With over 15 years of experience as SMI’s Director of Client Services, Christina Baeten is a wealth of knowledge on all things related to radio and podcast advertising. Whether clients want recommendations for which channel to pursue based on their budget, or they want to recap their campaign’s performance, or understand how learnings from previous campaigns can be applied to their strategy to improve results, Christina is the person to ask. In this brief Q&A, she explains some of her recommendations for how advertisers can grow their brands through radio and podcast. 

What sets Strategic Media, Inc. apart from other advertising agencies?

SMI does more than just media and creative – we work with clients to thoroughly understand the customer journey and collaborate on customized measurement and attribution solutions. We have a big toolbelt for this – it is not one-size-fits-all.

Which markets would you recommend for clients new to radio advertising?

A lot of new clients approach us asking which markets we recommend for their campaign. It’s actually quite rare that we recommend a strategy with geo-targeting unless their business calls for that explicitly. Format, demo, channel mix, and cost/CPM – with varying levels of focus depending on the campaign – are the most considered variables in building a successful audio campaign.

What categories are working well on radio and/or podcast?  

It’s a pretty wide array of products and services. Mostly e-commerce though not exclusively, business to business and direct to consumer. Our current portfolio includes telemedicine, mobile automobile repair, job-posting service, modern furniture, and exercise programs.

What budget do you recommend? 

My response is typically how much do you want to learn and how quickly? We can be very aggressive with testing multiple messages, channels/shows, and other elements or do so in a phased approach. Some campaigns do not warrant as much testing, for example, if the demo is very narrow and/or not much education needs to be done with the creative. Other brands need to invest more to find the combinations of media and message that resonate and deliver new customers profitably.

Do I need a unique offer? 

No, it’s a lot less common than it used to be to have unique offers by channel. We can help solve for measurement with you utilizing various tools like top-of-funnel measurement goals, ‘How did you hear about us’ survey, pixel tracking, etc. Our goal is to use audio to amplify your brand while keeping the user experience seamless.

Are you ready to improve your ROI by adding a new channel? Contact Strategic Media, Inc. today to hear your brand on streaming, satellite, or terrestrial radio and podcasts.