Direct Response in Radio Advertising
Executive Summary
Introduction
The use of direct response in advertising continues to grow, with direct
response advertisements comprising over half of total U.S. advertising
expenditures1. Direct response is used for three specific purposes:
to solicit a direct order, to generate a lead, or to drive store or web
site traffic.
The most popular direct response mechanism is the toll-free number. Consumers
have incorporated toll-free numbers into their daily lives, and now expect
organizations to have one2. A toll-free number offers three main advantages
to a company:
- improved customer satisfaction, leading to brand loyalty and increased
sales
- reduced customer service costs
- increased customer information, leading to improved product/service
design, production, and delivery3,4
Findings
Twenty-nine percent of all radio advertisements use a toll-free number
as a response mechanism. The favorite is still the vanity 800 number.
The 800 prefix is used 66% of the time, and vanity numbers are used 72%
of the time.
Industries using toll-free numbers most frequently are telecommunications,
Internet service provider, beauty, and banking/credit. Favored radio formats
are sports and news/talk.
Internet address listings are found in 24% of radio advertisements.
Conclusions
The use of direct response in radio advertising will continue to grow,
with vanity 800 numbers predominating. Millions of consumers are exposed
to vanity 800 numbers on a daily basis, leading to their further acceptance
as a standard advertising tool.
Published July 11, 2000
Copyright © 2000, 800 Response. All rights reserved.
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