Media mix modelers should reconsider radio as a new media channel and avoid constraining current radio ROI with historical performance benchmarks due to improvements in as-run delivery data, according to former Procter & Gamble media analyst John Fix.
Fix, who led P&G’s return to audio advertising and became known as the company’s “radio guy,” argues in a new Westwood One Audio Active Group blog guest post that new as-run radio delivery data represents a trend break.
Broadcasters have partnered with Media Monitors, software platform Act1, and Nielsen to provide as-run radio data for total radio buys. Marketers and agencies can reach out to iHeart and Westwood One to obtain as-run campaign deliveries for entire radio campaigns. Media Monitors expanded coverage from 106 U.S. radio markets to 250 markets in August 2025.
Fix offers three recommendations.
First, ensure the entire radio dataset uses as-run delivered data. Do not append recent data to an old model without as-run data. Second, communicate with the MMM provider that the radio data is different from historical data. Third, treat the radio media channel as new since advertisers and modelers have little experience using weekly radio as-run data for MMM.
Fix suggests modelers relax reliance on historical priors for radio, since as-run radio data has rarely been modeled by MMM providers. Modelers should use uninformed or weak priors rather than tight priors that assume consistency with historical norms.
Fix recommends that broadcasters and MMM providers work closely to ensure data supplied for terrestrial radio represents as-run weekly data. The MMM process should be a conversation among advertisers, media suppliers, and modeling companies.
Broadcasters should be included to ensure data reflects delivery and can suggest areas where breakouts, such as on-air read versus recorded, duration, and radio programming format, could be optimized. Modelers should be transparent about the role historical norms and prior models play when new data or new media channels are introduced.
