Our round-up of Rajar Q1 2018

Our round-up of Rajar Q1 2018

The first Rajar results of 2018 have been released, and it is a mixed news for stations across North & South Wales experiencing ups and downs.

The crucial take-away from this quarter’s figures is that commercial radio has recorded its highest ever reach; 90% of the UK population now tune in to radio every week.

Smooth Radio South Wales suffered the biggest drop in listeners with a decline of -20.34%. Capital North West and Wales wasn’t far behind with a decline of -17.09%.

Although Heart South Wales suffered a drop in reach, down –4.09% from 416,000 to 399,000 listeners, it still maintains the top spot for listeners across Wales.

Stations to see an increase in listener numbers included 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire whose reach increased 10%, from 38,000 to 42,000 and 106.3 Bridge FM who saw an increase of 12% from 33,000 to 37,000.

Across the board, generally average listening hours per person saw little change. This was an exception for Smooth Radio South Wales who saw a staggering decrease in their average listening hours by over half, falling from 10.1 hours per listener to just 4.2 hours.

UK Wide

Great news for commercial radio which saw the Heart network overtake the BBC in terms of weekly reach for the first time ever, the first commercial station to overtake the BBC. The expansion of DAB coverage has allowed digital-only stations such as BBC 6 and Kisstory to achieve record-breaking audiences in the first quarter of 2018.

The crucial take-away from this quarter’s figures is that commercial radio has recorded its highest ever reach; 90% of the UK population tune in to radio every week. The figures also show the innovation of radio into a digital platform; 63% of the UK population listen to digital radio every week via DAB, DTV, online or through an app. The digital share of the radio market is up 8% on last year.

If you want to include radio into your media mix or aren’t sure if you are using the right station(s) to deliver your campaign objectives then get in touch with us at The Media Angel. We’re here to offer impartial media guidance to ensure the best ROI on your marketing campaigns.

If you need expert advice on ensuring you’re using the right radio station(s) or want to start including radio in your marketing mix then get in touch

[email protected]

Ring: 02921 320200.

#LoveMarketing.

Rajar Q4 2017. Who are the winners and losers?

The last quarter of 2017 Rajar results are out, illustrating a North V South success story in Wales.
North Wales has had a great performance with Heart North Wales up in reach and listening hours, Smooth North West and Wales has seen it’s reach increase by 13%.
Heart South Wales is down in reach and listening hours, although still holds the top spot with a 416,000 reach compared to Capital the next with a reach of 171,000.

Unfortunately Smooth South Wales didn’t have a good book, losing 38% of it’s audience and 33% of it’s hours!

Dragon Radio Wales has had it’s sixth successful Rajar results with a steady increase in reach up 50% this quarter and 80% up from the last quarter of 2016, with 27,000 listeners.
The independent station forerunner this quarter is Swansea Sound. On average its listeners now tune in for 10.7 hours per week, which has helped grow its hours by a whopping 50%.

UK Wide
Nationally, the Capital network is the second highest reaching network popular with a young and engaged audience. Overall, heart has had a good quarter in total listening hours, with Heart South West increasing it’s weekly audience figure to 391,000, up 6%
Digital radio share of listening is up by 1.1% to 49.9%. Commercially, digital share has risen to 51.6% compared to BBC’s 48.3%. This could be down to on-line and app listening as 26% of adults listen to radio via a mobile phone or tablet at least once a month.

In summary, Commercial radio continues to fulfil advertisers requirements for consistent performance and ROI. 90% of the population listen to radio, getting up close and personal for an average of 21.3 hours per week. With a broad diversity of listeners, radio still maintains it’s ability to deliver to wide audiences with a strong trust in the media.

If you want to include radio into your media mix or aren’t sure if you are using the right station(s) to deliver your campaign objectives then get in touch with us at The Media Angel. We’re here to offer impartial media guidance to ensure the best ROI on your marketing campaigns. standout@themediaangel  tel 02921 320200. #LoveMarketing.

