Reach Trumps Frequency.

Whenever I hear “Radio is a frequency medium” I shudder. It implies two things, neither good. Either Radio messages don’t communicate very well, so you need say it again and again just to be sure. Or Radio’s reach is so limited that any typical schedule soon runs out of new listeners.

Both are harmful to radio and neither is true. They are the result of faulty theory and, I think, old fashioned selling. The new Arbitron PPM data clearly shows Radio is much more of a reach medium than traditional thinking would have it, and recall testing shows Radio scores are close to TV. But the part of the problem that can’t be solved by the PPM or recall scores is the way Radio is planned and sold.

MEDIA’S GIFT TO ADVERTISING

In today’s marketing, reach trumps frequency. It’s easy to see why. Reach is media’s gift to marketing. It is fundamental to how mass advertising appears to work.

The key concept is “Recency” which is the common sense idea that advertising is most effective when it reminds people about brands they know, when they happen to need the product.

Here’s a Sesame Street example (hypothetical):

1. At breakfast, Mary sees the cereal box is empty.

2. Driving home from work, Mary hears a Cheerios commercial on the Radio, which reminds her she needs cereal.

3. Mary stops at the Supermarket for her regular brand, but she sees the Cheerios box on the shelf and buys it instead.

There are several important things about this scenario.

• The advertising itself did not get Mary to buy cereal (and the frequent repetition of Cheerios messages wouldn’t do it either). The empty cereal box did it.

• The advertising simply reminded Mary she needed cereal and at the same time told her about Cheerios — a brand she knew, but hadn’t bought recently.

• In fact, Mary had heard the Cheerios message on Radio the week before, but didn’t pay much attention at the time because she didn’t need cereal.

That sums it up. Most advertising usually works by reminding people about brands they know, when they happen to need the product. On the face of it, a perfect set-up for Radio, but not when used as a frequency medium. [1]

FREQUENCY IS CRABGRASS

Recency is a “reminding” not a “remembering” model. The difference is critical because reminding is a stimulus that can be controlled; remembering is a response that cannot be.

On the face of it, reminding is a perfect job for Radio, but not when used as a frequency medium. Frequency— contacting one consumer three times with a message, is not as good as reach — contacting three consumers once, because that one consumer is far less likely to need the product than any of the three would be.

And given that someone in the market for a product is usually more receptive to advertising for that product, fewer messages are needed. Again, reach not frequency.

These ideas about how advertising works, together with growing media fragmentation which tends to produce more frequency, have made frequency a kind of media crabgrass. The planner’s challenge is to kill it.

All said, today it is not good to be thought of as a frequency medium.

To view report CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

http://www.ephrononmedia.com/article_archive/article_pdf/reach_06_05.pdf

By Erwin Ephron
Courtesy of http://www.ephrononmedia.com