Industry News

Radio crowned King of all media at Media360

In an incredibly tight contest, radio beat TV to be named the channel most capable of building and amplifying brand fame in the final session of Media360, the annual industry-led gathering of media professionals. Media360 is dedicated to developing and reshaping the communications arena and it attracts hundreds of decision makers. Both advertisers and their media agencies are among the attendees.

Lucy Barrett, Radiocentre’s Client Director, impressed attendees with a pitch in which she discussed how radio enables advertisers to “break the fourth wall” with branded content. She played an example of a phone-in from Christian O’Connell’s massive breakfast show on Absolute, where the presenter said that DIY store Wickes is more arousing than porn. She also played a montage of the commercial radio’s best bits from the last year. She finished by playing Radiocentre’s appeal to Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed, a rap that persuaded Weed to see radio differently.

Barrett picked up 35% of the votes in the Media Challenge, a seven-way contest in which representatives from TV, radio, out of home, social, mobile, cinema and press battled to impress attendees. She finished just ahead of Chris Goldson, ITV’s Director of Creative Works and Commercial Marketing, who took 33% of the total. Goldson walked onto the stage wearing a huge alien costume, staging chosen to tie into Thinkbox’s alien-themed ad The Broadcast, which he also showed to the audience.

Although TV’s offering was appropriately arresting visually, Barrett was the only contestant to whip up the audience using a mostly audio presentation. Barrett says: “I got a massive buzz from presenting the case for radio at Media360 and it was amazing to watch the results as they were updated on screen. It was particularly gratifying to see that once TV and radio had emerged as the two frontrunners, almost all votes were cast for them, meaning we finished far ahead of the other five candidates. Chris Goldson put on an amazing spectacle so it was a genuine thrill when we won what ended up as a two horse race.”

The other five candidates were:

  • Vanessa Clifford, Chief Executive, Newsworks
  • Ben Maher, Sales and Partnership Director, JCDecaux
  • Eimear Lambe, Head of Brand Strategy, Twitter UK
  • Tom Linay, Head of Film, DCM
  • Libby Robinson, EMEA Managing Director, M&C Saatchi Mobile.