RAB REJECTS TV ADVERTISERS' RAEL STUDY CRITIQUE Radio and Records The RAB today criticized the Television Bureau of Advertising for issuing a statement that claimed the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab's "Radio's ROI Advantage" actually made a case for television's superior effectiveness as an advertising medium.
The TVB said in a recent release that the RAEL study "strongly supports the effectiveness of television" and arrived at the conclusion that radio delivered superior return on investment only after adding "several layers of estimated costs to position the findings in appositive ROI light for radio." The TVB also noted the study found that a television-only campaign delivered the study's highest sales results. Indeed, of the four panels studied — radio-only; television-only; radio/TV combined versus television-only; and radio/TV versus radio-only — the TV-only panel posted the biggest overall sales jump at 7.7%, compared to a 3.6% gain for the radio-only panel.
In its response, the RAB said the radio-only results were "statistically equivalent" to the TV-only numbers and said "good research practices do not support TVB's conclusion. The TVB plucked out partial data that indicated that the TV campaigns RAEL tested delivered more sales results than the radio campaigns without disclosing that the TV effects came at more than twice the advertising cost of the radio results. The TVB is asking you to look at return without looking at investment." It noted that the ROI study focused on national ad spending, worked with four national TV advertisers, and estimated costs "on a national level." The TVB also questioned how the study would have turned out if local spot TV spending had been included, to which the RAB said, "The TVB is welcome to conduct its own million-dollar study to answer that question. In the meantime, the [ROI] study unequivocally established that on a national-to-national basis, radio demonstrated a 49% better ROI — a 49% better value." |