Direct Response Radio
Research by BT, DMA and GWR
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Contents
Direct Response Radio
Confidence in the phone
The Research
Response Rates
Speed of Response
Calls Answered
Planning Campaigns
Building Response
DR Advertising by Sector
Summary
Best Practice Guidelines
The growth of telephone direct response (or telemarketing), championed by an overwhelming consumer desire, continues unrelentingly at around 40% per year.
Alongside this the commercial radio industry has also grown substantially, more than doubling its share of the advertising cake in the last three years.
Given this scenario, an increase in understanding of the effectiveness of radio as a direct response medium, was well overdue.
The first serious attempt to quantify direct response radio was undertaken by the Direct Marketing Association for their 1996 Census. The DMA Census showed that, at that time, an average of 32% of radio advertisements were for direct response campaigns.
Keen to find out more about this sector BT and the DMA contacted Classic FM and the GWR Group. Together they represented national and regional commercial radio, telecommunications, and direct marketing; an ideal group to carry out the first ever original research into direct response radio.
The growth of telemarketing has made it increasingly important to quantify commercial radio's ability to deliver effective response and also to determine how to exploit that response most efficiently.
The objectives
The research into the use of direct response by radio advertisers set out to achieve the following:-
- To gain some insight into the potential of Direct Response Radio in the UK.
- To gain an understanding of the success, dynamics, penetration and usage of Direct Response Radio.
- To establish the efficiency of Direct Response Radio as a business generator.
- To set the agenda for best practice guidelines in Direct Response Radio.
The increase in telephone buying has been
quite marked across many sectors as the following chart shows. At the same time the
consumer's awareness of special numbers, particularly 0800 numbers, has increased.
The research was conducted over a 3 week period from 6.00am to midnight.
The stations were:-
LOCAL
- Trent FM & Gem AM
- Hereward FM & Classic Gold 1332
- GWR FM & Brunel Classic Gold
NATIONAL
- Classic FM
The advertisements were monitored and those with BT direct response numbers noted with their times of transmission. The spots employing those phone numbers were matched to RAJAR Audience Data and passed to BT to extract the appropriate telephone response from BT's billing records*.
[* Confidential BT information - advertisers identity not released]
The final clean data set contained details on 4,248 direct response radio advertisements for a total of 71 different advertisers.
Response rates were monitored 5 minutes before and then after the advertisement was aired.
Response rate percentages were calculated by dividing the number of calls by the radio audience size.
Response indices compare specific response rates with the average response rate.
Whilst there can be no direct comparison with earlier surveys, as the samples were so different, the results showed that 64% of the advertisements during the period included a telephone number, which is considerably higher than had been assumed. Of these, 20%, employed a BT special number and were included in this research.
The consumer's awareness of freephone numbers is reflected in the higher response efficiency of 0800 numbers compared to other numbers.
From the following chart we can see quite clearly that the advertisements achieving the highest response far outstripped the average. This underlines the need to create direct response advertising that is focused on generating response with the creative treatment embracing this focus.
The results showed that ten second commercials achieve the highest response rate. These are used as a call to action after a longer informative spot earlier in the break. This also explains the comparative under performance of the 60 second spot, which is often use in conjunction with 10 second spots.
By looking at the chart below we can see that calls came in very quickly after the advertisement was broadcast and that the background level of calls received a boost only during the 5 minute period immediately after the spot. This rapid response time demonstrates radio's immediacy particularly when compared to television where the peak response time is 15 minutes after the broadcast time.
The need for efficient call handling facilities to cope with these fluctuations is vital and service performance can be enhanced with the introduction of IVR for certain applications. This was demonstrated by the results of recent research into IVR in a financial services test situation.
With consumer expectations increasing all the time, generating response that is not handled effectively can be counter productive. The effect on the brand or company image by consumer intolerance to poor call handling could provide opportunities for competitors. This message seems to have been understood by most advertisers in that nearly 84% of all calls were answered while only 16% failed to be answered (ineffective).
| Effective responses | 59,972 | 83.7% |
| Ineffective responses | 11,661 | 16.3% |
| Total responses | 71,633 | 100% |
If you remove the 10 radio advertisements with the worst percentage of ineffective calls;
- Effective responses rise to 86.3%
- Ineffective responses fall to 13.7%
Timing as much as frequency can be a critical factor in achieving effective response. The charts show that whilst most DR advertising is carried out in morning airtime the most response efficient time of day is early evening.
There is obviously a trade-off between audience size and efficiency. Advertisements rotated evenly throughout the day would seem to benefit from increasing effectiveness as the audience diminishes.
The charts showing efficiency by time of day imply that the best strategy would involve building brand and establishing an offer through the day and achieving response by spreading the campaign into the evening when the listener is more able to respond. This efficiency boost also applies to the weekend where the listener obviously has a greater opportunity to respond.
Many radio campaigns are part of a multi-media approach. As can be seen from the chart, previously televised campaigns have enhanced the response rates, however, part of this success may be due to television advertising being more likely to be undertaken by better known companies, thus increasing the confidence factor vital to direct response.
The frequency of repeat has a direct effect on the performance of the advertising. Repeats within 30 minutes to one hour show a marked difference to the rest.
When comparing one sector with another is it evident that some fare better than others. There are probably two factors that contribute to this: one is the increasing use of the telephone in a particular sector i.e. financial services; and the other is confidence which rises with the simplicity of the proposition such as the purchase of specific products like replacement windows.
Direct Response Radio is an effective marketing tool with enormous future potential.
Consumer confidence in the sector has grown in tandem with the increase in use of direct response numbers by advertisers.
The research has shown that it is important to plan direct response radio with care, to maximise the potential of the medium.
| Average response rates over 0.1% Response efficiency increases:
|
* Opportunity to hear |
For further information or for a presentation on Direct Response Radio please contact one of the following:
BT
Howard Sandom, 0171 492 2273
Classic FM/GWR Group
Natalie Evans, 0171 284 3000
Direct Marketing Association
Jane Pembroke, 0171 321 2525
© 1997 BT - Direct Marketing Association - GWR Group - Classic FM. Information contained in this booklet may only be published by permission of the consortium responsible for the research who may be contacted through any of the above organisations.
Source: Classic FM / B.T. / GWR Group plc / DMA
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