Radio stations team up to attract more advertising revenue
Three radio stations have joined forces to try to boost the level of advertising on the country's airwaves.
Polish national radio broadcaster Polskie Radio and two private radio stations, Radio Zet and RMF FM, have teamed up in a campaign to promote radio as an effective advertising medium.
The initiative, which started in August, is the second of its kind in the world, said Monika Bednarek, the general director at Eurozet, a media holding company that owns Radio Zet. The first campaign was launched in the U.K. six years ago by Britain's Radio Advertising Bureau.
The main goal is to convince advertisers that putting their ads on the radio is an efficient way to promote brand awareness.
According to Marek Dworak, deputy president of RMF FM, radio's share of the media advertising pie is about 7-7.5%. It's hoped the campaign will boost advertising levels to 8.5%. By comparison, in the rest of Europe, Spain has a 13% radio to ad ratio, while Germany's radio to ad ratio is about 6-7%.
Communication group McCann will run the campaign, which will be presented in the press, on the internet and radio.
Dorota Obzejta, PR manager at McCann, said the campaign would be running indefinitely for the time being. "It will depend on the local radio stations (who have all been invited to take part) to see how long this campaign lasts," she said.
The campaign is costing the radio stations zl. 1.5 million ($348,837).
Some 60,000 fans turned out to see the last concert of Tina Turner's European tour at the Sopot hippodrome on August 15. Another 4 million Poles watched the show from their homes on Telewizja Polska (TVP). The concert had an overall audience of 11% throughout the entire country. Agnieszka Zalewska, at the market research company Osrodek Badania Opinii Spolecznej (OBOP), said that taking the holiday season and the long weekend into account, the audience figures for Turner's concert were very good.
According to OBOP's study on programs with the largest audience from Aug. 1-Aug. 15, Turner's show was in 12th position, but on Aug. 15 it had the largest number of viewers. "Tina's concert was a great success," said Wanda Jaworska, deputy director at Agencja Kontrakt-Grzegorz Furgo, one of the event's main organizers. She said 60,000 tickets had gone on sale only three weeks before the concert and cost about zl. 200. She added that there had been enough room for 90,000 people at the Sopot concert. "From the start, we realistically thought we would get about 60,000 people," Jaworska said. "To attract such a large number of people in Poland is a great success."
Advertising agency Leo Burnett Warszawa will create Radio Zet's autumn advertising campaign. Krzysztof Kouyoumdjian, PR manager with the radio station, said that the campaign might be linked with the new program lineup, which will be introduced in September. Kouyoumdjian said he was not able to disclose any details regarding programming schedules or the advertising campaign and its budget. Previously Radio Zet worked with the Grey Warszawa advertising agency. Kouyoumdjian said the ad campaign would probably start in September and last about two months.
Outdoor advertiser Cityboard Media is running an advertising campaign on traffic safety. The campaign, called "Autoaggression," will last throughout August and is aimed at combating aggressive driving. Four hundred billboards have been erected in the country's largest towns and cities with the slogan: "Your aggression on the road is a threat to you."
"What is important is to make drivers aware that their aggressive behavior increases the dangers on the roads," said Beata Fertak, PR manager at Cityboard Media.
Fertak said the campaign will also boost the company's corporate image. "Our labels (cityboards) act like road signs," she said. "They are located along the main roads."
Fertak wouldn't disclose the budget for the campaign. The company has been dealing with social advertising since 1997 and Autoaggression is its seventh social campaign and its fifth on traffic safety.
