Does radio advertising matter for beauty?
The Dial Report promises to be the “first and only company that delivers radio performance metrics [consumer behaviors, demographics, exposure, and more] in near-real time.” And, this month’s brand study purports to answer the questions “Does radio drive store traffic?”
With data on advertising from 10 brands, spanning automotive, quick-service restaurants (QSR), home improvement, and beauty retailers, Dial Report found that radio drove, on average, a 22% incremental lift in store traffic.
Data on data
For the brand study, Tag Station looked at data from April 1 – June 30, 2018, which accounted for 1.5m radio spots and 107,000 listeners.
“For each of the 10 brands, Store Traffic data was matched to listeners on stations to which the spots played. Average retail visits were calculated for those exposed to the spots and for a control group of unexposed visitors listening within the same timeframe. The percentage change in average retail visits between the exposed group and the unexposed group was calculated – giving us Store Traffic Lift,” explains the study's analysis page.
Undeniably, Tag Station has an interest in correlating radio advertising to store traffic and sales. Tag Station is a subsidiary of Emmis Communications Corporation, a media company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1981, Emmis has ventures in radio, magazines, software, and apps. According to the company’s profile on Bloomberg.com, the “Dial Report…offers radio advertising buyers and sellers big data analytics derived from radio station network, smartphone usage, location-based data, listening data, and demographic and behavioral attributes.”
Data on beauty
According to the Dial Report, Tag Station looked at 2 beauty retailers for this study. Retailer 1 saw a 27% lift in store traffic; and Retailer 2 saw a 37% lift—leading to a reported average lift of 32%.
Beauty retailer ads aired on Tuesdays correlated with the largest lift. Ads run during the AM and PM commute as well on weekends seemed to result to a higher lift than those run midday during the week or anytime overnight. And those aired on top 40 stations seemed to perform better for beauty that ads on other formats (like adult hits, classic rock, or Spanish music stations).
The brand study does include some “considerations,” one of which (curiously enough) is that “this broad-ranging study should not influence where advertisers do/do not place buys.”
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.
