FAQs
Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions page. If you have a question that isn't answered here, please contact us.
Yes – The Online Multiplier study shows how actual exposure to offline media influences actual consumer interaction with brands online. The study revealed that exposure to radio advertising boosts brand browsing by 52%. Radio is 4x more cost-effective than other media in this respect. Advertisers can optimise response through radio creative development. For more information or to download the study in PDF or Powerpoint format please follow the link.
If the campaign does not meet the Radiogauge criteria (National with minimum spend of £300k) depending on availability we can provide a Creative tag. A creative tag measures the creative execution of a radio campaign. You will receive a results presentation with data on creative engagement, ad recall, call to action and a video of the levels of engagement with the ad versus the benchmark. As we have been running Radiogauge since 2008 we have measured over 700 campaigns so can benchmark the creative scores against the overall Radiogauge average.
Yes a Creative tag. In terms of the creative test, this includes a results presenation with data on creative engagmenet, ad recall, call to action and a video of the levels of engagement with the ad versus the benchmark so you can see any peaks and troughs in the copy. As we have measured over 1000 campaigns on Radiogauge we can benchmark the creative score against the overall Radiogauge average of the 1000 campaigns.
Yes. As we have been measuring radio campaigns on Radiogauge since 2008 we have measured over 1000 campaigns from a wide variety of different sector e.g. FMCG, Mobile, Bank etc. We use these previous results and create a benchmark to see how your campaign performed versus the average. Find out more.
There is no formal appeal procedure against clearance decisions but, if needed, the clearance team will ask BCAP or Ofcom staff for a regulatory steer on its practical translation of the Codes.
Radiogauge is Radiocentre’s free ad effectiveness measuring tool designed to help advertisers and media agencies understand and evaluate their radio campaigns. Depending on availability and the campaign being a national spot airtime campaign, the service is completely free to advertsiers and agencies.
We’ve aggregated IPA TouchPoints data, Radiogauge data and case studies together with inspiring and effective audio, to give you unique insights into how media can help you connect with and influence consumers at relevant moments. You can use this tool to find out which media are best for reaching people across the day when engaged in tasks and activities relevant to your campaign, for example whilst travelling in car, cooking, on the school run and many other activities.
Yes – The Brand Multiplier uses theories presented in Byron Sharp’s “How Brands Grow” to reveal compelling new evidence about radio’s ability to drive strategic brand growth. The findings reveal that audio plays an important and distinct role in enhancing the brand level effects of advertising and offer some practical guidance for advertisers seeking to optimise these effects. For more information or to download the report in PDF or PowerPoint format please follow the link.
With its huge reach, low ad avoidance, and ability to reach people at relevant times, radio is a strong call to action medium. The Driving Response microsite demonstrates radio’s ability to drive response – either as a true direct response medium e.g. “go to this website now”; or more subtly as an indirect response medium used to reach out to listeners to give them new information or stir their interest in an offer. See more.
Radio is a fantastic medium for local advertisers as it allows them to reach out to the local community in a highly targeted and cost effective way. If you’re trying to understand how radio can help grow your brand or you work for a radio station and are in conversations with a local advertiser, the material contained on our Backing Brilliant Business hub can help explain just how effective radio advertising can be. With a step-by-step guide to getting on air the hub also features a tool for businesses to contact local stations in the area the’d like to advertise.
Radio is a fantastic medium for B2B advertisers – allowing you to reach target audience at key times across the working day and remain cost effective in the process. Our B2B microsite can give you a deeper understanding of how radio can help grow your brand – or if you work for a radio station and are in conversations with a B2B advertiser – the material contained in this section can help you demonstrate how effective radio advertising can be and how you can exploit its full potential. See more.
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) was set up in 1992 to align, design and operate a single audience measurement system for the UK radio industry serving both the BBC and licensed commercial stations. The company is jointly owned by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and Radiocentre (the trade body representing the vast majority of Commercial Radio stations in the UK).
The Top 20 Radio Spenders webpage is updated every month and shows the top spenders on radio from Planning, Creative and Buying agencies as well as the top Advertisers and Product Categories. These figures have been calculated using the Historic agency list from Nielsen Media Research.
Yes. We have recent video case studies located in our Backing Brilliant Business Hub. Our Case studies tool also provides examples of great radio campaigns from across the industry. Search by Sector, Campaign Objective, Consumer Context, or Campaign Format to find the most relevant examples of how radio can boost your specific communications plan. You can download a specific case study via pdf or Powerpoint format.
Yes – The Context Targeter, use this tool to find out which media are best for reaching people across the day when engaged in tasks and activities relevant to your campaign. For example 70% of media time when travelling in car is spent listening to live radio and radio reaches 60% of in-car journeys.
Touchpoints 2022
Please upload your scripts in the normal way onto our online script submission site and then click on the tab which reads “Fast Track Selected Scripts”.
There are three tiers of distributions:
- If you are just distributing to one or two stations, you could send it direct to the relevant person at the station;
- If you are using a network package, such as GTN, you can send the copy to them and they’ll manage things for you;
- If you are using a wide range of stations, or Newslink, you can use a copy distribution service. The two main alternatives are:
- Audiotrack (powered by J-ET (and partnered by IMD)) http://audiotrack.co.uk/copy
- Adstream https://www.adstream.com/
Details of clearance bodies for other countries can be found here: https://icas.global/about/members
Our study on the value of our industry found that commercial radio contributed £683m in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy. Since then radio revenues have increased so this figure is likely to be even greater now. See more.
