Agencies vie for Digital One launch campaign

National commercial digital radio consortium Digital One is in discussion with advertising agencies about its launch campaign next year.

The consortium is now looking for an agency, despite the fact it still has to fill the position of marketing director.

Digital One chief executive Quentin Howard says: “We are talking to agencies and I would expect to have make an announcement in the first quarter of next year.”

Digital One is mandated by the Radio Authority – which awarded the licence – to spend 27m over 12 years in promoting the service and the take-up of digital radio sets.

Sources close to the account say it is worth about 2m per year over the next four years. It is over this period that the majority of the marketing spend will be concentrated.

Digital sets cost between 600 and 800, but the industry predicts prices will drop by half before the end of next year.

Digital One is owned by GWR, which has a 57 per cent stake, and cable company NTL, which has a 33 per cent stake. Talk Radio was to take up the remaining ten per cent, but new chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie has decided to spend the money on programming rather than owning part of the network.

Murdoch’s radio plot, page 20