 

Advertising in newspapers could triple your ad campaign effectiveness

Advertisers who are cutting back on newspaper advertising might be missing a trick.

According to a new study conducted by effectiveness consultancy Benchmarketing for Newsworks, which claims that advertising with newspapers increases overall revenue return on investment by three times.

The study covers 500 econometric models to provide evidence of the impact newsbrands have on advertising campaigns. The results show that newspapers increase overall campaign effectiveness as well as boosting other media – newspapers make TV twice as effective and online display four times more effective. It goes on to claim that using digital newsbrands boosts print ROI by up to five times.

The research follows challenging times in the print market, which has seen print advertising revenues decline at a rapid rate this year as advertisers are investing more digitally.

The research hopes to prove the value of print advertising. It claims advertisers wanting to maximise effectiveness in their campaigns need to return to 2013 levels of expenditure, where investment in print was at 11.4%. That figure has since dropped to 7.6 % in 2015.

On a sector by sector basis, the research found that adding newspapers to a campaign increases effectiveness by 5.7 times for finance; 3 times for travel; 2.8 times for retail; 1.7 times for automotive; and 1.2 times for FMCG.

Claire Harrison-Church, VP marketing at Asda, said: “Newsbrands are a crucial part of Asda’s marketing mix because they provide us with an influential and flexible platform that we use to inform and inspire our customers. The ultimate goal of our comms is to deliver returns and this large-scale study allows us to continue to invest with confidence. Retailers know that adding newsbrands to a campaign increases the effectiveness of other media – here we have the evidence to prove it.”

If you are interested in incorporating press advertising into your media mix, call one of our team on 02921 320200 or email [email protected]

Consolidation of Press Advertising Sales?

Newspaper groups are discussing merging their advertising sales.

With declining print revenues and a lack of online growth in the face of Google and Facebook’s dominance over the past 18 months proprietors and media owners have had to focus their minds.

There are around eight main sales houses currently– News UK, Mail Brands, Guardian News & Media, Telegraph Media Group, Trinity Mirror, Northern & Shell, ESI Media and The Financial Times; merging ad sales is a logical move to gain scale. This excludes regional newspaper publishers and magazine companies.

TV has consolidated into just three sales houses, radio and cinema each have only two major players; all have reaped benefits.

Trinity Mirror is very keen to push joint ad sales and have sounded out Telegraph Media Group, News UK and others.But progress has been mixed. Trinity Mirror has pulled out of 1XL, a joint ad-sales house for digital advertising, in which regional publishers Johnston Press and Newsquest remain involved.

Scott Gill, managing director of 1XL, is optimistic that joint ad sales can take off across the industry, “assuming legality is established and if there is buy-in from the highest levels”, he says.

So to conclude, moving to joint ad sales might be a good idea, but no-one thinks it will be easy and it could be a while up.

If you are interested in including press as part of your advertising campaign, please give our team a call on 02921 320200 or e mail [email protected] # LoveMarketing

Brands are losing consumer trust on social media

Brands should be concerned as social media is a key source of information for consumers when making purchase decisions. When questioned by CIM, 62% of people said they now ‘Often’ or ‘occasionally’ use social media when deciding whether to make a purchase.

Cinema ad spend surges as industry leaders invest in premium spots

Ad spend in UK cinema has experienced a year-on-year increase for the first quarter of 2016 at a massive 26%.

Of the many industries increasing their spend in cinema advertising, it appears the automakers industry is investing particularly heavily in the platform. Automaker brands have spent around 198% more on cinema during the first quarter of 2016 than they did during the same period in 2015.

The figures, released by Digital Cinema Media (DCM) also noted a surge in booking for premium positions as brands increasingly look to air ads in the last commercial slot before a film kicks off. This is known as the ‘Gold Spot’ and has seen revenues rise by 244%.

