RAB invests 3m in ad drive initiative

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) is investing 3m in a new initiative that aims to provide advertisers and agencies with support and insight into how best to use the medium. The announcement was made at a commercial radio forum held by RadioCentre yesterday (September 18).

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) is investing £3m in a new initiative that aims to provide advertisers and agencies with support and insight into how best to use the medium. The announcement was made at a commercial radio forum held by RadioCentre yesterday (September 18).

The industry body will use the fund to work with individual advertisers and to help them get support for the challenges they face. It will include research, creative consultation or “idea generation” sessions. Advertisers and their agencies will each receive an offer from the RAB, which managing director Simon Redican urged them to take up.

He adds:†”Strategically, we need to make sure that advertisers get more from the medium and we can only do that together – the advertiser partnership fund is aimed at making sure we do just that. We’re currently seeing transformatory investment in brands and content together with collective will from the groups to collaborate more which will without doubt benefit advertisers.”

The announcement was part of an industry forum looking at the future for the commercial radio sector. It featured the chief executives of the five major radio groups – Ashley Tabor, Global Radio, Scott Taunton from UTV, Dee Ford of Bauer Media, Donnach O’Driscoll, Absolute Radio and Stuart Taylor, deputy chief executive of GMG†Radio – talking about future plans for their radio brands.

Meanwhile, the latest industry figures have revealed that commercial radio revenue dropped by 10.2% year-on-year to £134.3m over the second quarter of 2008. As with all media sectors, revenue falls have been attributed to a downturn in the ad market caused by the credit crunch.