The ways in which consumers engage with media continues to grow, and Americans now spend more than 11 hours consuming content each day. So while it may seem easier to reach customers as media usage increases, the ways in which people consume each media is unique.

With 92% of U.S. adults listening to radio in an average week, it’s clear that radio is a mass-reach medium. Reach is important for mass marketers, but it is also important for those that segment their messages to defined advanced audience segments, for instance, like companies targeting just dog owners. An advanced audience is defined with a specific buyer target (e.g., new moms or avid hikers), with the majority including an underlying age/gender qualifier. Using Nielsen Media Impact to look at monthly reach by platform for dog owners, we can see the power that each media holds.

How does a mass reach media like radio impact performance in omni-channel campaigns? Here are a few questions to consider

• What happens when media is mixed together?
• Does TV reach the same consumers as radio?
• What is the overlap? What unique reach does radio bring? What about radio with mobile?
• What incremental value does national radio bring to other media combinations?

Marketers can now see that radio provides incremental reach potential to nearly every medium, because so many Americans tune in. Advertising on radio may help fill gaps in a campaign and reach consumers that were otherwise not reached by another platform. For example, light TV viewers (those who spend only a small amount of time watching TV each week) can be very effectively reached by radio, thereby extending the impact of the campaign.

Given the breadth of media options available to consumers—and the time they spend with them—it’s important for advertisers to look at their media mix carefully when planning and consider what other media brings to the table. To understand the full value of a true cross-platform plan, it’s critical to also understand duplication and incremental reach. By zeroing in on this unique audience, advertisers can achieve an additional 8% potential reach among dog owners by adding radio to a TV campaign.