The Gold Spot position before every family film for the year was claimed earlier in 2016 by Sky through a one-year deal, ahead of the hugely anticipated movies like Zootropolis and Finding Dory.

Cinema ad spend grew by 7.6% globally in 2015 and is set to grow by a further 5% in 2017.

In light of this impressive growth, Karen Stacey, chief executive of DCM, claims: “2016 is proving a defining moment for cinema advertising and the stellar results that we have recorded so far, and in particular around the Easter period, speak volumes for the effectiveness and popularity of our medium.”

Our team are here to help you benefit from the power of Cinema as an advertising platform. Get in touch with us on 02921 320 200 or email [email protected] for award winning media planning and buying advice.

 

 

TV advertising spend in the UK tops £5 billion for first time

TV advertising revenue in the UK reached £5.27 billion in 2015, according to figures provided to Thinkbox by the UK commercial TV broadcasters.

This is the sixth consecutive year that TV advertising revenue has grown in the UK.

The figure represents all the money invested by advertisers in commercial TV: linear spot and sponsorship, Broadcaster VOD, and product placement.

Based on data from Nielsen, online businesses invested over £500 million in TV in 2015, an increase of 14% on 2014. Google, Facebook and Netflix spend over 60% of their marketing budgets on TV advertising. While Motors increase TV spend by 18% to £318 million, finance increased by 17% to £428 million, and household FMCG increased by 14% to £199 million. Facebook was last year’s biggest new TV advertiser, investing £10.8 million.

TV advertising is 30% cheaper than 10 years ago

Despite some recent inflation in TV advertising prices due in part to increased advertiser demand and some decline in TV set viewing, in 2015 TV advertising was 30% cheaper in real terms than 10 years ago.

TV advertising at a glance:

• Commercial TV reaches 98.2% of the UK every week (BARB, 2015)
• An average broadcast TV campaign in the UK (of 400 TV ratings) gets 234 million views (BARB, 2015)
• The TV advertiser with the most views across 2015 was 30.5 billion
• TV advertising £ for £ has the highest return on investment with an average of £1.79 profit for every £1 invested (Ebiquity, ‘Payback 4’, 2014)
• 87% of TV in the UK is watched live (BARB, 2015)
• There are 17 million conversations about TV advertising every evening in the UK (BARB/Thinkbox, 2015)

“TV advertising works, it works better than anything else, and it works for all budgets.  Nothing else has TV’s reach, scale and connection with audiences; no other form of advertising is as trusted. Online businesses in particular recognize the impact TV advertising has and have significantly increased their investment recently. This is something we expect to continue in 2016” said Lindsey Clay Chief Executive of Thinkbox.

Watch this for more insights on TV advertising.

Our team are here to help you benefit from the power of TV as an advertising platform. Get in touch with us on 02921 320 200 or email [email protected] for award winning media planning and buying advice.

 

The Media Angel finalists in the National CIM Excellence Awards!

We are absolutely overjoyed to announce some very exciting news.

After being the only media planning and buying agency in Wales to win an award at the CIM Canmol Welsh Marketing Excellence Awards in 2015, we have been shortlisted for a marketing award at National level!

Our outstanding work on Tŷ Hafan’s legacy campaign has earned us a place as finalists at the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards 2016, which is set to take place on April 14^th at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. Our work has been shortlisted alongside campaigns run by Appletizer, The Happy Egg Company, Virgin Media and O2 to name just a few!

The CIM’s prestigious Marketing Excellence Awards were developed to recognise and reward brilliance in the field of marketing. Now entering its seventh year, these awards are a fantastic way to raise awareness of the creativity and originality delivered by marketers who are at the forefront of the profession. We will be proudly exhibiting their work for Tŷ Hafan, which has already been praised as “simply brilliant” by the judging panel at Canmol.

