Understanding Linear Radio Advertising: Best Practices and Strategies

In this episode of Tripod, the audio advertising podcast, Howard Bareham and Tom Balaam dive into the world of linear radio. They discuss the various types of live radio, including national, regional, local, and community stations, and how advertisers can leverage these platforms to drive scale and awareness. The episode covers important topics such as the quality vs. quantity of airtime, the role of repetition and frequency (opportunities to hear), and effective partnership strategies. Listeners will gain valuable insights into optimising radio campaigns and making the most of live radio advertising.

00:00 Introduction to Audio Advertising

00:27 Exploring Live Radio Options

00:57 National vs. Local Advertising Strategies

02:08 Live Radio Partnerships

04:00 Quality Over Quantity in Radio Spots

05:03 Understanding Opportunities to Hear (OTH)

05:46 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser

If you have any questions arising from this episode or you'd like to talk to us about audio advertising email ⁠info@trisonic.co.uk⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠.

[00:00:29] So let's start with traditional linear radio, live radio, as we discussed earlier. Um, so what's available in terms of live radio and how do we use it? I mean, there's. National stations, there are regional stations, there are local stations and now community stations as well as a lot of ways that we can target live radio audiences in there.

[00:01:09] But you know, we will do stuff for Potentially for retail clients in terms of local store openings, uh, and things like that. Um, so you're simulating the same sort of circumstances on a local level is what you are a national level in terms of like what the kind of like opportunity is for the advertiser.

[00:01:48] Cause you're effectively just looking at that kind of that region, that town, that city, and trying to replicate that model in terms of like, right, here's a note. Of scale talking about this store is opening or something's happening in the local area this time. And we want to make as many people aware of it as possible in that local area.

[00:02:20] So if you want to talk to an audience, uh, work with certain presenters, look for that kind of presenter endorsement and that obviously allows them to be more ingrained in the station, have more of a connection of. What we through some of the things that they could do in specific terms? Well, I suppose in terms of if you're looking kind of more partnership stuff, um, it's not just the on air element anymore.

[00:03:04] So that can be through, you know, the thousands of thousands of people that have that come to kind of radio station, social feeds now that can be through the radio weapons, uh, stations website in terms of bringing in station talent to create specific video content, for example, that allows the kind of like the client to own that kind of content and seed that out across their own social and stuff like this.

[00:03:50] I do think we associate that with driving scale. And, uh, on spot advertising, many, a new advertiser will come out with a question. How many spots am I going to get? It's not about the number of spots, Howard. It's more about the quality of the airtime, isn't it? Uh, yes. Just explain what I mean by quality of airtime.

[00:04:37] So you've only had one spot versus the five. So it's not about the quantity, it's the quality. And we know through the research systems that we have when people are listening To the radio and therefore we optimize campaigns for where the audience is listening throughout the day. So simple terms, I hope that explains that it's not the quantity, it's the quality of where you place them.

[00:05:26] And there are benchmarks, industry norms, that benchmark a, an OTH or a frequency between medium, lightweight, medium weight and heavy weight. So it's really, it's about how many times the person will hear your message. It determines the weight of the campaign for radio stations. But, you know, there are different schools of thought, but that's really what it means.