Despite the rise of online media, radio continues to be a strong and effective advertising channel for businesses. With commercial radio available on digital radio, portable devices, in-home and in-car, it really is an effective way to engage with your target audience at any time of the day. The engaging and social nature of radio and its powerful connection with its audience makes radio the perfect way to build brand awareness and stimulate digital activity. Radio is a cost effective, high-reach, high-frequency medium.

This being said, there is a lot of poor radio advertising out there, and this will have a negative effect on your brand. If your radio commercial is creative and compelling it will likely yield results. If it is carelessly thrown together, it likely won’t. Even worse, you will have thrown away thousands on advertising time with an in-effective message.

Radio remains a popular medium. Almost nine out of ten (87.7%) South Africans tune into the radio on a weekly basis and the number of radio stations continues to grow. It makes sense therefore to use some of your advertising budget on radio advertising. There is a lot of clutter out there though so make sure that your radio script is written in a professional manner. There seems to be a trend for the owners of companies to do their own radio spots, probably because it’s cheaper and because they think they are forging a special bond with their target audience by speaking directly to them. Most are terrible and from a personal viewpoint make me loath the product being advertised. A radio spot should fit in with the overall brand strategy and act as a complement to your other marketing elements.

Author
Gregory Sander