Annual Review 2018

1 CONTENTS

1 Introduction INTRODUCTION 2018 has been the radio industry’s best year ever, with the sector achieving record revenues, audiences 2 Advertising and growth – radio was the fastest-growing medium in Audio Revolution and a new website Q1 2018, with an increase of 12.5% putting it ahead of Fastest Growing Medium campaign the entire market, and RAJAR figures showed continued Photography project audience growth with radio’s highest ever listenership of 35.97 million. 4 Research Re-evaluating Media Throughout the year, Radiocentre has been working Media Attribute Mapper & towards its mission to help build and maintain a strong Cover Curves Generator and successful commercial radio industry, championing Radiogauge issues that affect the entire sector such as mental health, Stakeholder survey diversity, trust and transparency, as well as lobbying for a fairer playing field for everyone working in radio. We have 6 Partnerships spearheaded long-term projects with the Government Haymarket and Ofcom as well as industry-wide initiatives to persuade IPA our various different audiences to ‘See Radio Differently’. BRITs I hope this review gives some useful insight into the work 8 Events we have been doing to strengthen and champion the Radio Audio Week original broadcast medium, and build on the impressive Tuning In momentum we have seen in 2018. Mental Health Minute Young ARIAS We are proud to continue our work as radio’s biggest Regional Tuning In advocates – long live the Audio Revolution.

10 Policy Valuing Radio Deregulation Small scale DAB and community radio Audio Content Fund Siobhan Kenny 12 Training Radiocentre CEO Introduction to radio advertising Creative training Clearance training

14 Clearance Scripts and complaints Ts&Cs

1 ADVERTISING

Audio Revolution and Radio is now part of a much wider audio ecology. a new website Before this audio revolution, there used to be two choices for listeners – live radio or your personally-owned music collection. Now, with the rise of new audio formats such as podcasts and streamed music services, listeners have more options than ever before. Three years on from our company rebrand, it felt like the perfect time to relaunch our website to help guide users through this audio revolution. After all, radio remains by far the biggest part of it.

The aim was to re-map, design and develop all parts of the website to convince visitors to see radio differently. In its first 6 months, we have seen an increase in the number of pages visited and the time spent on the website, plus a bounce rate decrease which indicates that the new site is working to inspire people to explore more of our content and also making it easier to find what they came in search of in the first place.

Fastest Growing The Advertising Association and WARC released their Medium campaign latest expenditure report over the summer, which showed radio as the fastest growing medium in Q1, ahead of the entire market including the internet. To spread this amazing news, we launched a quick-fire tactical campaign which included PR, digital ads in the trade press and a promotion outside the top 10 media agencies all of which boosted traffic to our website.

Photography project In November we released a second set of free to use radio life-style images to accompany the original bank released in late 2017. Frustrated by the outdated retro- kitsch imagery we often see used in the media to illustrate stories about radio, we commissioned these photos to more accurately reflect vibrant modern radio listening habits. We were pleased to see numerous publishers using the original images throughout the year and we hope that this new set will prove to be just as popular.

