Matt Picton and Penny Bowell from Differentology presented research, commissioned by Radiocentre Ireland which focused on how audio can play a critical role in strategic brand growth objectives. The research sought to understand whether audio can drive brand growth by increasing a brand’s mental availability. The research study leaned on the framework for brand growth that Byron Sharp details in “How Brands Grow”.

Category entry points are key to the framework in “How Brands Grow”.  Category entry points are associations that represent the buyers influences at the start of the buying process for a particular category, or what we might more simply define as reasons to buy.

These associations can be broad and varied for example

• Consumption situations (e.g. at breakfast)

• Location based (e.g. at work)

• Dependent on who else is present (e.g. with family)

• Specific needs (e.g. refreshment)

• Internal motivations (e.g. feeling hungry)

• External motivations (e.g. to share with kids)

Why are category entry points (CEP’s) important? Research has shown that larger brands are linked to a broader range of CEP’s than smaller brands, so association with CEP’s delivers brand growth – you are going to come to mind more often if associated with more CEPs.

The research was constructed to evaluate audio’s ability to shift the dial on the following three  measures:

Mental penetration - Percentage of people associating the brand with at least one CEP(what’s my total mental reach)

Network size - Average number of CEPs associated with a brand (breadth of my brand reach)

Share of mind - Share of all CEP associations across the category (how much of a category buyer with mental availability am I occupying relative to others).

The study spoke to experts in OMD and Core, who live and breathe brand planning to help define relevant category entry points for three test categories:

Laundry Detergent

Ham / process meat

Fast food restaurants

A sample size of 2700 respondents was created, and they all were given both audio visual programming to watch and audio programming to listen to, with ads placed in commercial breaks within the content.   Respondent sin the first group didn’t see or hear any advertising relating to the test brands – they saw totally unrelated ads. Respondents in the second group only saw the audio visual ad (twice) for the test brands. For the final group of respondents, one audio visual ad was replaced with two audio ads for the test brands. To disguise the fact that this study was around advertising. we asked a few questions about how much they enjoyed the content and how engaging it was (to avoid them focusing on the ads) before moving onto the main survey.

The Results

Mental Penetration

 The results are averaged across all three categories, and it is comparing the control (those exposed to no advertising for the relevant brands)to all of the test respondents (those exposed to any advertising for the relevant brands). Mental penetration is at a high level even for the control group. This is due to the fact that the brands used were well known and therefore had high mental penetration prior to the project. But the research shows  that those who have seen and heard advertising within the clips were more likely to associate the brands with at least one category entry point boosting mental penetration by a significant 6%.

Network size

 The results combine the three brands but this time, the results have been split between those who were only exposed to AV advertising and those who were exposed to both AV and audio advertising. On this chart the green circle shows the network size for the control group, the yellow circle the net size for those who saw AV advertising and the pink circle the net size for those who were exposed to both AV and audio. It is clear that network size is significantly higher for those who saw the AV advertising and then rises even further for those who were exposed to both AV and audio advertising. So, the study shows that advertising is definitely increasing the number of different positive associations consumers have with brands and that in fact combining audio with AV is even more effective in increasing that number.

Share of mind

 As before, the results combine the three brands. The test brands had a 12% greater share of mind amongst those exposed to AV advertising; this rose a further 10% for those exposed to the combination of AV and audio advertising. The fact that share of mind was so much higher for those exposed to the combination of AV and audio advertising, highlights the impact of including audio in the mix.

 Whilst the study can’t reveal the specific brands due to advertiser confidentiality, the study showed that the pattern was the same across all of the brands we tested.

There are significant rises from control to AV advertising across all of our test brands. And in every case, there are even greater rises for those who were exposed to both AV and audio advertising. The hypothesis on the difference in the amount of growth is that it isn’t down to product category but more due to the different creatives used in the campaign. We know the laundry and cooked meat brands used more consistent sonic branding and a well-known voice which helped the advertising to be even more effective.

  Summary

 Audio advertising has a significant effect on helping brands spring to mind more readily in purchasing situations, with mental penetration for a brand higher amongst those who have seen and heard advertising for it. It therefore expands a brand’s network of mental associations and ultimately it increases share of mind for that brand.

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You can see a recording of Differentology's presentation or download his presentation deck by clicking the links below.

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