Study: Radio Has Strong Impact On Consumer Purchases

Mediavest | Spark and iHeartMedia today released the results of a joint analysis that measures the correlation of various media and how they influence consumers’ purchase decisions.

The results reveal that although there are slight variances across certain categories and consumer segments, overall, audio and out of home advertising prove to exhibit the strongest opportunity to influence consumer purchase decisions shortly before they happen. The study measured consumers’ use of different media on the path to purchase against the following: audio, out of home, print, TV, digital video, search, and social media.

The work covered more than 5,000 consumers using a single-source data set and platform, industry currencies, and globally-consistent yet locally-relevant execution tactics. The insights were gleaned in partnership with RealityMine and the USA Touchpoints dataset, a cross-platform study that identifies consumer behavior relative to location, social setting, activity, emotion and media usage – yielding a “day-in-the-life” snapshot. This study specifically focused on analyzing overall purchase journey behavior, and contains deeper category and target analyses of the following: CPG; Automotive; African-Americans; and Millennials.

“What was so fascinating about these findings is that in an increasingly digital world, audio and out of home advertising still dominate in terms of influencing consumer purchase habits across different stages, categories and targets,” said Helen Katz, SVP Research Director at Publicis Media.

“These findings highlight the unparalleled importance of reach and proximity to purchase for brands wanting to target their core consumers,” said Radha Subramanyam, President of Insights, Research and Data Analytics for iHeartMedia. “Radio, the number one mass reach medium, and out of home advertising are absolutely critical when it comes to driving results for marketers.

Companies that ignore these two essential elements risk not taking full advantage of the media mix.”

Key findings from the report include the following:

• Correlations between media exposure and purchase were higher for both radio and out of home than any other media type
• Among Millennials – who are typically thought of as “digital first” or “digital only,” – a strong correlation between media exposure and purchase remains highest for radio and out of home versus other media
• Among African-Americans, audio and out of home are strongly associated with the purchase journey – both in the CPG and Automotive categories
• In the CPG category, audio and out of home demonstrate a nearly 1 to 1 correlation to purchase consideration and decisions
• In the Automotive category, audio and out of home show strength for consideration and decision-making