Tŷ Hafan Legacies have become a key income stream for the charity, generating around 70% of annual individual giving income over the past few years. Our team were appointed to take care of the Legacy campaign on behalf of Tŷ Hafan and devise a campaign that would help the charity raise these vital funds through pledges.

We made innovative use of both new and traditional media marketing methods including video on demand, print press and direct mail to maximise an extremely precious budget. The results were outstanding, generating returns of over 300% for the charity.

Managing Director Alison stated “We are beyond thrilled to be nominated for an award at the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards this year in London! We were over the moon with our Canmol win, and are now so excited to raise the national profile of our small but brilliant organisation and of this case study; which demonstrates what can be achieved from maximising precious budgets, selecting the most affordable and appropriate media.”

“In this case, a simple mix of new digital media and more traditional, popular methods such as press raised the profile of Tŷ Hafan and their schemes for donating to impressive ends – achieving amazing over-delivery on targets. The campaign delivered an overwhelming 300% more than the proposed target and we genuinely feel this case study is an inspiration for charities nationwide. We feel this should be inspiration for other small, hardworking agencies too; we’ve shown that despite being a team smaller in numbers we have the aptitude and dexterity to make a huge difference”.

We are also so delighted for client Swansea University who has been shortlisted for their ‘Making Waves’ campaign; a project we have also been heavily involved in executing.

“We couldn’t be happier for the team at Swansea University for making the shortlist with us; we are super excited to celebrate with them in London on 14^th April” says Alison.

We would like to wish all fellow finalists the very best of luck, and we are very much looking forward to a fantastic evening.

RAJAR Q3: What you need to know!

Last Thursday we received the most up to date listening figures for radio across the UK; giving us insight into the current listening patterns of radio fans.

As an advertiser using radio, or if you are planning to do so, here are some key points to take away from this quarter’s report:

• Heart South Wales achieved a record weekly listening figure 544,000 – a massive 94,000 increase from Q2 and the highest improving reach than all other stations in Wales for this quarter!

• Capital South Wales ranks the second most popular station, with 250,000 listeners tuning each week. Capital sees a recovery of around 16,000 listeners!

• It was discovered that listeners to Smooth South Wales tune in for 11.5 hours on average every week; the highest average of all stations per week

• Town and Country Broadcasting stations, which include Nation Radio and Hits, Bridge FM, Radio Pembrokeshire enjoyed a steady quarter, with listening hours increasing along with market share.

• Nation Radio acquired a higher number of male listeners and a large number of ABC1 listeners

• Radio Pembrokeshire continues to have the largest percentage weekly reach at 38% followed by The Wave at 31%, Heart South Wales at 29% and Bridge FM at 28%

• Radio Pembrokeshire has the highest listening share in TSA % at 19.6%

• The Wave was recorded to reach around 148,000 listeners per week; the station has enjoyed a large reach increase of 9,000 listeners compared with last quarter

• Kiss 101 in BBC Radio Wales transmission area unfortunately recorded the highest loss of listeners, down 77,000 since last quarter

• Similarly, Capital North West and Wales was down 18,000 listeners in this quarter compared to last

• On a more national scale, many commercial stations have reported their highest ever reach including Heart (9.1 million), Capital (7.4 million), Kiss (5.5 million), Absolute (4.2 million).

• This quarter also highlighted a “tipping point” for digital listening; DAB platforms are now used by 56% of the UK adult population each week. Digital signals take up less space on the airwaves, meaning more stations are available for advertisers (and over half of the UK population are now listening to these stations!)

There has never been a better time to advertise on radio. Radio is a great frequency builder offering a cost effective and trusted platform for your advertising. As this quarter’s RAJAR figures suggest, radio remains hugely popular for people in Wales.

More people in Wales listen to radio, and they listen for longer, than the UK as a whole. In 2014, radio services reached 94.5% of the adult population in Wales. (Ofcom Communications Market Report, 2015)

Get in touch with our team at The Media Angel for more insight on audience data on RAJAR; we can help advise on the best radio stations available to suit your campaign objectives.

