Former Procter & Gamble analyst John Fix is among those praising Media Monitors’ latest announcement – one he says could help advertisers more accurately measure the sales impact of terrestrial radio and eliminate longstanding data gaps.
Last week, Media Monitors revealed two major enhancements: expanding its monitoring footprint from 106 to 250 markets, and permanently storing radio advertising audio files for the first time. For Fix, both changes represent breakthroughs for how radio can be incorporated into Media Mix Modeling and attribution studies.
With the expansion, Media Monitors now covers 86% of US AM/FM reach. The company says this delivers a 20% increase in average quarter-hour audience from the prior footprint and a 22% lift in reach across its national coverage. Fix emphasized that this broader representation gives modelers the variation needed to link ad weight to sales performance.
Equally significant, Fix noted, is the permanent retention of audio files. Historically, incomplete ISCI coding left gaps in advertiser records, complicating data validation. By keeping ad files “forever,” Media Monitors allows agencies and brands to verify exactly which creatives ran, resolving a longstanding obstacle in MMM submissions.
For Fix, one of the greatest challenges in media modeling is the reliance on planned gross rating points. Planned weight, he said, creates a smoothing effect that eliminates the week-to-week variability needed to show cause-and-effect with sales. As-run GRPs, now strengthened by Media Monitors’ database, offer the kind of precision that allows MMM to properly credit radio.
Nielsen has issued similar guidance in its Unlocking The Potential of Radio In Media Mix Modeling report, recommending that advertisers use as-run delivery data, plan sufficient GRPs, analyze at the DMA level, and conduct weekly breakdowns to capture timing effects such as seasonality and promotions.
Despite these best practices, Nielsen’s global CMO survey shows AM/FM radio is still perceived as the weakest ROI medium, even though its benchmarks place radio as the second-highest ROI performer across all channels. Deloitte’s Duncan Stewart has tied this gap to lingering industry narratives that undercut legacy media.
Fix believes the new Media Monitors initiatives could help close that gap. By giving advertisers and agencies accurate, consistent, and fully archived data, he argues, the strength of AM/FM radio’s ROI can be reflected in the results that shape planning decisions.
His full analysis is available via the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group.
