RAB introduces tools to boost creativity
The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) has unveiled two major initiatives designed to increase the appeal of the medium to potential advertisers as it looks to maintain recent revenue gains.
RadioGauge Predict, a free online planning tool which makes four years data on the performance and effectiveness of radio ads publically available for the first time, while, an app, LoveRadioAds, also free, will present what the RAB considers the top 10 ads each week.
The RAB says the two tools, launched to mark its 20th anniversary, have been introduced in “response to the creative industry’s desire for instant, sector intelligence backed by examples of good, creative content.”
Clare Bowen, head of creative development at the RAB, who joined in January with a brief to drive higher creative standards in radio advertising, adds: “From speaking to agencies, we’ve heard that good radio advertising is notoriously hard to track down. The LoveRadioAds app will put a vast range of radio ads directly into people’s hands.”
The RAB, which won the best use of market research award at the Marketing Week Engage for its Media and the Mood of the Nation work, will be hoping that the tools help maintain the recent revival in advertising revenues, which suffered in the wake of the freeze in Government advertising spending.
Revenue was £532.5m in 2011, according to RAB/Ofcom data, up on the £523m spent in 2010 but still well short of the £598.2m invested in 2007.
News of the initiatives comes as it was announced that commercial radio’s share of listeners dropped to 42.3% in the three months to 31 March, down from the 42.6% registered in the same period last year and 42.4% in the previous quarter, according to Rajar.
