There is no guaranteed correlation between longer spots and results. While 60-second spots can be very effective for branding, telling a story and communicating more complex messages, these longer spots are simply not necessary for most consumer shows. I have achieved excellent results with 30s and 15s for a diverse set of clients in different markets across multiple station formats. Delivering a message with these shorter spots is even easier today with the ability to collateralize your radio advertising message with SMS and URL tags.

Lower-priced, shorter units enable you to buy more spots for the same media spend which translates to increased frequency—a key driver of success in radio advertising. Frequency is defined as the average number of times the same person hears a spot. Many radio sales reps indicate a frequency of “3” is optimum. While there is debate about the ideal target frequency, the number itself is less relevant than the concept here. Simply put, it is more likely that a person will recall a message if they hear it more times because it takes a certain number of instances for a message to register, thus the importance of frequency.

A strategy that maximizes frequency against the available media spend enables you to focus your spots in a tight time window and rise above the noise … all of those other commercials that are constantly airing for the big national brands as well as local retailers, service providers, etc. Since you are not in the market on an ongoing basis, you need to get your target audiences to notice your show now and take action. It is hard to do this if you pursue a reach strategy (reaching more people with less spots) vs. a frequency strategy (reaching less people with more spots). 

What spot length strategy works best for promoting your show will depend on your demos, station formats, type of show, messaging objectives and spot prices. Test different spot lengths (60s, 30s and 15s) and multi-unit blends and then, based on tracking data, determine what works best for your shows. Obviously, you should not sacrifice spot length just to have more spots if the shorter spots fail to deliver the message. Spot duration is just one more tool at your disposal to maximize ROI.