Philly Radio: WBEB Offers Ad Effectiveness Program

WBEB 101.1 MoreFM Philadelphia Chairman Jerry Lee Lee has announced he will offer free effectiveness testing of radio commercials to every Philadelphia-area advertiser that spends $12,000 or more a year in radio.

Lee is partnering with national testing firm Sensory Logic to implement the program and make recommendations on how to increase engagement and effectiveness of the advertisements. Large agencies and advertisers including Hershey Entertainment and NRG Energy have already taken advantage of the program.

"As the greatest reach medium, radio has only touched the surface of what it can deliver for advertisers and brands," said Lee. "This program can be a game-changer for advertisers, for agencies and for radio as a whole. It uses proven research methods to create better commercials that create emotional connections with listeners and drive consumers to action. Radio is extremely powerful and if it takes a bold action to make people realize it, then that's what we're prepared to do. This is an investment we are willing to make because we know it will pay off for everyone."

The testing program utilizes lessons learned from facial coding to help advertisers create more engaging commercials for radio. Industry studies have shown that commercials that engage the listener are 8 times as effective at getting increased sales compared to commercials that don't engage the listener. Yet facial coding research shows that only 20 percent of radio commercials nationally engage the listener, while only 8 percent of local radio commercials engage the listener.

While the overwhelming majority of national television spots are tested for engagement before they air, less than one percent of radio commercials nationally are tested. According to a recent Advertising Research Foundation study, 75 percent of the effectiveness of an ad campaign is based on the strength of the creative.

"Under Jerry's leadership, MoeFM's Engaging Creative program has been very useful to us in maximizing our radio ROI." said NRG Retail East Senior Manager of Marketing Kristen Leitzel.

"In the past year, we have used it to develop two radio commercials for two different products, and in both cases, we received great feedback on how to improve the scripts to make them more effective. The feedback from Sensory Logic is very specific, which makes it particularly helpful to our copywriters."