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Radiocentre’s Summer Roundup

Radiocentre Chief Executive Siobhan Kenny takes a look at what has been achieved so far this year, assesses the impact of the current political situation on commercial radio and looks forward to what’s still to come in 2016 for Radiocentre and the industry.

There was a time when things slowed down a bit in August as everyone headed off on holiday. Well, that feels like a thing of the past now. As the dust settles after a period of major political upheaval, there is a sense of trying to settle down and get to grips with the implications of the Brexit vote.

In our radio world, we are looking especially carefully at two sets of issues. First, economic confidence and how that is holding up for advertisers. Radio revenues looked reasonably strong in the first half of 2016, up 3.9% compared to the same period last year, with yesterday’s Advertising Association/WARC data forecasting continued growth through the rest of the year. Second, the appointment of new Ministers and advisers across Government means welcoming a whole new set of faces to the world of commercial radio.

Adspend is up

New AA/Warc data out today shows radio adspend rose 2.9% year-on-year and will continue to grow.

Our busy summer will include attracting their attention to the £592m in advertising revenues generated by commercial radio, supporting £683m in gross value added to the UK economy and over 12,000 jobs. Not to mention highlighting the 35m listeners who enjoy commercial radio’s great mix of music, news, travel and local information every week.

We will be anxious to keep up momentum on the deregulation review which is already well underway. The rationale of course is to update the legislation so that radio operators can provide the very best content to their audiences, making the most of technological developments to provide local news and information. We are hoping that new Minister Matt Hancock will make an early announcement on the consultation process as we know DCMS are pretty much ready to get on with it. In addition, we will be anxious to hear more from both DCMS and Ofcom about their progress on the proposals for the BBC.

Our research teams are flat out on our next project, examining how brands grow (referencing marketing guru Byron Sharpe’s seminal work), which we confidently expect will bolster radio’s credentials as a brand-building medium when used alongside TV.  The project concentrates on six brands across three FMCG categories, instant coffee, frozen pizza and household cleaners. Initial findings about how purchasing decisions are made for each category are already illuminating and, over the summer, we will explore how advertising exposure to TV and radio can influence those decisions. The research will be launched in the Autumn, watch out for the save the date.

Our 'See Radio Differently' ad campaign has brought fame to high profile marketers, proving to them the power of radio.

Our ‘See Radio Differently’ ad campaign has brought fame to high profile marketers, proving to them the power of radio.

Our campaign urging advertisers to See Radio Differently has been a great hit since its launch in May. So far, ads have been created aimed at Unilever’s CMO Keith Weed, John Lewis’ Customer Director Craig Inglis and L’Oreal’s CMO Hugh Pile. Advertisers and agencies have taken to social media in their droves to talk about it. It has also excited reactions from famous industry commentators, including Jeremy Bullmore, Francis Currie and David Lloyd. Keith Weed even mentioned it in his keynote speech at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It was reviewed in Campaign’s Private View and has been picked up globally by other media outlets. There is a new one in the pipeline, aimed at a digital brand so watch out for it in the coming weeks.

On Ts&Cs, I am delighted that our campaign to get rid of costly and ineffective warnings on radio ads has progressed to the next stage in the European Commission’s deregulation drive. Our lobbying efforts continue together with our good friends at the Association of European Radios. In or out of Europe, we still need to influence regulators so the fight goes on.  I would like to finish by thanking both John Whittingdale and Ed Vaizey for being terrific supporters of commercial radio while at DCMS. They will both continue to be good friends of commercial radio, I am sure.