2 3 RESEARCH

Re-evaluating Media Re-evaluating Media, our latest research project was Radiogauge Since its launch in 2008, Radiogauge has provided launched in early March to a full house of advertising evidence of the effects of radio advertising within and radio industry executives at the Ham Yard Hotel, the media mix for over 800 campaigns. This year 38 London. In setting out to understand the influences at campaigns from a range of sectors have been measured play in media decision-making today, Re-evaluating Media on Radiogauge including Amazon, BT, Cadbury’s, revealed the surprising extent to which perceptions lead Dominos, Pepsi, Tesco, and Toyota. The aggregated data media decisions ahead of published evidence, often to from these campaigns has been added to the Radiogauge the detriment of the desired outcomes and effectiveness Predict online tool, making it easily accessible for of a campaign. Conducted independently by Ebiquity, customers and sales teams, which from this year also the research was widely covered in the trade press, most includes data relating to Brand Trust. notably by Marketing Week’s Mark Ritson. A vertical trade press campaign to support Re-evaluating Media was launched across titles including The Grocer, Travel Weekly and Retail Week. Stakeholder survey In the autumn Radiocentre invited a broad range of stakeholders to participate in a survey to share their views about the importance and effectiveness of Radiocentre services, and their perceptions of the Media Attribute Mapper & Using the findings from our Re-evaluating Mediaresearch, organisation and the wider industry. Many questions Cover Curves Generator in April we launched a new online tool, echoed those from the 2016 survey which allowed the Media Attribute Mapper, which allows advertisers trends to be explored. A total of 381 people responded – to directly compare the performance of two different 178 from commercial radio, 154 from Adland and 50 other. media helping them make more informed decisions about how they allocate budgets when it comes to building Overall the responses were broadly positive. At a their brands. headline level the importance and effectiveness of most Radiocentre services has increased across the two years. In June, we launched Cover Curves Generator, a new Scoring highest in terms of ‘trusted’ and ‘informed’, rule-of-thumb tool to help planners optimise campaign perceptions of Radiocentre have also improved since weights to maximise reach. The tool analyses RAJAR data the last survey. Similarly, advertising customers are more for commercial radio as a whole to provide cover curves positive about radio’s qualities as an advertising medium showing how reach percentage builds as ratings increase now compared to 2016. across a range of different audiences. Advertising respondents highlighted that Brexit and understanding radio/audio’s role in the wider media mix were the two biggest challenges they face in the coming year – which has helped shape Radiocentre’s plans for 2019.

4 5 PARTNERSHIPS

Haymarket This year we continued our partnership with Haymarket to champion radio and audio advertising.

Media Week Awards & BIG Awards Virgin Trains and MGOMD’s innovative geo-targeting campaign scooped gold in the Best Use of Audio category at the Media Week Awards, and AMV BBDO’s multi-execution campaign for BT Sport won the award for Media Excellence: Radio & Audio at the Campaign BIG Awards. IPA Media 360 In 2018, Radiocentre once again sponsored the IPA In her role on the advisory board, Lucy Barrett helped Effectiveness Awards which takes place every two guide and shape the agenda for this year’s Media 360 years. Widely considered the world’s most rigorous which tackles the biggest challenges facing the media and prestigious awards attracting entries from around industry. The event was attended by senior professionals the globe, the awards celebrate and showcase across leading brands, media agencies, media owners, communications agencies, media owners or advertisers technology companies and associations. that successfully prove that their work achieved outstanding results. At the ceremony in October, Aerials we were proud to present the Best New Learning award The Aerial Awards are Radiocentre’s accolade for creative to Direct Line Group who demonstrated their success in excellence in radio advertising run in partnership with choosing traditional media for long term brand building. Campaign. Every month, we invite an Executive Creative Director to select their favourite work from a shortlist and give three pieces of advice to encourage creatives to BRITs See Radio Differently. Winners this year include Radiocentre was proud to continue our longstanding Toyota (The&Partnership), NHS England (MullenLowe) and partnership with the organisers of the BRIT Awards in BT (AMV BBDO). The Aerials are a way to engage with the 2018. We co-ordinated an on-air promotion running creative community on a regular basis and to highlight across more than 80 stations, raising awareness of the radio as a platform for creativity. This year, winning BRITs and offering listeners the chance to win tickets to entries have also received free entry to the Campaign the live show. This priceless experience was enjoyed by BIG Awards to provide a larger platform for their success. radio listeners up and down the country and we look forward to continuing the promotion with the BRITs and our member stations in 2019.

6 7 EVENTS

Radio Audio Week In May, Radiocentre collaborated with the Radio Academy to launch the first ever Radio Audio Week (RAW), a week- long celebration of all things radio and audio. A series of events were held at different locations around London including the Radio Festival, where our very own Siobhan Kenny was made a fellow of the Academy, the British Podcast Awards and Sound Investment from the IAB. Following its success, the week is set to return in 2019 and promises to be even bigger and better.