Tips and Stats from Facebook’s Boost your Business Cardiff Event

We went along to the Facebook’s Boost your Business Summer Tour at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. If you couldn’t make it, here are some of our essential stats and top tips.

We listened to talks from the panel which included Facebook’s Olly Sewell, Manager of the SMB Partner Management in EMEA, Jules White from The Last Hurdle,  Justin Schwartz from the social media agency behind Rachel Organics. Did you know…

• 25m people use Facebook on mobile in the UK every day.
• People visit Facebook on average 14 times per day via mobile.
• Facebook attracts 4bn video views every day.
• At least 50% of users watch one video per day.
• The future is sight, sound and motion.
• Instagram marketing solutions will launch from this September.

10 top tips when using Facebook advertising:

1. Use the power of short videos to captivate your audience.
2. With all your messaging, think about what your customers want to hear and see more so than what you want them.
3. Set your objectives to gain meaningful results, such as website clicks, video views, events, and increase in sales. Focus on gaining real numbers, it’s not always just about likes and shares.
4. The best kind of content is ‘real’ content and that really works. Think as the end user.
5. When advertising you need to balance relevance and quality of ads with your bidding strategy and budget.
6. Schedule offers when your audience needs them.
7. Consider seasonality, e.g. Valentine’s Day or Christmas. You need to think carefully about when other like-minded businesses will all be trying to advertise at the same time.
8. Don’t under estimate the worth of your audience. It can cost more to reach the same popular audiences at the same time.
9. Use custom audiences to reach all of the people who matter to you.
10. Think yourself as a mobile business, as this is where you customers spend most of their time.

If you need help incorporating social media as part of your marketing campaigns, then please get in touch. We’re always on hand to take care of your marketing. Email: [email protected] or call: 02921 320 200.

TV advertising reach remains high

According to the latest figures collated by Thinkbox and the BARB, television advertising remains one of the most sure fire ways to get your message in front of large audiences.

Figures for this May found that around 68% of TV viewing was commercial, with this accounting for 67% of all TV viewing on a television set. People are also watching commercial television for slightly longer compared with last year, demonstrating that the medium remains a strong and perpetual part of popular culture.

The weekly reach of television continues to be extremely high at 94% with this latest update in figures. The report also found women to be the target audience most connected with television advertising messages, with commercial channels reaching on average 95% of women each week.

There has never been a better time to advertise on television and reach these impressive audience figures. Get in touch with The Media Angel for more information about how to take advantage of the power of television advertising. Advertising on television doesn’t always require huge investment and can be far more cost effective than you might think.

Give us a call on 02921 320 200 or drop us an email for advice on the best platform and channels for your brand, campaign objectives and budget.

A solid advertising campaign will create massive brand value growth…

A recent study conducted by Millward Brown has quantified the theory that good advertising makes a positive difference to brand perception, particularly if brands have strong propositions behind them.

The study concluded that brands with strong advertising campaigns increased in value by a massive 168% over a period of 10 years, which clearly demonstrates the enormous positive impact advertising has on brand perception. Advertising is one of the main ways in which brands can communicate their propositions and differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. This differentiation is something the Millward Brown study has found to be extremely important for brand value.

It was suggested that brands with solid advertising campaigns and strategies are more successful at demonstrating a clear ‘purpose’ and proposition. When brands communicate effectively this way, the message is received more meaningfully by consumers and ensures that they better understand a brand’s offering as different within its market. Advertising is proven to be the easiest, most lucrative way of building a meaningful brand; extending your appeal beyond products and services and creating massive brand value.

Would you like to increase the positive sentiment around your brand? Do you want to stand out and get noticed within your field? The team at The Media Angel can help place your  advertising on the most appropriate media  platforms, to reach your campaign objectives, within budget. Give one of our experts a call on 02921 320 200 or email us.