What Maine Small Business Owners Need To Know About TV Advertising

I just don’t understand. Why isn’t advertising on Portland radio the first choice of every Maine small business owner? Hundreds of local companies know, that by any measurement, local radio is the superior way to turn prospects into customers. But, some other companies, perplexingly, still choose TV first.

In a moment, I am going to present a cogent case to prove that if a Maine business owner chooses to advertise on TV, then it must, to ensure success, also invest in a radio schedule.

Before I do that, though, I think it is important to insist on Portland radio’s superiority as an advertising and marketing medium for any Maine business. I can distill my argument into three components: Reach, Recall, and Return.

1. Reach…last week 700,000 adult consumers tuned into a Portland radio station. This is 11% greater than the 630,00o that tuned-in to a local TV station. As we pointed out, a recent study by Nielsen proved reach to be a key contributor to turning audiences into buyers.

2. Recall…If a consumer can’t remember a commercial, then it won’t result in a sale. Local Ad Recall, a research company that measures the effectiveness of advertising, found that brand recall was 516% higher for companies that advertised on the radio versus companies that did not. Consequently, Maine businesses that advertise on Portland radio have a much better chance of being remembered by prospective customers than companies who don’t advertise on radio.

3. Return on Investment…Over the past few years, Nielsen, a company that tracks both our media consumption well as our buying habits, has done more than 20 studies to determine what type of return a business owner could expect for every $1.00 invested in radio advertising. In every, case, radio advertising’s return-on-investment, was, according to Ad Age, “Eye-popping.” According to Nielsen, among all of the studies conducted, radio ads produce a very impressive 6 time ROI. Ad Age magazine says these findings indicate that advertisers can expect higher returns-on investment from radio than TV, digital, or social media.

Based on these three success indicators, you can see why I am surprised when a Maine business owner skips radio in favor of advertising on local, Portland television stations.

But when a business does choose TV, it should plan to reserve a portion of the budget to also use radio to compensate for a major, intrinsic weakness of television advertising.

Almost Half of All TV Viewers are Difficult To Reach

According to Nielsen, 44% of everyone who tunes-in to television is considered a light user. These very elusive consumers account for only 9% of all viewing, making them very hard, if not impossible, to reach with a typical TV advertising schedule.

Combine the fact that, overall, local TV has a substantially smaller audience than Portland radio with the fact that TV campaigns could miss up to 9% of the available audience. The result is diminished reach. And, as noted earlier, reach is critical to the success of an advertising campaign.

Adding radio, it turns out, will extend the reach any TV campaign by filling in the missing viewers. According to Nielsen, radio reaches 90% of all light TV viewers. Combining both media, then, will make it more likely an ad campaign will succeed.

Remember The Recall

Reach is not the only reason a Maine business should augment a TV advertising campaign with commercials on Portland radio. Brand recall is improved when both media are employed simultaneously.

Another study by Nielsen clearly demonstrated that when a major insurance company complemented its television advertising campaign with a radio campaign, brand recall rocketed by 35%. Remember, for an advertising campaign to be successful, it must be remembered.

TV adverting does have certain benefits for Maine business owners, of course. But, based on the research, using television alone does not strongly deliver on reach and recall. Adding Portland radio. though, will help compensate

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