December 17, 2008

To our members:
 
Of course it’s hard to imagine a day without the RAB!
 
Recently, I was reflecting on that long-time Radio promotion “Imagine a Day Without Radio,” and it inspired me to deliver a year-end look at all our organization does to support Radio sales.
 
Imagine a day without our RAB.com site or Radio Sales Today or all the insights, tools, and services we provide each and every day to our nearly 6,000 member stations.
 
In times like these, sales support is more important than ever, so it’s no wonder our activity in 2008 was at an all-time high. In fact, over the past 50 years the RAB has always seen increased activity when times are toughest. When an advertiser or prospect needs the extra call, the extra reason to buy Radio, the proof of facts about Radio’s reach, or the ideas that can move product, the RAB delivers for you and for all those who are out bringing in the revenue that fuels our industry. And as internal staffs get leaner, it’s important to know there are RAB team members who can help with information and resources to make the sale.
 
This year visitors to RAB.com have spent nearly 130,000 hours on the site. We have delivered more than 5 million editions of our newsletters and information. Our conference attendance was a record number of attendees and featured more sessions than ever before. Our members have downloaded 96,697 commercial scripts and MP3 commercial audio, 86,300 Instant Backgrounds, 36,811 articles and more than 30,000 co-op plans.  So far this year, 2,234 sellers and managers are attending or completing RAB Academy Online classes, more than 6,000 have attended an RAB Webinar and another 1,995 have attended an on site training program. We created over 250,000 impressions with influential marketing leaders who read Advertising Age and Ad Age Online. We made direct sales to dozens of national advertisers like Walmart.
 
These figures underscore the critical role the RAB plays in supporting those who are on the frontlines of the industry. That’s why in 2009; we plan to provide even greater support.
 
We expect to have over 45,000 registered users of our website next year. This is more than 50% of the roughly 80,000 sellers for Radio and it’s growing. Our Radio Heard Here campaign in conjunction with the NAB will create more video and more presentations. We will be rolling out an initiative aimed at increasing interest from advertising creatives who have a significant influence on ad budgets. By year’s end, the short promotional video made available on our site in September will have 1,000 downloads, and we estimate that it is has been shown to an audience of over 1 million advertisers and prospects. We are getting the word out on this great medium more than ever before and people are taking notice.

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