How Frequency Builds Response in DR Radio

The Basics of Direct Response Radio / Part III

EVERY BRAND HAS A UNIQUE
OPTIMUM EFFECTIVE FREQUENCY .

    People read magazines at different speeds.  They listen to radio commercials at the same speed.  They often understand and then respond to them at different speeds.  Some quick studies call or click after one or two hits.  Dawdlers require more persuasion. What's the right frequency for your brand?

   
     Radio is a hot, emotional medium, like TV.  Some people hear music radio in the background.  Others listen more intently to AM News/Talk/ Sports.  AM and FM talk formats tend to pull better than FM music formats because the ear is already tuned to the human voice.  However, unlike TV, most radio fans are doing something else while they're listening to your commercial.  They're driving, or painting the house, or working through lunch at their desks. 

     Your copy has to deliver your Brand Promise in such a way as to get them to stop what they're doing and click or call.  If Your Thing is very important to them, they may do so immediately.  In many cases, though, it takes a few hits to get to put down that paint brush or sandwich. 

How Frequency Builds Response.

Consider all the people who hear your commercial just one time - and call or click.  Imagine you could group them into a set called f1s, short for Frequency=1.  Everyone in this box is pretty cheap to reach, right?  Hit 'em once.  They call or click. 

What about the people who need two, three, four or more hits?  Call them f2s, f3's, f4s, and so on.  You have to buy more and more spots to accumulate frequency against them, so you want there to be more and more people in each set.  You want every extra dollar you spend to add extra responders to each set.  When successive sets get smaller, each extra call or click costs more.   

   Every brand is different.  The Frequency Build for a well-known brand, a unique Thing, or a free-offer might look like this.  Most response comes from people who hear you 4 to 8 times.  Very few people need 10 or more hits.  Response starts to flatline at about F15.

   The Frequency Build for a new brand in a cluttered category might look like this.  Most people have to hear you many times before you get much response.   All those F18s have to pay for the media you bought against F1s, F2s...!  You can keep running, though, until you get to the east edge of the mesa.

    

  Optimum Effective Frequency.

   "Effective Frequency" (EF) is smaller than "Average Frequency." 
EF is the number of times that half or more of a station's Weekly Cume has heard a commercial. Your Optimum Effective Frequency (OEF) is a range of EF in which most of your response occurs. To determine your own OEF on a solid station or destination program, just remember "911."

1.  (# Spots / Turnover) x .911 = Effective Frequency.

Turnover (Δ) = Cume/AQH.
# Spots = total :30s or :60s run since Day One.

a.  Divide Weekly Cume by Average Quarter Hour.*

b.  Divide # Spots by Δ. 

c.  Multiply by .911**

EXAMPLE:

(46 / 5) x .911 = 8.4  (Quick, get your calculator!)

2.  Compare weekly Effective Frequency to Response.

Do that arithmetic for each week you've run on that station or program.  Then note Inquiries for each week.

When tracked calls or clicks plateau, you've entered your OEF range.  When they begin to drop, you've just edged out of OEF.  The grid below indicates an OEF range of 3.3 to 6.5:

* Weekly Target Audience Cume and Average Quarter Hour Audience are available from media reps of stations and networks that are rated by Arbitron or Radar.

** The exact multiplier is .9118541

   Does all this seem like too much work?

   Remember, each station delivers a unique set of loyal listeners. Once you reach an Optimum Effective Frequency against the Weekly Cume, you'll want to maintain just enough presence to attract response from new listeners, or from new Steam Heat Shoppers.  

Dinovite is a nutritional supplement for dogs that stink, shed, scratch or itch due to the enzyme deficiency in all commercial dog foods. When their owners reach Critical Stink (they gotta fix the dog!), OEF is 1.0 to 2.5. After local copy tests in L.A., I rolled into network radio promptly. After a strong intro on programs like Sean, Rush, ESPN Mid-Day, etc. I dropped back to 2 x :60 every three or four weeks.   The market refreshes itself. Revenues rose from $5,000 a week to $180,000 a week. Learn how.

Dice.com is the leading IT Job Board.  Code guys, system engineers, etc. would "Click the Dice" to get new jobs or figure out what skill to acquire next.   I'd run only 10-15 spots a week on eight to 10 stations per market for 15 days, every four months.  Audience duplication between stations gave me a 70% to 85% reach and an OEF of 3-4. In 18 months the campaign drove revenues from $14MM to $40MM. Details. 

   OEF accounts for creative impact, the natural Acceleration Rate of your category, the current Personality Spectrum of your Target Audience, and many market fundamentals such as Purchase Cycle, competitive activity, the local economy, etc.

  OEF does predict future burnout.  It's a good snapshot of the past, and can help you plan flight lengths in the future.

   OEF is not, however, enough to track or predict Media Cost Per Sale.  For that you'll need GM/C=X. First, though, let's learn how to evaluate and buy radio stations.

Intro   DR Radio v Print    How Frequency Builds Response  How To Select Stations

GM/C = X versus CICO   How To Test & Roll Out   Click-to & 1-800 DR

   
ADVANCED CONCEPTS OF RADIO

RADIO GLOSSARY