Tuning In One of the headline events of RAW was our annual Tuning In conference held for the first time at Picture House Central in London’s West End. Over 300 delegates from across our membership and the advertising and Mental Health Minute Also during RAW, Radiocentre was proud to lead marketing world were immersed in latest industry the Mental Health Minute initiative. In a media first, thinking. Speakers included Bruce Daisley from Twitter, commercial and BBC radio came together at 10.59 on Gareth Jones from eBay, the Minister for Digital and Tuesday 15th May to broadcast a one minute message Creative Industries Margot James MP, and Absolute on how it’s ok to talk about mental health. The simulcast Radio’s new breakfast presenter Dave Berry. which was supported by the Royal Foundation’s Heads Together, featured the voices of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Lady Gaga, Dame Judi Dench, David Harewood and Dame Jessica Young ARIAS At Tuning In we also launched a new awards event in Ennis-Hill. Over 400 stations took part, reaching over partnership with Radio Academy. The Young ARIAS 20 million people on air and 100 million people online. aims to help celebrate radio and audio created by 8 to 18-year-olds at school radio stations, local projects and as individuals. The cross industry initiative will be supported across commercial radio as well as the BBC. Over the last few years we have been taking our Tuning Regional Tuning In Entries will open in February 2019, with the awards event In conference to various out-of-London locations and occurring in May 2019. 2018 was no exception. In January we were in Cardiff with Go Compare icon Wynne Evans and then headed north to Leeds in October. These will continue into 2019 with Glasgow already planned for February.

8 9 POLICY

Valuing Radio The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Commercial Radio launched a new report – Valuing Radio: How commercial radio contributes to the UK – in parliament in December. The report explores the regional economic impact from local advertisers (£1.6bn) and includes a number of recommendations from the APPG to Government, Ofcom and industry in order for commercial radio to continue to thrive. Radiocentre drafted the report on behalf of the APPG and conducted new public value research through a survey of members.

Deregulation In October, following consultation earlier in 2018, Ofcom announced interim changes (revising its Localness Guidelines) which go some way to helping commercial radio stations organise their operations for the future and are a welcome first step towards deregulation.

Small scale DAB and In summer 2018 we commissioned an independent report In October 2018 the Government announced a new £3m community radio Audio Content Fund into small-scale radio in the UK by radio consultant David fund for radio content to support a broad range of public Lloyd following legitimate concerns from the smallest service output on a wider spectrum of UK radio stations. commercial radio stations over Ofcom’s announcement The Audio Content Fund, established by AudioUK of a further wave of community radio licensing, and and Radiocentre, will create new opportunities for an invitation from the regulator to existing community commercial broadcasters and producers to make content stations to apply for better coverage. The report that adds to listener choice, and will be a chance to hear encourages greater collaboration between community from new voices and increase diversity representation, radio and small commercial radio stations as well as both on and off air. The fund will open formally in April offering a series of further recommendations to both 2019 and run as a pilot scheme for up to three years. Government and Ofcom. All applications will be judged against a set of agreed criteria by an independent panel and will require a guarantee of broadcast from an Ofcom-licensed radio station.

10 11 TRAINING

Intro to Radio Advertising Feedback on our training courses continues to be positive. Nearly 200 delegates attended our Introduction to Radio Advertising training course which aims to increase understanding of the opportunities for radio and persuade people to see radio differently. This included our first regional trial of Introduction to Radio Advertising in Manchester which received extremely positive feedback. There has been continued demand for bespoke sessions combining creative inspiration and strategic roles for radio from agencies and advertisers. We have also seen increasing interest from the financial services and motors industries for bespoke sessions on working effectively with terms and conditions on radio, combining the skills of both the advertising and clearance teams at Radiocentre. Examples have included Ford, Land Rover Jaguar and Royal London.

Creative Training Radiocentre has continued to run its programme of creative inspiration workshops for brands and their agencies. The session includes best in class creative examples taken from recent awards shows and Radiogauge results, pertinent insights into optimising radio effectiveness in that sector and opportunities for the future of radio creativity. We also provide practical Clearance Training The clearance team held quarterly workshops in tips for briefing, evaluation and production of radio ads. London aimed at getting compliant ads on air fast and Brands this year have included John Lewis and Weetabix. with minimum pain. The team took delegates on an We also run creative agency training. This is to inspire interactive tour of the BCAP Code, which included the industry starters with the creative potential of radio main principles of misleading and comparative claims, and to train them in key skills of briefing, evaluation and what to watch out for on social responsibility and harm pitching. This year, the programme has included a live and offence and the type of evidence that will get scripts brief from the agency to position radio as a significant cleared. Specific topics and problematic scripts were brand-building channel rather than a simple driver of discussed against the background of ads that had been tactical messages. Agencies this year have included CHI, upheld by the ASA. Feedback was positive and further VCCP, The&Partnership and WCRS. workshops will be held across 2019.