Our Beyond the Bubble report, highlights that 77% of commercial radio listeners trust news on the radio. This is compared to just 23% that trust social media. These trust rankings are supported by Ofcom and European Commission research. Read more.
Community engagement is big part of what commercial radio stations offer. This is encompassed both by the provision of local news and information as well as social action. We regularly conduct a survey of the public value provided by our members. On average this is over 13 1/4 hours of output each week. See more.
This is a paper in its own right. But these are some general guidelines. Spot airtime allows you to develop your own consistent creative route in conjunction with your wider campaign; it also enables you to build audience reach and frequency by running across mutliple stations and dayparts. S&P can take lots of different forms but essentially it will allow you to engage with listeners to a specific station or stations by becoming part of that station’s output and in doing so acquiring some of that particular station’s values (or the values of a specific programme). It can also be a good way of communicating complex messages about a product or service. If you are thinking of going down an S&P route we would still recommending using spot airtime to increase your reach and frequency if budget permits – the Black Cab Study demonstrated that adding airtime to S&P significantly increases campaign awareness.
Lots of things can influence wearout : how engaging or memorable the ad is; weight of campaign; length of the ad etc. But here are some thoughts for consideration : 1) campaigns take longer to wear out than individual executions. Even having two ads played in copy rotation can make a difference. 2) Remember that for a medium weight campaign (4OTH/week) heavy listeners will hear the same ad 6 or 7 times a week or more so a couple of variations helps keep the campaign fresh for them 3) Creative makes a big difference – some ads can be listened to many more times than others without wearing out. Tone is an important part of this. 4) Use your instinct or, if you think you are too close to it, try playing it a few times to others to see how the ad makes them feel 5) Longer time-lengths can provide a high initial impact but can also wear out more quickly. For example some charity ads can be extremely impactful and also longer than average …but then they are often created to be heard once or twice only. If you need longer time-lengths, consider running some shorter time-lengths too (note this will also increase the efficiency of your overall campaign) 6) Humour can work really well, but if it relies on a punchline there may be a limit as to how often the ad can be heard before it loses impact (unless it falls into the category of timeless comedy!)
There is no hard and fast rule and it depends on your campaign objective and radio’s role. But we know from past research that for any campaign to cut through you need a minimum level of investment. The ROI Multiplier highlighted that the optimal investment in radio should aim to achieve a weekly reach of 40% and an optimal share of 20% of media budget. Whilst the latter may not be possible on all brands, getting as close as possible is important. This thinking also fits with our Brand Multiplier study which looks at using radio to optimise mental availability by talking to as many potential buyers as possible as often as possible. But if you want a very simple rough guide, for a new radio campaign we generally suggest running optimum weekly reach (40% +) with a minimum OTH of 4/5 (a high reach campaign should in most cases deliver high OTH too) and running for at least 4 weeks – for a brand launch even longer. After that it’s down to your objectives to determine the best strategy.
Radio has proven effectiveness across sectors. Our ‘Radio for Specific Sectors’ section highlights planning and effectiveness information demonstrating the value of radio for FMCG Brands, Travel Brands, Automotive Brands, Personal Finance Brands, Retail Brands, Entertainment and Leisure Brands, Government Campaigns and Telecoms Brands.
One aspect of radio advertising that drives listeners crazy are the long and complex Terms & Conditions (Ts&Cs) at the end of certain ads. Those lengthy, garbled warnings are meant to protect consumers but sadly don’t achieve that goal. Read here about Radiocentre’s work to reduce the need for long Ts&Cs in radio ads.
The Radiocentre policy team provide a voice for commercial radio in the UK in all matters relating to government policy and regulation. We work with Government, parliamentarians from all parties as well as regulators in order to ensure we have the best operating environment for our members. See more.
Commercial stations require two copyright licences in order to broadcast licensed music. Radiocentre negotiates directly with PPL (representing record companies and performers) and PRS for Music (for music publishers and songwriters) on these industry-wide arrangements. The rates paid by stations adjust annually. See more.
We do not. The only ads in the Republic of Ireland that require pre-clearance are those for alcohol, which must be cleared by CopyClear (https://copyclear.ie/)
The advertising code can be found here http://www.asai.ie/asaicode/
We don’t need to hear ads once they’ve been approved. Occasionally we’ll ask to hear a rough edit of ads before we approve, so that we can advise on the use of sfx and determine appropriate scheduling advice.
We clear most scripts within 24 hours of upload, during normal office hours (9:30-17:30 Mon-Thu, 9:30-16:30 Fri). However, we also provide a premium, 2-hour service for scripts that need extra-fast turnaround at a fee per script basis – ask about our Fast Track service.
Permission to use the Trustmark logo and a link to our website for further details is included in Radiocentre membership. Advertising agencies / brands that choose to join must ensure that they send their special category advertisements to us for clearance. They will then be able to use the Trustmark. Non-members are not eligible to join Trustmark.
Send an email to clearance@radiocentre.org and we will provide you with a login for the clearance system. Please note that we only clear scripts for advertising appearing on Radiocentre member stations, so if your organisation is not already registered we will need to know which stations you plan to use.
All advertising for products and services falling within the ‘special categories’ listed in the BCAP Code requires central clearance: https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/01.html. ‘Local’, non-special category advertising that appears on one station or in one locality can be cleared by the station. ‘National’ advertising broadcast across the network should be centrally-cleared.