For healthcare marketers searching for connection and credibility, the answer may be on the dial. A new Katz Analytics study finds AM/FM radio lifting awareness, familiarity, and trust for an online healthcare brand across eight major US markets.
The campaign, which ran across Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco, aimed to promote the brand’s pharmacy and healthcare services.
Katz collected data from more than 2,000 adults 18+ living in the campaign markets. Respondents were surveyed about their medical care routines, brand familiarity, and AM/FM listening habits. The data allowed Katz to isolate the effects of the radio campaign and identify which audiences were most receptive to the messaging.
Per the pre/post study, radio listeners were significantly more likely to recognize, trust, and consider the brand compared to non-listeners.
Among radio-targeted consumers, brand awareness rose by 12 percentage points, while brand familiarity increased by seven points, and brand perception as a valuable healthcare service grew by five points.
This builds on recent Cumulus Media/Westwood One findings, which revealed that adding AM/FM to an OTC brand’s media mix increased reach among adults 35–54 by 80%, driving stronger brand awareness, trial, and recommendation than television.
According to Miller Kaplan, pharmaceutical spending on network radio is already up 9.3% year-to-date through August 2025, with top advertisers including Pfizer, AbbVie, Bayer, Astellas, Quincy Bioscience, Novo Nordisk, and Johnson & Johnson.
The results reinforce a consistent theme: radio delivers measurable outcomes for healthcare and wellness advertisers, often outperforming larger-budget television campaigns.
