It’s Rajar Q3 2022!!

Good news for digital Radio

41 million adults aged 15+ are now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled platform (DAB, DTV, Online, App, Smart Speaker) each week. 66% of the population claim to own or have access to a DAB radio. 74% of the population tune in to digital radio every week. 66% of weekly listening hours are consumed digitally. Listening via a DAB has 39% share of listening, Online has a 24% share and DTV is 4%.

A General overview

  • 88.8% of the adult UK population that’s 49.7 million adults tuned in to radio in Q3
  • Radio weekly hours are up at 1.02 billion from 998 million in Q2
  • Live radio average listening hours 20.6 hours per week
  • Commercial radio reached 5.2m listeners more than BBC radio
  • 41 million adults are reached via a digitally enabled platform weekly

National Commercial Stations

  • Global has 24.4% share with 246m hours with 25.4m listeners a week.
  • Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with over 10m listeners. It’s the most listened to commercial station in London with 1.8m weekly reach.
  • Capital has the second largest reach after Heart with a weekly reach of 7.4 m, down 3.5% year on year across the UK,
  • Smooth Radio remains the UK’s third largest commercial radio station, with 5.6 million weekly listeners, up 123,000 listeners .
  • Radio X has increased its listeners by 70,000 now nearly 2m weekly listeners.
  • Virgin Radio has lost 7% of its listeners with Chris Evans Breakfast listeners also decreasing from 869,000 listeners to 776,000
  • KISS has grown to 2.7m listeners, up 7.2% yearly as has Magic to 2.8m

Local Commercial Stations

  • Heart South Wales’s reach is 450,000 up from Q2’s 396,000 with an average of 8 hrs per listener.
  • Radio Pembrokeshire’s weekly Reach has dropped from 23,000 to 20,000, Radio Carmarthenshire’s weekly reach is 143,000, both reaching 19% of the population in their areas.
  • Capital South Wales has a reach of 196,000 with average listening hours of 3.9 hours, an increase of 8,000 listeners.
  • Capital North Wales and Heart North Wales have increased their listeners by 7,000 and 25,000 respectively.
  • Nation Radio’s reach has increased by 18,000 to 150,000 a reach of 8%
  • Easy Radio Wales (was Swansea Bay radio) has lost listeners and has a reach of 11,000 down from Q2’s reported 14,000

If you would like to advertise on radio please contact our experienced team.

1 Million Brits have cancelled subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime

The cost of Living crisis is having an effect on TV viewing consumption. Reports indicate that almost one million Brits have cancelled their subscriptions to streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ so far this year.

According to London analytics firm Kantar, the number of UK homes with at least one paid-for video subscription fell by 937,000 between January and September. This is partly due to reducing outgoings to help pay for energy and food and partly due to “content fatigue” – an overwhelming amount of choice in content available.

Between July and September 2022, the number of British households subscribed to at least one video streaming service fell to 16.18 million – a drop of 234,000 compared to the quarter prior (April to June).

Despite being the world’s biggest streaming service, in the UK, Netflix took just a 2.1 per cent share of new subscribers from July and September.

This was less than Prime Video (29.4 per cent), Paramount+ (24.6 per cent), Disney+ (17.5 per cent), Apple TV (3.4 per cent) and more. 

We’ve previously touched on the news that Netflix has announced that it will be introducing a new ad-supported tier which will be launched in November at the cost of £4.99, this will be partly to benefit from ad revenue and partly to attract new subscribers for less cost and to void more cancellations. This Basic package will show an average of four to five minutes of adverts per hour, with each advert 15 or 30 seconds in length.

However the arrival of Paramount+ in the UK has actually seen an increase in the number of video-on-demand subscriptions in the UK rising to 28.2 million.

According to Kantar, Paramount+ enjoyed a successful launch and is already the fifth-largest video-on-demand service in the country, higher than both Discovery+ and AppleTV+. 

Overall, more than five million UK homes still have the three most globally popular video streaming services – Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+. 

It will be interesting to see how the battle of subscription channels continues over the coming months and what this will mean for linear TV channels as these audiences will likely increase. This in turn will benefit brands advertising on linear TV.

If you are thinking about advertising to large audiences on TV please contact our experienced team.

[email protected]

Demand in OOH advertising grows in the first quarter

As we all know travel has resumed on a nearly back to normal basis, airports are busy and international travel is back on the table for us all. This has resulted in huge growth in demand for OOH ad spaces in and around travel hubs. JCDecaux, the world’s largest outdoor advertising company has announced that their revenue growth was 32% for the first six months of 2022 hugely contributed to by the recovery of the travel sector following the pandemic.

