News

The Numbers

In this article we’ll start with some quick numbers and then add some context. The numbers matter, but the context is super important. It’s the sort of thing that can re-define the approach you take to your audio marketing.

Ready? The numbers:

• 8 – there’s approximately 8 ads per advertising break on commercial radio
• 4 – generally 4 ad breaks per hour
• 32 – in one hour on commercial radio you’ll realistically be exposed to 32 separate ads
• 30 – the industry standard ad length in Australia is 30 seconds
• 16 – that’s about minutes of ads each hour

OK, promised it would be quick.

The Context

Taking a step back is always an interesting exercise, and in this case looking at raw figures highlights just how many marketing messages you’re exposed to as you consume media. And this is just radio – no TV, YouTube, podcasts or social media ads.

It also doesn’t include display ads like billboards, trams, buses and bus stops. Add those in, and there’s A LOT of advertising trying to grab your attention and tell you something. Here’s the thing though: how much can you remember?

Hearing Is Believing?

Information overload is something we looked at recently, but we kept it reasonably macro.

Now we’re looking more seriously at what we do (as advertisers) and experience (as consumers). Let’s come back to those numbers. How many of the radio ads you’ve heard this year – potentially 32 in any given hour – can you honestly remember?

Not just the brand, as it’s easy to say you’ve heard Coles, Woolworths, Harvey Norman or McDonald’s ads. What do you remember about the actual messages?

And what does your response to that question tell you?

The Risk of Not Taking Risks

We’re at a point where advertising has settled into a comfortable blandness, and there’s a lot of reasons for this. One of the biggest factors is the need for revenue – and the pressure to not lose it. Which means not taking risks.

Doing so could confuse, or scare, or challenge, or annoy a client who’s about to commit to spending, and no media business wants to get that close to revenue – only to lose it. So the media industry would rather not have hard conversations with clients. Easier to see a bad ad (or a lazy brief) and say: OK, thanks for the spend.

The result is a sameness to the ads you hear. With a near-complete lack of self-awareness media outlets have effectively trained us all – advertisers and consumers – to accept ads as bland cliches repeated across industries, across ad breaks, and across the media landscape.

In short, something to not be remembered.

Go Beyond the Bland

And this gives you an opportunity to create a memorable marketing message. You’ll probably have to advocate for yourself and your business, because you’re likely dealing with people who look for the path of least resistance (and to be clear, that comes from the pressure from above).

And if you do have a sales rep or copywriter or sound designer who listens, challenges you, and cajoles you to be better, cling to them.

Having the bravery to move beyond the bland and give consumers a reason to remember your ad and your message will make your marketing stronger, so if you’re one of the 32 ads people hear in an hour, the other 31 will just fade away.