Advertisers are still working from an outdated picture of radio. A side-by-side of what brands believe about AM/FM and what Nielsen, Edison Research, and LeadsRx data show finds big gaps on reach, audience share, in-car listening, and return on investment.
The Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group compared advertiser and agency beliefs about consumer media habits with behavior data from Nielsen, LeadsRx, and Edison Research. The perception side comes from an Advertiser Perceptions study of 302 advertisers and agencies conducted in August.
On reach, advertisers estimated that radio reaches 43% of Americans weekly. Nielsen Comparable Metrics for the first quarter, via Katz Radio Group, put the figure at 86%. Persons 18-34 make up the largest weekly AM/FM audience at 63.5M, ahead of persons 65+ at 58.1M, persons 35-49 at 57.8M, and persons 50-64 at 54.9M.
Return on investment is where perception and data diverge most. Nielsen’s CMO survey ranked AM/FM radio last among channels for perceived effectiveness at 46%. Nielsen’s Global media mix modeling benchmarks rank AM/FM second in weighted average ROI at $2.00, behind social at $2.22, and fourth in the US at $2.14.
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