System1 Unwraps Top Christmas Radio Ads
System1, the Creative Effectiveness Platform, today revealed the top festive radio ads based on viewers’ emotional response data captured via its Test Your Ad platform. Cadbury land in the top spot and also have the honour of being the most effective audio ad ever tested by System1 in terms of long-term brand building potential.
“These adverts expertly apply the strategies that System1 and Radiocentre outline in our first-of-its-kind report on audio creative effectiveness, Listen Up!,” said Andrew Tindall, global partnerships director at System1. “Christmas is a powerful time for radio; these are some of the most effective audio ads we’ve ever researched. They are full of references to wider culture, character, story and emotion. They also are creatively consistent with their TV counterparts – key to extending reach and boosting effectiveness.”
The Top Seven Ads
In Test Your Ad, each ad is given a Star Rating from 1-Star to 5.9-Stars, a measure predicting their potential to drive long-term brand growth. The top ads are ordered by Star Rating.
- Cadbury (4.2-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- Asda (3.9-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- Terry’s Chocolate Orange (3.8-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- M&S (3.6-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- Costa (3.5-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- Baileys (3.2-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
- John Lewis (3.1-Stars) – View Test Your Ad Report
Regarding Cadbury’s #1 festive radio ad, Nathan Velayudhan, planning director, VCCP said, "Cadbury's Xmas radio ad is not your typical approach to Christmas advertising - it’s not tear-jerking, reach-for-the-tissues stuff - but it’s proven to be both emotive and effective all the same. This is because it's not a one-way narrative, but rather forms part of an interactive Xmas activation - Cadbury Secret Santa - which gives people the chance to send chocolate secretly to someone special, for free. This activation has achieved huge public interest, propelled by advertising that is executionally consistent across radio, TV, OOH, digital and social channels. The activation also builds on Cadbury's broader, non-seasonal brand comms - inviting people to demonstrate their generous instinct and so further prove that 'There's a glass and a half in everyone'. The compound nature of the Cadbury campaign is not only driving equity but also incredible sales results."
Five Best Practices for Radio Effectiveness
1. Brand early and often. It’s essential to use the full spectrum of audio brand assets to introduce the brand early in creative. Listeners want to know who is speaking to them. System1’s research finds that branding early dramatically increases ad recall.
2. Be consistent. We see a significant uplift in short- and long-term effectiveness for audio ads that are consistent with their TV counterparts. Use the same creative idea, platform, celebs, music or characters to be creatively consistent.
3. Tell a story. A narrative is more engaging and better at attracting listeners’ attention than a straightforward and rational product-focused message. Most audio ads don’t utilize storytelling, but those that do see large lifts in long-term effectiveness.
4. Leverage dramatic intimacy. Pauses, silence, a lowering of the voice (Sotto Voce, Italian for ‘under the voice’) and a slowing of the ad’s pace are all tools brands can use to drive stronger emotional reaction and cognitive attention.
5. Use music. Christmas tunes tap into nostalgia, but even simply using well-known melodic music adds depth and flow to ads.
In Listen Up!, System1 explored the in-market effects of radio ads using 10 years of effectiveness data from Radiocentre. Powerfully effective audio ads, like these seven, will:
- Drive consumer behaviour change, getting more people to search for and buy brands.
- Build brand trust, with highly fluent radio ads taking full advantage of the trust-building power of radio.
- Make festive campaigns more famous, with audio ads that create positive emotions feeling more famous than they are - irrelevant of media spend.
To access more radio effectiveness best practices, download System1 and Radiocentre’s Listen Up! report here.
To see all the Christmas radio ad results, visit System1’s Test Your Ad platform and filter by country (UK) and category (Top Christmas Radio Ads) within the Topical Ads tab here.
