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 Media research, 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.