State Economist recently told Maine Public Radio that the state's chronic labor shortage is crippling the state's economy. The crunch is being felt in all industries including hospitality, healthcare, and construction.

It seems, though, the toughest jobs to fill are the white-collar jobs. According to Nielsen, there are 337,600 white collar workers in southern Maine alone. But, after reviewing local job listings, that seems to be 5200 too few to fulfill the needs of area businesses. This is where Portland radio can help.

Regardless of what your Maine small business sells, Portland radio reaches more of your customers than any other medium. Substantially more.

According to a study by Nielsen, after the content of the message is considered, reach is the most potent advertising element that can drive sales. Reach is more important than brand, recency, or context.

Last week, 703,000 Maine consumers were reached by their favorite Portland radio stations. This is vastly more than used any other local advertising medium including television, cable, newspaper, streaming audio (e.g., Pandora or Spotify), newspapers, or magazines.

Portland radio's dominance among consumers extends across every imaginable business category. To prove the point, we profiled 21 different types of southern Maine consumers across a diverse spectrum of goods and services. In each case, radio delivered, by far the greatest reach.

Creating a brand is essential to the long-term success of any Maine small business owner. The most remembered brands all have something in common: they advertise on Portland radio.

According to the YouGov Brand Index ratings for 2017, the brands whose advertising generated the highest ad awareness during 2017 were Geico, McDonald's, Verizon Wireless; AT&T; Walmart; Subway; DirectTV; T-Mobile; Progressive; and Walgreen's. Based on expenditure reports provided by The Radio Advertising Bureau, these 10 brands were all among radio's top advertisers.

So, what exactly is branding and why is it critical to the survival of a business?