Opportunity For Radio Growth In National Arena.

At last week’s RAB2005 Radio Sales, Management and Leadership conference in Atlanta, the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) released the second phase of its Advertiser Perception Study, funded by Arbitron and conducted by Padin & Estabrook and TargetCast TCM.

The most striking findings in the survey reveal that by improving its accountability with advertisers and agencies, Radio has a great opportunity to increase its revenues, particularly in national dollars. The term “accountability” turned out to have several meanings, from volumetrics, audience delivery, and scheduled integrity, to accurate reporting, price/value perception, and Return on Investment (ROI).

Where last year’s study centered on media buyers, the 2005 survey places more emphasis on planners, the source for new Radio dollars within agencies. This year’s study includes more larger, national agencies, concentrating on those that place Radio buys, but spend only a small share of their budgets in the medium. The study focuses on Radio’s top 15 advertising spending categories. The overall survey size was also increased.

After examining how advertisers perceive Radio with regard to several accountability issues, the results were cross-referenced with responses from Radio industry professionals. The results expose a disconnect between what the buy-side perceives of Radio’s accountability practices, and how the industry perceives itself.

The study does show that advertisers and agencies grapple with accountability in all media, and do perceive that Radio has already taken some steps to improve.

“The bottom line is, if you are not accountable for the ads you run, you cannot have the advertisers’ money,” said Gary Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer, RAB. “Advertisers are engaging in multimedia campaigns to effectively target their customer through specific media touch points. If Radio wants to be a part of that, it must remain competitive and answer advertiser demand for accountability.”