This was evident in N. America where growth doubled to €116.2m against 2021, driven by a significant return of US air travel, with US airport advertising revenue now reaching 90% of what it was before the pandemic. Here in the UK growth was up by 72% to €143.4m.

In the second quarter of 2022 JCDecaux grew by 22% year on year, with all regions recording increases except Asia-Pacific (likely due to lockdowns continuing in China)

Overall, all elements of their business grew in the first half of 2022:

Transport ad business grew 28% organically to €459m.

Street furniture up 38% organically to €789.4m. 

Billboard advertising up by 22% to €226.4m.

It is estimated by Jean-Charles Decaux, co-CEO of JCDecaux, that the company will grow organically by “around 7%” in the third quarter of 2022. (Source:The Media Leader)

New Elizabeth Line offers dynamic OOH opportunities

After a 19 billion pound spend and over schedule, London’s Elizabeth Line has this week been launched. This Crossrail train service provides more variety  and faster services to the public in London. The Elizabeth line will revolutionise the way people travel across the Capital. Stretching 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the West through central tunnels across to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the East, the Crossrail service is expected to carry 200 million people every year to 41 stations (10 of them new).

Advertising on the London Underground has always been an effective way to reach mass and varied audiences with millions of commuters, visitors and fun-seekers using the network daily. These new stations will have big, bright and beautiful advertising spaces to draw audiences in with strategic positioning and captivating experiences. There are a vast number of formats for advertisers to tell their stories with 329 new advertising displays overall. Eight central stations feature seven pairs of full- motion enabled Digital Ribbons and 16 new-format Digital Runways, made up of 235 platform edge screens (only available on the Elizabeth Line) In addition there are four high impact, ultra-HD Digital Gateway screens and 32 new digital billboards (D6’s) installed in high visibility locations such as ticket halls and corridors.

‘Advertising infrastructure is often added as an afterthought to major building projects. However, the advertising team here were actively involved with the main architect from very early in the design stage. A “less is more” approach was taken, always thinking about, passenger flows, viewing angles and importantly the overall design aesthetic. The impact is unmissable.‘

Big brands that have so-far acquired sites include Google, Money Super Market, Reed.co.uk, Sage and Schweppes. We will be keeping a keen eye on other advertisers who have been attracted by these new sites.

If you are interested in finding out some more information on outdoor advertising or how to get your brand seen on the NEW Elizabeth line, contact our team today

89% of the UK listen to Commercial radio every week!

2022 First quarter Rajar has been released. Here are some of the top-line stats we have been looking at…

Overall

  • 49.7 UK million adults tuned in to radio each week in the first three months of this year, the highest figure ever recorded!  Overall listening reach has increased by 222,000 from 88.9% to 89.3%.
  • The total average number of weekly listening hours is 1.012 billion and on average a listener tunes into 20.4 hours of live radio per week.
  • 42 million adults are reached by a digital radio platform weekly.
  • Listening via DAB has a 41% share of listening
  • ‘Online’ has a 22% share (within ‘Online’ Website/Apps 12% and Smart Speakers 10%) and DTV 4%.                                                     
  • 52% of smart speaker users listen to radio weekly
  • 20% of which claim to use it to listen to radio every day
  • AM/FM listening hours are less than a third with a share of 32%
  • Commercial radio continues to grow with 395,000 extra listeners up to 66.8% of reach and an increase in the average hours of listening to 13.2 hours per week.

Nationally

  • Of the larger commercial networks Heart UK’s reach of 8,498,000 is down from 8,542,000 last quarter whilst Capital network has also fallen to 6,068,000 from 6,349,000
  • Smooth radio weekly listener hours are down from 6.7 to 6.4 as is Absolute Radio’s down to 6.6 from 6.8 hours
  • Kiss Fm total listening hours for the last quarter have dropped to 19,571,000 from 21,907,000
  • Magic FM has just about levelled out with their reach of just over 4 million

Locally

  • Heart South Wales remain the largest radio station across Wales. It’s reach has remained pretty much the same at 402,000 with listeners tuning in on average for 9.5 hours a week.
  • A successful Rajar for Capital South Wales which now reaches 182,000 people compared to last quarter’s 156,000  (up 16%)and Capital North Wales listener hours has seen a slight up-lift to 4.3.
  • Nation radio reaches 126,000 listeners down from 153,000  (down 17%)with people listening for an average of 6.2 hours a week.
  • More local stations Radio Pembrokeshire and Radio Carmarthenshire retain their listener reach of 27,000 and19,000 respectively.

