It’s proven that radio personalities are one of the biggest reasons people tune into AM/FM. Turning that fandom into revenue isn’t difficult either. New industry research into creator advertising shows how to best create effective, measurable opportunities for advertisers.
Brand memory lift scores rose from a baseline of 100 for typical brand-made commercials to 123 for spots featuring a host or creator, a 23% increase, according to WPP Media and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The finding, part of an October 2025 study titled How Humans Decide, drew on 1.2 million consumer purchase journeys and 337 campaigns, split between 195 brand-made and 142 creator-led spots, across eight markets, including the US.
The data feeds into the Creator Effectiveness Playbook, a broader study released this year by WPP Media, System1, and TikTok that analyzed 1,217 paid TikTok ads, including 620 creator spots, generating a combined 23.6 billion impressions across eight markets.
Cumulus Media/Westwood One’s Audio Active Group applied those findings directly to radio and podcast host reads, arguing the same two rules apply: mention the brand within the first two seconds, and build in genuine positive emotion through entertainment. Ads that both said and showed the brand early hit an early recognition score of 53.1%, compared with 45.4% for audio-only mentions, 25.7% for visual-only cues, and just 7.5% when no brand cue appeared at all.
System1’s Effie-based Super Media Touchpoints analysis, which examined 1,265 campaigns from 2007 through 2023, ranks over-the-air radio and podcasts, along with creators, among a small group of “super touchpoints” capable of driving both short-term sales and long-term brand building at once, out of 19 channels studied.
Jacobs Media’s 2025 Techsurvey found hosts and shows are the third biggest reason listeners tune into radio, cited by 61% of respondents, trailing only convenience (66%) and cost (63%). A MARU/Matchbox national survey found 90% of listeners say their favorite AM/FM personality makes them laugh, and 53% say they pay closer attention to ads read by that personality.
Radio Ink previously reported on Cumulus Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard’s research into why so many audio ads fall flat, citing Ehrenberg-Bass Institute data showing only 5% of consumers are in the market for a given product at any moment.
The new figures build on that argument: Peter Field’s analysis of the IPA Effectiveness Databank, covering 1998 through 2022, found dull, rational ads require two to 2.6 times more media spend to match the impact of emotionally engaging creative, and System1 data shows the funniest ads drive five times more market share growth than the least funny ones.
