New marketing research reinforces a principle that can easily get lost in today’s world of sophisticated audience targeting: brands grow by reaching more potential customers.
New analysis highlighted by the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group, drawing on Spring 2026 MRI-Simmons data, Edison Research’s Q2 2026 “Share of Ear” study and Nielsen’s Q1 2026 Audience Insights report, shows that AM/FM radio remains one of the most effective ways to expand that reach.
That’s particularly relevant for businesses in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho.
Local businesses have more ways than ever to target potential customers through social media, streaming audio, online video, connected TV and other digital products. Those tools can be remarkably effective. But the new research suggests businesses shouldn’t necessarily ask which medium should replace another.
A better question is: How can these channels work together to reach more people?
And that’s where radio becomes especially interesting.
Growth starts with being remembered
Marketing effectiveness researchers have repeatedly made the case that growth depends heavily on “mental availability” — essentially, whether consumers know your business and think about it when they’re ready to buy.
Les Binet and Sarah Carter explain the concept in How Not to Plan: 66 Ways to Screw It Up:
“The single most important factor driving brand preference is ‘mental availability’: how well known a brand is, and how easily it comes to mind.”
That’s remarkably close to something we regularly tell Cache Valley Media Group clients:
Be known and loved before you’re needed and sought.
The time to introduce someone to your roofing company isn’t necessarily when their roof starts leaking. A restaurant shouldn’t wait until someone is hungry to begin building familiarity. A car dealer benefits when its name already means something to a customer before that customer’s vehicle needs to be replaced.
Advertising builds those memories over time.
Ty Heath of the B2B Institute describes the distinction this way: “The goal is not to create a lead, the goal is create a memory.”
That doesn’t diminish the importance of lead generation or targeted marketing to consumers who are ready to buy. Those tactics remain valuable. But concentrating exclusively on consumers who are already in-market can leave a business fighting over a relatively small group of customers.
Long-term growth also requires creating tomorrow’s customers.
Radio still delivers enormous reach
The latest audience data demonstrates why AM/FM radio continues to play such an important role in that process.
According to Nielsen data cited by Westwood One, AM/FM radio is America’s No. 1 mass-reach medium among adults 25-54.
Perhaps more surprising is what happens with younger consumers.
Among adults 18-34, AM/FM radio reaches 81% each week, putting it ahead of the other media included in the analysis.
That challenges the assumption that younger consumers have abandoned traditional radio for digital platforms.
Their media habits have certainly become more fragmented. They’re using YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, streaming services and other platforms. But fragmentation doesn’t necessarily mean abandonment.
Consumers use multiple media channels.
For advertisers, that’s an important distinction.
Radio and social media aren’t an either-or decision
MRI-Simmons data makes the complementary relationship particularly clear.
According to the Spring 2026 study cited by Westwood One, adding AM/FM radio to individual social media platforms produces substantial incremental audience reach:
- Facebook gains 34% incremental reach
- Instagram gains 60%
- TikTok’s reach grows by 2.1 times
- YouTube gains 46% incremental reach
For a local Cache Valley business, that changes the conversation about allocating a marketing budget.
The question doesn’t have to be, “Should we advertise on the radio or social media?”
It can be, “How can we use radio to introduce our business to a large local audience and then use digital targeting to reinforce that message?”
Cache Valley Media Group can put that strategy into practice from both directions.
Our radio stations reach audiences throughout Cache Valley and surrounding portions of Northern Utah and Southern Idaho with music, news, sports, entertainment and familiar local personalities. Those campaigns can then be complemented with digital products, online advertising, social media and Cache Valley Daily.
The result is a campaign designed to encounter consumers in multiple parts of their day instead of depending on a single platform to do everything.
Digital audio doesn’t reach everyone
Edison Research’s Q2 2026 “Share of Ear” study offers another important lesson for advertisers.
According to the Westwood One analysis of the Edison data, the combined daily reach of ad-supported Spotify and Pandora among adults 18+ is just 12%. Adding podcasts increases digital audio’s total daily reach to 32%.
That’s a meaningful audience.
But it also means roughly two-thirds of Americans aren’t reached by that digital-audio combination on a typical day.
When AM/FM radio is added, total daily reach jumps from 32% to 72%.
For businesses in Logan and throughout Cache Valley, the lesson isn’t that digital audio is ineffective. It’s that a digital-only strategy can leave substantial portions of the market untouched.
A strong media plan uses the strengths of each medium.
Radio can even make television more effective
The same principle applies to television.
Nielsen’s Q1 2026 Audience Insights data shows that adding AM/FM radio to a television campaign produces incremental reach across every major age group examined.
Among adults 18+, radio increases TV reach by 23%. The lift increases to 32% among adults 25-54, 45% among adults 18-49 and an extraordinary 65% among adults 18-34.
Once again, the younger the audience, the greater radio’s incremental contribution.
That’s especially valuable as television audiences become increasingly fragmented across broadcast, cable, streaming and connected TV.
Businesses don’t necessarily have to choose between video and audio. Combining them can allow each to cover gaps left by the other.
Don’t target your way out of growth
Digital advertising has given marketers extraordinarily precise targeting capabilities.
That’s a powerful tool, but precision can become a limitation when businesses define their prospective audience too narrowly.
Binet and Carter put it succinctly:
“Go for reach, rather than frequency. Reach as many category buyers as possible.”
They also caution marketers: “Don’t target too narrowly. It may be efficient, but it’s rarely effective.”
For a local business, there is an important balance here.
Targeting is excellent for finding consumers based on geography, behavior, interests or purchase intent. Cache Valley Media Group’s digital products can help businesses do exactly that.
Mass-reach advertising performs a different job. It introduces the brand to people who may become customers next week, next month or next year.
An effective local marketing strategy can do both.
Be known before you’re needed
Imagine a Cache Valley homeowner who isn’t currently shopping for new windows, insurance, HVAC service or a mortgage.
That consumer might not respond to a tightly targeted sales message today because there is nothing to buy today.
But that doesn’t make the consumer irrelevant.
The business that consistently builds familiarity through radio, reinforces its message through digital advertising and remains visible through local content has an advantage when that buying situation eventually arrives.
The consumer already knows the name.
That’s mental availability.
And that’s why reach remains so important even in an era of increasingly precise digital targeting.
Radio can create broad awareness. Digital advertising can add precision and reinforcement. Social media can encourage engagement. Online video can demonstrate products and tell deeper stories. Cache Valley Daily can connect advertisers with consumers alongside the local news, sports and community information they seek every day.
Instead of forcing those platforms to compete against each other, smart marketing makes them work together.
The latest MRI-Simmons, Edison Research and Nielsen data reinforces the point: adding AM/FM radio can dramatically expand the number of people reached by an existing media plan.
For local businesses, reaching more potential customers means creating more opportunities to become familiar, trusted and remembered.
And when the customer eventually needs what you sell, being remembered can make all the difference.
Want to build a marketing plan that combines the mass reach of radio with targeted digital products, social media, online video and the local audience of Cache Valley Daily? Contact a Cache Valley Media Group marketing consultant. We can help you develop a campaign designed to reach more customers throughout Cache Valley, Northern Utah and Southern Idaho — and help your business become known before it’s needed.