If you would like to advertise on radio please contact our experienced team.

The power of Brand Characters

Many but not all brands use a character/mascot or recognisable face to help consumers relate to a brand…instantly making them recognisable (Think Ronald McDonald here) Some are decades old and some fall by the wayside.

According to a study by The Moving Picture Company it found that “advertising with characters and brand mascots not only has a long-term effectiveness, but can facilitate stronger brand engagement, increase profit and share of voice and create a deeper emotional connection with consumers”.

The use of a mascot can increase market share by 41% (MPC)

Using characters such as Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot can increase market share by 41% (MPC)  compared with 29.7% for a push not featuring a character.

According to brand agency This Way Up characters that connect clearly to the values and brands they front up cut through way more effectively ie Captain Birdseye delivers the daily catch, M & M colourful characters.

Not all characters have to likeable, the Pepparami “animal” is portrayed as aggressive and forthright, Go Compares opera singing front man is divisive but has provided a distinctive and instantly recognisable character.

Celebrity endorsed characters can be less believable as they can often represent multiple brands meaning their endorsement and consumer trust is watered down and weaker. Cardi B represents both Pepsi and Reebok.

Sentimentality encourages trust and recognition with characters from childhood continuing connection with brands. Some of the most recognised characters have been around for years ie Frosties – Tony The Tiger. On the other hand other characters have not stood the test of changing times and values such as the Oxo family and PG Tips chimps

As societal attitudes have changed many characters have been left behind; Uncle ben has re-aligned its marketing strategy. The obesity crisis has ended many characters such as cartoon mascots on cereal packaging.

The Grocer has named captain Birdseye as the most iconic advertising character on British TV who has been on our screens for 55 years closely followed by Cadbury’s chocolate frog Freddo, Aldi’s Kevin The Carrot and Marks and Spencer’s Percy Pig.

According to The Grocer “More memorable than a slogan and more reliable than celebrities, mascots have been ‘visceral shortcuts’ for grocery brands seeking cut-though for years.”

Top 10 telly ad icons and when they were created

1. Captain Birdseye, Birds Eye – 1967

2. Freddo the Frog, Mondelez/Cadbury – 1973

3. Kevin the Carrot, Aldi – 2016

4. Coco the Monkey, Kellogg’s – 1963

5. M&Ms, Mars Wrigley – 1954

6. Julius Pringle, Kellogg’s – 1967

7. Bunny, Duracell – 1973

8. Percy Pig, Marks & Spencer – 1992

9. Peperami Animal, Jack Link’s – 1991

10. Aunt Bessie, Nomad Foods – 1995

If you need help with planning your TV or Video On demand adverts (mascot or not) please contact [email protected]

Are you thinking about using Podcasts as part of your advertising strategy?

There has been a huge growth in podcast listening over the last couple of years, whether it’s when exercising, travelling, cooking or just kicking back it’s a convenient, informative and entertaining way of listening to what you are interested in. 32% of people listen to podcasts monthly while 22% listen at least weekly (source: Edison Research). 67% of podcast listeners say that they perceive adverts on podcasts positively, trusting the adverts more than other types of advertising. (source: Statistics)

Podcast advertising allows brands to talk about their products gaining trust whilst listeners are consuming their favourite podcasts on their chosen trusted platform such as Spotify.

How does it work?

Adverts on podcasts can be delivered much like video-on-demand advertising. The audio is placed at the beginning, middle and end of a podcast episode, helping to establish a connection with the audience already engaged with their chosen podcast. 54% of people are more likely to buy from a company they have heard on a podcast advert (source:statistics)

What to consider?

1. Audience demographics – unlike TV advertising the audience won’t be as broad, podcasts offer the opportunity to advertise to the most active podcast audience –  1/3 of millennials regularly listen to podcasts (source EX-IQ), and are often seeking new information and are likely to afford to show interest in new products and have the disposable income to try them.

2. It’s all about alignment – Target podcasts that have audiences that will likely resonate with your advertising message. Podcasts can be niche and may offer great opportunities to connect with audiences by placing adverts in the right episodes to be more natural and related to the topic.

3. Utilise multiple podcasts – Advertise across a wider number of podcasts to ensure your message is being heard multiple times rather than investing in just advertising against one popular podcast with millions of listeners, this will ensure your message is heard more than once and will therefore increase the listener buy-in.

