Radio Adspend Grows As Sponsors Leads The Way
The nation’s commercial radio broadcasters saw revenues rise as a whole at the beginning of the year, with the Radio Advertising Bureau reporting a year on year rise of 2.8% in the first quarter of 2005.
The RAB’s figures, published today, show that total commercial radio revenue reached £162.0 million between January and March, while national advertising revenue showed an increase of 3.5% year on year in the same period.
Sponsorship and promotion-based advertising has continued to see impressive growth in radio, with the RAB’s figures reporting a year on year revenue increase of 11.3%. The increase makes the medium the fastest area of growth with radio advertising.
The first quarter of the year saw heavy investment in radio advertising from the motoring industry, with a combined £21 million ploughed into the medium by Ford, Vauxhall and Renault, securing places for all three within the top ten advertisers for the quarter.
FMCG firms Unilever, Nestle and Procter & Gamble all increased their radio expenditure for the quarter, while COI Communications and Abbey ran the biggest campaigns.
Commenting on the overall increase in radio adspend, Lynne Springett, marketplace and PR manager at the RAB said: “Today’s figures for Q1 2005 reveal a positive start to the year for commercial radio. In a tough marketplace, we’re pleased to see some of the UK’s biggest advertisers continue to increase their investment in the medium during the first quarter, utilising radio to maximise multi-media effectiveness.”
Recent figures from the RAB indicated that homes equipped with digital radio receivers consume more commercial radio content than their analogue-only counterparts, with the RAB claiming that the influx of new stations and delivery methods is increasing the listening hours of commercial stations at the expense of the BBC (see Digital Radio Fuelling Commercial Audience Rise).
However, the latest wave of RAJAR audience data shows that commercial radio slipped further away from the BBC in terms of listening share, weekly reach and average hours per listener at the beginning of 2005, with the Corporation outperforming its rivals in all areas. Commercial radio now accounts for 43.8% of all listening, while the BBC represents 54.2% (see RAJAR Results Q1 2005: BBC Rises As Commercial Rivals Falter).
RAB: 020 7306 2500 www.rab.co.uk