Radio: It’s a love thing

At the conference this morning, CRA has officially launched the new brand campaign “Radio, It’s a love thing”.

Ciaran Davis, CEO of ARN has announced the new campaign by saying:

“It is the most impactful we have ever launched, Australians love Radio”.

All the networks and owners have worked together to promote radio as a medium, with the industry delivering strong and compelling campaigns way before other industries such as television with their Freeview campaign.

The new website went live this morning (see here) and the campaign will launch across all stations from Monday.

Davis has encouraged all of us present in the room to; “use the website, use the research to talk with your clients”

The voice of the campaign is one that will be familiar to many, Andrew Hansen from The Chaser.

CRA, in a separate release have said:

It’s a Love Thing theme is underpinned by comprehensive multi-phased research, the first of its kind, from Colmar Brunton that investigated the correlation between radio and happiness levels, openness to advertising and search and purchase behavior.

The first stage of the research involved conducting interviews with media agencies and advertisers to analyse media buyer’s attitudes. Online respondents were also recruited and asked to provide information relating to their media consumption, openness to advertising, happiness plus search and purchase behaviour.

The second phase of the study continued to investigate how radio advertising influenced  consumer behaviour, to support and strengthen the outcomes obtained from the first phase of the study. After analysing nearly 20,000 responses, Colmar Brunton was able to conclude that radio listeners were nine times happier and more energised when respondents listened to radio.

The research showed that this positive effect on mood translated into openness to advertising messages. With 67% of respondents confirming they were open to advertising messages, the highest across any form of media, including television, online and print. This openness to advertising was shown to result in search and purchase increasing by more than 40% for those brands who advertised on radio.

The six week campaign will commence on 20 October 2014 and will direct listeners to visit the newly created Radio. It’s a Love Thing website. Phase two of the campaign will be launched in early 2015 and will provide insights into the strong impact that radio has in driving brand purchase in both metropolitan and regional markets. 

The brand campaign has been spearheaded by award winning radio specialist agency, Eardrum. Founding creative director of Eardrum, Ralph van Dijk, who has worked closely with the commercial radio industry for a decade.

“We wanted to capture the essence of what listeners love about radio and communicate how advertisers can benefit from that relationship. It’s such a feel good campaign and the track really grows on you.”

 CRA chief executive officer, Joan Warner said: “Radio began its all of industry radio brand campaign in 2003 well before it became popular with other media. Whilst all stations are highly competitive against one another, it’s important that we continue to work together, to promote radio as a platform.  We’ve extended the campaign this year to include the Radio. Its a Love Thing website to bring all of the valuable research and information together in one place for advertisers and our members.”