IRN slashes costs for ad campaigns

Advertisers booking ads with Independent Radio News (IRN) may find campaign costs slashed by between five and ten per cent, following the scrapping of charges by distribution company SMS.

John Perkins, managing editor of IRN, says agencies which have previously been charged 1,500 for the delivery of individual ad executions in stereo, across the IRN network, will no longer be charged for this service.

Instead, the distribution cost will be absorbed into the existing ratecard charges for the entire campaign. IRN provides free national news bulletins to 189 local stations in return for 32 ad breaks a week, and last year distributed 2m of revenue back to local stations carrying IRN ad breaks.

“The distribution charges could represent five or ten per cent of a campaign’s costs,” says Perkins. “Even where this is not the case, charging for the SMS service on top of the campaign cost has proved to be a niggle for many agencies.”

The deal coincides with the rescue of SMS (which went into administrative receivership two months ago) by US venture capitalist Gold and Appel. The company announced that it will merge SMS with satellite data distribution company Teleport UK this week.

Perkins says the takeover will enable the cost of transmission and receivers to be slashed across the SMS service. “We will be making it as easy as possible to advertise on radio.”