4. Advert type –  Ads can be delivered at the beginning, middle or end of a podcast or alternatively the podcast host can read the advert. Sponsorship is often available too for consistent messaging.

With so many podcasts available, and with so many listeners with buying potential, podcasts are a great addition to an advertising campaign, if you would like to learn more about how to advertise on a podcast that’s appropriate for your business please contact us.

ITV Hits Record Ad Revenue

ITV hits record 24% ad revenue growth!

UK TV giant ITV has reported its full-year advertising revenue which is record for 2021 and painted a very healthy post-pandemic picture across the board.

The company, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, saw total external revenue soar 24 % to £3.4 billion, a sharp rise on the COVID-impacted 2020 figure of £2.7 billion. Total revenue at its production arm ITV Studios grew by 28 % to £1.7 billion, now just 2% below 2019’s pre-pandemic levels. ITV Studios external revenue was up 30% to £1.17 billion.

Also it has been announced that ITV is combining its subscription and ad-funded streaming services in ITVX, a new digital platform that will have 15,000 hours of content at launch and a 160 million-pound dedicated budget for shows.

We’ve had great success with our client campaigns that have ran on ITV. Over the many years of working together on campaigns, we have built a great rapport with all TV and video on demand suppliers. We are currently working on some exciting campaigns, and have many bookings and proposed plans in place for the year ahead.

If you’re looking to advertise on TV or VOD products, we have specialist media buyers who can help make your adverts come to life.

Contact us today to find out more!

[email protected]

Rajar Q4 2021 Results

Pink Radio

This is the second Rajar to utilise the new measuring methodology; conducted via an app running that identified radio stations by matching exposure to a stations audio output rather than face to face data gathering.

We have highlighted some interesting statistics.

National

Global has grown their weekly listeners to 25.8m  and a 24% share.

Though Heart & Smooth Radio are down just 1%, Heart has 8.54m listeners, just ahead of Radio 1 and Smooth has 5.43m. Heart’s Breakfast Show with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden has also lost listeners but remains the UK’s biggest commercial radio show and commercial breakfast show with 3.86 million listeners. Capital Breakfast hasn’t faired so well losing 250,000 listeners since the last Rajar with an audience of 2.58m.

Capital Network had 6.35m listeners in Q4 (down 2.7%) but remains No.1 music station with 1.7m weekly listeners listened to in London.

Radio X had a great Rajar with an 8.6% increase in listeners to 2.11m. Breakfast host Chris Moyles had an increase in his audience from 1.08m to 1.17m and Johnny Vaughan’s drive show is has 974,000 listeners. 

Bauer Q4 results show that they have a 20.6 million reach across its stations with three out of five of the top commercial digital stations (No.1 Kisstory, No.3 Absolute 80s, No.4 Planet Rock).Absolute  was down 13.7% on the prior quarter (2.23m).

Kiss network was down 4.4% on the previous quarter to 4.53m. The No.1 commercial digital-only station, Kisstory was up 2% to 2.3m.

The Virgin Radio network, which includes Virgin Radio UK, remains stable with 2.16m listeners during Q4. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show had just over one million listeners (up slightly on Q3), making it the No.1 digital-only commercial breakfast show. 

Local

Global Radio stations across Wales – Capital and Heart faired differently in the last Rajar: Heart North Wales had a great Rajar with reach increasing from 83,000 to 111,000 and Heart South Wales from 395,000 to 403,000. Listener hours have also increased from 7.9 per listener last Rajar to 9.2 this Rajar. Capital South Wales listenership has dropped marginally from 159,000 to 156,000, though average hours per listener has increased to 7 and reach remained at  15%. Capital North Wales and West lost just 1,000 listeners.

Radio Carmarthenshire and Radio Pembrokeshire have lost listeners with Radio Pembrokeshire dropping from 31,000 to 27,000.and Radio Carmarthenshire down by 2,000 listeners.

Nation Radio also lost listeners (2,000 weekly listeners) but average hours of listening per head  remained the same

Whilst Bridge FM more or less retained a level Q4 Rajar compared to Q3 2021,

The Wave unfortunately had a bad quarter dropping listeners by 20,000, though average listening hours remained the same.

In summary most local radio stations in Wales  have seen a drop in listenership for Rajar Dec 2021, Heart has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of Rajar’s so we will be interested to see the results from Q1 in three months time!

We thought we’d highlight a couple of other interesting statistics from Rajar before we sign off –

Digital radio platforms now accounts for 64.4% of all radio listening, according to data for Q4 2021 and listening via online and apps accounts for 16.9% of all listening  and listening via Digital TV accounts for 5% of all listening.

