Radio’s Halo Effect

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Radio’s Halo Effect

Why do so many companies silo their marketing efforts, maintaining separate departments for online and traditional marketing?  Quite often, the online marketing department has no idea what the offline department is doing and therefore assumes the outcomes of their efforts are mutually exclusive.  I wish it were that simple.  As consumers, we’re bombarded with messages both on and offline.  What we respond to is usually a combination of what we’ve been exposed to and therefore difficult to exclusively source.  So how can we effectively silo marketing disciplines?  Intuitive marketers know that we cannot…and should not.

For example, I have a direct response radio client who measures radio success by the number of calls the phone number in the radio commercial receives.  That being said, my client tells me that the very day his radio campaign starts, the online manager notices a spike in traffic to the company’s home page.  My first reaction is always, “I’m so glad you two communicate!”  My client calls the spike radio’s “halo effect” and knows that without radio, the online manager’s results would suffer.  Now, imagine if these two departments didn’t communicate.  The online manager would most likely be attributing the spike in online hits to who knows what.  Instead, they’ve learned that their radio campaign helps to brand their company, resulting in both increased organic searches along with a heightened attention to their online marketing efforts.

Such is the case with social media marketing.  Alone, social media marketing relies on the fickleness of fans to make a campaign go viral.  Marketers have little control and often scratch their heads wondering why one YouTube video gets a gazillion views while others instantly fade away. When you jump start a social campaign with radio, suddenly you’re in control.  Radio becomes the word of mouth needed to jolt your social media campaign into viral mode.  To the thousands of new fans of your brand, radio is just another “friend” referral.  But to you, the social media marketer, radio is insurance – that your campaign will be successful!

It is my prediction that, like the Berlin wall, the silos of online and offline marketing will continue to come down.  Marketers will recognize and use to their advantage the increased effectiveness of integrated marketing or as my client calls it, the “halo” effect.

Lisa Sable is a Senior Marketing Strategist at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com