12 13 CLEARANCE

Scripts and complaints It was another busy year for the team, clearing almost 36,000 scripts across the year, compared to 32,000 the previous year. Around 78% of scripts were approved for broadcast within 24 hours and around 65% within 8 hours. In addition, the team continued to generate revenue through the fast-track clearance service within 2 hours. Radiocentre Trustmark, a badge for advertisers and stations to reassure listeners that ad messages are pre-vetted for accuracy and decency, celebrated 3 years. Only a handful of radio advertisement complaints were formally investigated by the ASA with 9 being upheld, mostly for being misleading. The team implemented a legislative ban on e-cigarette advertising, reviewed a draft code rule on gender stereotyping and processed guidance on protecting under 18s in gambling ads.

with the Red Tape Initiative resulted in our research being Ts & Cs There have been a number of positive developments on cited as evidence in their report. Ts&Cs this year. Radiocentre have also had a number of positive The Commission have published their plans to review discussions with the FCA about how we can prevent the Consumer Credit Directive, taking into account REFIT terms and conditions becoming too lengthy because of Stakeholder Group recommendations to assess the the inclusion of terms which aren’t always needed by relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the standard the regulation itself. This has already helped us clarify information requirements triggered by Article 4. This areas where ts and cs can be reduced. Work on this will will include a public consultation as well as a targeted continue in 2019. industry consultation of industry stakeholders. The consultation will open at the end of 2018 for 12 weeks and 2019 will be an important year for consolidating all the the full evaluation is expected to conclude in 2019. progress we have made, both in Europe and in the UK, inputting into the forthcoming EU consultation to ensure In the meantime, the Red Tape Initiative have published radio’s voice continues to be heard as well as working 37 proposals to reduce bureaucracy when the UK leaves closely with advertiser compliance and marketing teams the EU, including the recommendation to exempt audio and the FCA to make terms and conditions as clear and broadcast from Article 4. Early Radiocentre engagement effective as possible for both consumers and advertisers.

14 15 STAFF & BOARD

Staff Board

Chairman & CEO Office SIOBHAN KENNY SIOBHAN KENNY, Chief Executive Chief Executive HOWELL JAMES CBE, Chairman HOWELL JAMES CBE JADE ATKINSON, Executive & Marketing Assistant Chairman

Advertising ASHLEY TABOR OBE MARK BARBER MBE, Planning Director Founder and Executive LUCY BARRETT, Client Director President, Global Group JUDITH SPILSBURY, Head of Training & Special Projects TRAVIS BAXTER CLEMENTINE BERNHARDT, Head of Marketing Consultant, Content and CLARE BOWEN, Head of Creative Development External Affairs Director, (Maternity Leave) Bauer Media SARAH GREGORY, Head of Partnerships & Membership Marketing GERALDINE ALLINSON DONNA BURNS, Insight Manager Chairman, KM Media Group GEORGE BUTLER, Marketing Manager MICHAEL BETTON BETHANY MADDEN, Insight Executive CEO, Lincs FM

Policy and PR DEE FORD MATT PAYTON, Director of External Affairs Group Managing Director MICHAEL IRELAND, Senior Policy Manager Radio, Bauer Media SOPHIE BANDA, PR & Communications Manager MARK LEE CEO, Communicorp UK Clearance YVONNE KINTOFF, Head of Advertising Clearance STEPHEN MIRON AL DAMON, Deputy Head of Advertising Clearance CEO, Global KATHERINE BORRETT, Senior Clearance Executive PAUL SMITH CBE SIMON SCOTT, Clearance Executive Chairman, Celador

Finance & IT NISHI SHARMA, Finance Director SCOTT McCARTHY, Technology Manager SAMMY HUSSAIN, Accounts Assistant

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