On media selection. Radio ads for universities.

Radio advertisements

When talking about advertising on radio, one needs to know a few things about the medium and its audience:

• people mainly listen to the radio while driving a car
• the other 50% of ‘hearing’ the radio is while they are working
• teenagers do not drive a car
• teenagers listen to their Ipod or play with their Iphone (social web apps) while taking the bus, the train or driving their bike.

Why do universities advertise on the radio?

The main goal in university ads is to convince teenagers to sign up for classes at their school. As stated above: teenagers do not listen that much to the radio. Why on earth would one buy expensive media space on national radio if the message doesn’t reach your target audience?

It might be that parents have a great influence on the university teenagers join. It might just be that those same parents do listen to the radio while driving their car or working. It might just be that radio spot rings those parents bell… I assume the target audience (teenager) have things like a Facebook fan page, a YouTube movie library of the university’s infrastructure and activities, a flashy banner on a certain website, an architectural booth at a trade fair, …

Why marketers better be sociologist

I suggest to read the above paragraph.

radio advertisement - influence on buying process