The new data shows that 40 million adults, or 72% of the population aged 15+, now tune into digital radio every week, with strong growth seen across a number of digital stations compared to Q3 2021. 

If you need help in choosing which radio  brand or stations are right for your business and you want to ensure your marketing budget is reaching your target market then give our team a call on 02921 320 200 or email at [email protected].

We’re here to help.

Future Measurement of TV and Video

Metrics

As an advertising agency we recognise how imperative reportable measurement of our clients campaigns are. Whilst this can be highly measured in detail in some media it is less available in others so we are interested to see (according to The Drum 2022) that the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (Isba) have been addressing a project for cross-media measurement. This encompasses TV and digital, helping marketers to understand performance as video appears across multiple platforms including social, and linear TV.

As brands and agencies have struggled with the lack of a common measurement approach (made more complex with multi screen usage), Isba’s “origin” will help present an accurate estimate of campaign reach across multiple platforms. This model proposes to understand how many times consumers may view adverts across different devices using a Virtual ID Model.

This model was tested by implementing panel-based TV data into the system, then applying the model across TV and digital, consolidating “apples and oranges” for a clearer view of campaign performance.

Isba said: “Performance in both tests exceeded our expectations.”

With verification from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), it can now look to roll out the scheme.

Speaking to The Drum, Joe Lewis, Origin research director, underlined the importance of the project: “True cross media measurement will drive benefit to consumers through a better experience of advertising and better value for advertisers through improved effectiveness and efficiency in the media marketplace. Without it, marketers are not able to truly evaluate their marketing activity.”

Though the project is unlikely to be rolled out until 2024, we are looking forward to being able to deliver to our clients a more in depth analysis of their campaigns across Linear Tv and digital.

Spotify updates podcast advertising capabilities

Spotify

As podcast listener numbers increase and the topics available on podcasts broaden, Spotify have launched a new feature to directly engage listeners with brands. CTA (call-to-action) cards.

The CTA cards will appear as a small, interactive button near the middle of the listeners device when a podcast is paused for an advert. The listener can touch the button which will redirect them to an advertisers website landing page. This process enables brands to provide more information about their products and services to the listener in just one step and to engage directly with them as an alternative to an audible 15-30 second advert.

CTA cards are also intended to make it easier for listeners to remember useful information from advertisers  such as a promotional code or URL that may have got easily forgotten in an audible advert.

Spotify has 28 million podcast listeners worldwide (2021) and is the number one podcast streaming service in the world,  followed by Apple Podcasts. It’s success is derived from the acquisition of Anchor, a digital platform which aids creators to produce and monetize original podcasts.

2021 saw Spotify’s ad revenue increase by 75% (Q3) due mainly to podcast streaming. It is estimated that podcast ad spend is set to double from $1.31 billion to $2.71 billion between 2021 & 2025 (Insider Intelligence data)

Ulta Beauty was one of the first companies to test the new CTA cards on Spotify. Advertising via podcasts, says Christine White, head of content at Ulta Beauty, is all about “finding the right connection points” — those moments where it’s possible to grab and hold listeners’ attention.

CTA podcast ads are currently only available in the US and through bookings with a minimum spend of 40K linked to it, but will be widely available after the Spring in the UK!

If you need help using audible streaming to market your business please contact us at [email protected]

2022 Trends – Video / Video on Demand

As the lockdown drove up consumption of videos with multi screen usage in most households, advertisers need to keep up with users love of video content. As such 86% of businesses use videos as part of their strategy. (Wyzowl 2021)

YouTube is the biggest platform and as advertisers are finding out, these adverts are consumed on all devices including TV and conversely TV is being consumed more frequently on smartphones. In 2022 TV will account for 12.4% of total media ad spend down from 13.3% in 2021. Broadcaster Video On demand ad spend will grow by 26% (£583.9 million) with marketeers likely to pull budget from linear TV.

Advertisers  are taking advantage of the large user-base of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for their video marketing campaign. 7 out of 10 companies say that their advertising budgets will increase.

2022 is predicted to see:

Shorter ads – people only like videos that quickly grab their attention

Shoppable video’s– allowing purchases straight from the video

1 to 1 video – personalised message videos for customers mainly through smartphones

Live Video – live streaming used for product demos and interviews.

Transcribed Text –  Publishing the transcription of a video on a site with the actual video embedded to increase ranking.

if you want to find out more about using Video as part of your media campaign, contact one of our team at The Media Angel

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