New Study from the Radio Ad Lab Confirms:
Radio Ads Have Emotional Impact Equal to TV Ads

New York, New York – June 28, 2007 -- According to new research based on advanced physiological testing, Radio ads have emotional impact on consumers that is equal to that of television ads.  The Radio Ad Lab released the new study, Engagement, Emotions, and the Power of Radio, at the Interep Mid-Year Radio Symposium today in New York. Today’s release follows an advanced preview presented by James Peacock, President of Peacock Research and consultant to the Radio Ad Lab, and Scott Purvis, President, Gallup & Robinson, on June 27 at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Audience Measurement 2.0 Conference, also in New York.

Engagement, Emotions, and the Power of Radio was designed to assess how well Radio ads generate emotional responses and engage with consumers, compared to television ads. The study used methods of measuring emotional responses that don’t require verbal responses, but work at a deeper, pre-cognitive level.

Conducted by Gallup & Robinson, the study used leading-edge measures of emotional response, supplemented with traditional validated metrics of advertising effectiveness, to assess the emotional connection that advertising messages make with an audience. 

Called CERA (Continuous Emotional Response Analysis), emotional activation is gathered in part through the technique of facial electromyography (EMG), and then more traditional cognitive responses about advertising effectiveness are collected through conventional face-to-face interviews.  Positive and negative emotional activations were measured separately.  In addition, a more traditional excitement measure based on skin conductance was used to evaluate the strength of the emotion.

The results of the study revealed that positive EMG scores and total excitement levels were just as high for Radio ads as for television ads, and Radio ads actually are lower on the negative emotional score. 

All 16 Radio ads used in the study delivered an emotional impact that was equivalent, overall, to their television counterparts.  In fact, four of the Radio campaigns showed EMG scores that were significantly higher than the television campaigns, while only one television ad was significantly higher than its Radio counterpart.

“Previous studies from the Radio Ad Lab have confirmed that Radio connects with its audience in very unique ways,” observed Jeff Haley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), and Co-Chair of the Radio Ad Lab.  “This new research further verifies that Radio is an engaging environment for advertising messages and confirms that the emotional bonds Radio programming establishes with its audience transfers to the advertising.”

The full Engagement, Emotions, and the Power of Radio research paper and the executive summary can be downloaded from the Radio Ad Lab Website at www.RadioAdLab.org.  All of the Radio Ad Lab’s earlier studies and its research compendium are also available on the site.  A link to the Radio Ad Lab site also can be found at www.RAB.com. 

The Radio Ad Lab Research Committee, which designs and oversees all the research, includes members of the agency and advertising communities, as well as broadcasters.  That balanced involvement keeps the research objective, assuring that it is both relevant and valuable to advertisers. 

The Radio Ad Lab is an independent organization, established in 2001 with funding from Radio industry companies.  Advertisers and agencies are an integral part of the Research Committee and contribute extensively to the design of the research and to the communication of its results.  Radio Ad Lab’s goal is to further the industry's understanding of how Radio advertising works and to measure its effectiveness.  

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