“It is simply high time to draw attention to the advantages and strengths of the medium and its advertising,” says Peter Scheurer. The managing director of the Swiss private radio association VSP is one of the driving forces behind the current genre marketing campaign. Together with CH Media as the operator of numerous private broadcasters and the advertising agent Swiss Radioworld (Goldbach), the VSP and its counterpart RRR from French-speaking Switzerland are going on the offensive.
“Radio is no bullshit”
Under the slogan “Book a radio”, the advantages of radio advertising will soon be highlighted on posters, newspaper advertisements, online advertisements and of course radio spots. This is done with slogans such as “Radio is THE reach booooooster”, “Radio is uncomplicated” or “Radio is no bullshit”. The Website radiobuchen.ch offers extensive information and facts about the keywords, as well as contact options for broadcasters and marketers/agents (persoenlich.com reported).
But what about radio advertising in Switzerland? A look at the numbers shows that there could very well still be untapped potential. Although audio and radio are currently experiencing a boom, radio advertising has a niche existence. According to the current IGEM Digimonitor, five million people in Switzerland listen to music streams or radio every day. Although radio continues to act as a mass medium, according to Mediafocus, advertising only accounts for around 5 percent of the total advertising pie. “In other European countries this value is justifiably double-digit and we want to go there too,” says Ralf Brachat, managing director of the advertising agent Swiss Radioworld.
“In the national market, the only thing that counts is measurability.”
According to the actors behind the current campaign, there are various reasons why the proportion of radio advertising in Switzerland is so low. They identify a problem with national advertising. “In the national market, the only thing that counts is measurability based on data, as with digital forms of advertising,” criticizes Nicola Bomio, Head of Radio CH Media and President of the Association of Swiss Private Radios. On the other hand, people are well anchored in the local area. Whether car dealerships, furniture stores or a variety of event organizers – they have all been advertising on the radio for a long time. The current campaign is therefore aimed at nationally oriented large corporations. “In other countries they advertise on the radio, but we still miss some of them,” says Ralf Brachat. This may also be due to the fact that in Switzerland the national or regional language programs of the SRG are only allowed to offer sponsorship and not advertising. National coverage cannot be achieved with one station alone.
The players see another reason for the low market share of radio advertising in consulting and media planning. “We are definitely of the opinion that agencies should include radio and audio more often in their media planning, especially now that customers are interested and evidence of the performance of audio advertising is making them sit up and take notice,” says Peter Scheurer. Scheurer wants the swipes at agencies and other media genres, as shown in the campaign’s motifs, to be understood as “humorous teasing”.
“Channel selection depends on a variety of factors”
Thorsten Winkler sees himself addressed by this criticism. The CEO of the Mediaschneider Bern agency has a say in how radio advertising develops in Switzerland. However, unlike the industry representatives, he is not committed to the medium of radio, but rather to his customers and their budgets. Winkler cannot ignore the general statement made in the campaign that radio is not given enough consideration in media planning. “The choice of channel always depends on a variety of factors such as budget, target group and region, overarching marketing goal, type of message to be conveyed and more,” the media specialist points out.
Winkler also knows the undisputed advantages of radio advertising, such as the comparatively cheap rates or the local and regional focus when it comes to advertising in certain geographical areas. He also cites the speed and flexibility of the form of advertising as an advantage. “Radio advertising can be produced and broadcast at relatively short notice, which makes it a very suitable medium for time-critical campaigns such as special promotions, sales or events,” Thorsten Winkler told persoenlich.com.
But he also sees structural weaknesses in radio advertising. It is in the nature of things that radio advertising conveys sound messages and does not offer any visual stimuli. “In a world where visual content dominates, this can be a disadvantage,” says media expert Winkler. In addition, audio-visual or generally multisensory messages are easier to anchor in memory.
“There is still a lot of potential in digital audio”
Another weakness that Winkler mentions: In a mass medium, the segmentation is less precise than in digital media, where data can be used to reach very specific demographic groups, for example. This isn’t possible with radio, but it is possible with digital audio formats such as streaming or podcasts. The current genre marketing campaign is about radio advertising in the narrower sense. But digital audio is also on the industry’s radar. “This is a growing market and already enjoys a double-digit share of sales in the radio business. There is still a lot of potential here,” says Ralf Brachat from the advertising agent Swiss Radioworld.
