RAB launches ú2.5m campaign

The Radio Advertising Bureau starts a ú2.5m marketing campaign this week aimed at attracting an extra ú115m of ad revenue over the next five years.

The Radio Advertising Bureau starts a ú2.5m marketing campaign this week aimed at attracting an extra ú115m of ad revenue over the next five years.

The campaign, funded by commercial radio stations, is targeted at UK business decision-makers to promote commercial radio as an advertising medium.

“Radio’s perception among large swathes of advertising decision-makers is the only significant factor that is limiting its future growth,” says RAB managing director Douglas McArthur.

“The campaign is not aimed at people in the advertising business, but the people above them with an outdated view of commercial radio.”

However, the benefits of the campaign will not be immediate, adds McArthur. The RAB expects returns in the first year to be relatively small, although it anticipates an extra ú115m in revenue by 1999, according to a Henley Centre revenue forecast published last year.

National press ads and a mail campaign comprise the RAB’s most ambitious project in the three years since it was launched.

The campaign will also use promotional airtime on all commercial radio stations.

The radio ads have been created by The Creative Department and go on air today (Wednesday).

Press ads will appear from February 2, with creative work by The Leith Agency.

“Commercial radio reaches 59 per cent of businessmen each week. That is more than the combined readership of The Times, Financial Times and Daily Telegraph – so our own medium has a key role to play in updating the business community,” says McArthur.