Radio Is Not Dead. Your Radio Creative Might Be. Here's How to Fix It — and Why a Jingle Is the Answer.

Pierre Bouvard has spent a decade as Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media/Westwood One busting the myths that keep advertisers off radio. The data he's assembled is staggering. And what it points to — consistently, stubbornly, across study after study — is a jingle.

The Reach Problem Nobody Talks About

Ask an advertiser or media buyer how many Americans radio reaches in a typical week and they'll tell you around 47%. The actual number, according to Nielsen, is 90%. That gap — nearly double the perceived reality — is one of the most expensive myths in advertising.

The Real Problem: Dull Ads

The reach is there. The audience is there. So why isn't radio advertising working better for most brands? According to Bouvard, the number one emotion triggered by the average AM/FM radio ad isn't happiness, surprise, or even contempt. It's neutrality. Not an emotion at all.

The culprit is a fundamental misunderstanding of how advertising works. Most radio ads are written as if everyone listening is in the market right now — ready to buy, just waiting for a price point or a phone number. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing Science puts the actual number at just 5%. Only 5% of Americans are in the market for anything at any given moment. The other 95% need to be given a reason to remember you when they eventually are.

Consistency Is a Superpower — And Jingles Are Its Engine

One of the most consistent findings across every major advertising effectiveness study is that brands with consistent distinctive assets — a recognizable sound, a recurring melody, a guarded jingle — outperform those that constantly refresh their creative. Bouvard points to O'Reilly's as a case study in getting this right.

This is exactly what a custom jingle does. It's not just a memorable moment in an ad — it becomes a distinctive brand asset that compounds in value every time it airs. The melody carries the brand name. The lyric carries the promise. Together they create a memory that sits in the listener's mind long after the ad is over — and gets retrieved the moment they need what you sell.

Creative Best Practices — What the Data Says

The Mediaprobe study commissioned by Westwood One measured second-by-second electrodermal activity of listeners to pre-recorded AM/FM radio ads across genres. The findings on what drives attention, brand fit, and recall are clear:

• Use a jingle. Ads with music and jingles perform especially well in spoken-word programming because the contrast between music and talk drives higher attention and brand recall.
• Include at least five brand mentions. Repetition of the brand name is not redundant — it's the mechanism by which the name moves into long-term memory.
• Be emotional, not rational. Facts and figures create neutrality. Melody, humor, and warmth create memories.
• Stay consistent. Brands that change agencies frequently — and therefore change their creative frequently — see erosion in both ad testing scores and sales growth.
• Don't worry about ad length. A 60-second spot is not inherently less effective than a 30. What matters is discipline and focus — not the clock.

The 5% Problem — And What a Jingle Solves

If only 5% of your audience is in the market right now, what are you doing for the other 95%? A great jingle answers this question permanently. It turns every impression — even one heard by someone who doesn't need you today — into a memory deposit. When that listener eventually does need a mortgage company, a foundation repair service, a charity car donation, your name is the one that surfaces first. Not because you spent more. Because you made something memorable.