Radio Bites

Radio Bite: Welcoming brands to radio

Radio is a powerful and often underutilised platform for advertisers. During these unprecedented times our Radio Bites series will give compelling reasons for brands to continue to be heard on the airwaves and why consumers will be listening.

Figures from Global suggest that the pandemic has provided opportunities for radio to reach out to brands and better showcase how it can help them through difficult times.

During Tuning In: Back to Business, Global’s Director of Commercial Audio Katie Bowden spoke about the ‘serendipity’ of the health crisis, which allowed the broadcaster to showcase its strengths of being a human medium.

Grocery retail was one of the first category to react to lockdown by becoming more human and empathetic, reassuring their customer bases. Research from audio intelligence platform Veritonic showed that the top six grocery retailers who were advertising on radio in early-lockdown performed above all previous benchmarks. “The ads were deemed more authentic, more trustworthy, and more reliable by listeners,” said Katie.

Katie also shared how new brands have joined commercial radio, with 160% growth year-on-year for the food category alone – an area in which radio can offer a lot of benefits, including boosting on-shelf visibility and purchase intent, as we’ve seen in previous Bites.

Watch Katie Bowden’s presentation, ‘The Serendipity of a Crisis’ below and see more speakers from Tuning In: Back to Business on our website.