Radio advertising is processed by the brain profoundly faster than visual advertising. This is valuable news for Southwest Florida business owners who depend on radio to market their goods and services.
SWFL consumers will recognize the first few notes of Jingle Bells five times faster than they can identify a picture of Santa Claus. That's because it takes the human brain 5/100th of a second to process sound. On the other hand, it takes a full quarter of a second to process visual stimuli.
This difference in processing time may seem inconsequential. But, for a local small business owner who is fighting to inject their advertising message into the mind of consumers, that .20-second gap can be the difference between success and failure.
During that chasm between sound and sight processing, consumers will be inundated with by 2,200,000 other pieces of data that will compete for the brain's attention. Because brains are only capable of dealing with about ten pieces of data every quarter second, the last one is, as they say, a rotten egg.
For a small business owner to win the battle of the brain, then, it must first seize a consumer's ear. By any, measure, advertising on Fort Myers radio stations dominates the ear.
Last week, according to Nielsen, significantly more consumers tuned-in to Fort Myers radio stations than watched local TV, read a local newspaper, or logged-on to a streaming audio site like Pandora or Spotify.
Most impressively, among audio-only platforms, radio, by far, command the largest share of a consumer's ear.
There's another scientific reason for SWFL small business owners to put their money where the ears are. It's called encoding.
Last year, Brainsights, a research company that uses neurological, bio-metric, and non-conscious data to learn how consumers make decisions, set out to compare the advertising efficacy of different media. The study was commissioned by Canadian Broadcast Sales.
Researchers used EEG technology, that records the electrical activity of the brain, to track individual reactions to radio content. Respondents were exposed to 32 commercials across various categories ranging from automotive and finance to entertainment and personal care. The electrodes measured subconscious engagement across three key variables: awareness, connection, and encoding.
These three areas of engagement measured are the states of mind that influence advertising results.
The study found that radio, TV, and digital ads performed comparably in awareness and connection. When it comes to encoding, however, radio commercials proved far more effective than other media.
What is encoding? It's the process our brains use to store and recall information. For the information in ads to influence a sale, it must be properly encoded.
Advertising on Fort Myers Radio Rules The Brain
According to the study, radio's ability to affect encoding was 8% greater than all general advertising; 21% greater than television advertising; and 4% greater than digital advertising.
Radio's encoding advantage is even more evident when individual product categories are considered.
For financial services, for instance, radio produced 30% more encoding than the general advertising benchmark for the study. For e-commerce categories, radio's encoding results were 35% higher.
Local Ad Recall, a research company that measures the effectiveness of advertising, found that brand recall was five times higher for companies that advertised on radio versus the companies that did not.
Consequently, Fort Myers area small business owners who advertise on radio have a much better chance of being recalled and, therefore, frequented by prospective customers than companies that do not advertise on radio.
Hundreds of local business owners understand the power of putting their marketing messages directly into the ears of consumers by advertising on Fort Myers radio stations.
Radio Advertising Is A Good Investment for SWFL Business Owners
"We have been very pleased with the results of our radio advertising," says Kimberly Bell, who handles the marketing for Fix Marine Supply in Cape Coral. "It has been a very good investment for us."
Eight years ago, John Fix started Fix Marine Supply at his dining room table in Cape Coral to try and grab a share of the $150,000,000 that is spent on boating-related purchases in the county each year. The company specializes in boat lifts and supplies for both residential consumers and contractors.
"The business started growing right away, primarily by word of mouth," says Ms. Bell. "Five years ago we moved to our first store on 47th street in Cape Coral. That's when we began to do more advertising."
"After about a month," says Ms. Bell, "we began to see an increase in our store traffic. At first, it was primarily from the Cape Coral area. But then we started seeing customers coming from as far away as Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. Advertising on Fort Myers radio really helped expand our sales area."
Business at Fix Marine Supply expanded so successfully that the company moved into a much larger showroom on Cape Coral Parkway.
Advertising on Fort Myers radio continues to drive in new customers. "When people come in, we always ask how they learned about us. A lot of customers will say they heard us on the radio. That's how we know advertising on Fort Myers radio really works."
Fort Myers Radio Delivers Affordable Reach And Frequency
Jamie Lanye, owner of Victory Layne Chevrolet, also has experienced the value of advertising on Fort Myers radio stations.
"Of all the media we have used over the years," says Ms. Layne, "advertising on Fort Myers radio helps us reach the most people and gives the best frequency."
"We used to advertise a lot on local TV, but now we depend mostly on radio to keep our name top of mind among car buyers," Ms. Layne says. "I believe being heard is the same as being seen. So, I don't need to pay the premium prices that local television charges."
"For instance," she continues, "for the cost of one TV ad in the Superbowl, I could take over a whole radio station for a week. I have always believed in radio advertising."
Ms. Layne can prove that advertising on Fort Myers radio has worked for her dealership.
"A few years ago," says Ms. Layne, "we added a jingle to our radio commercials. It went something like this: 'Victory Layne Chevrolet/That's L-A-Y-N-E'. It was very catchy."
"I knew it was effective because shortly after it started, I was summoned for jury duty. When the prosecutor saw my name and it was spelled L-A-Y-N-E, he stopped what he was doing and said in front of everyone in court that his young daughter sang the jingle all the time. I knew then, as I suspected, advertising on Fort Myers radio really, really works.
