One of RAB's primary objectives is to drive revenue growth through advocacy, providing an independent/industry voice representing radio as a primary medium for advertisers and agencies.
2023 Partnership Snapshot
RAB Business Development provides support to members and the advertising industry through partnership activity that takes a variety of forms. From inbound marketer and agency requests to direct partnerships with both National and regional brands, RAB consistently and continuously provides insights, information, and the strength of the radio medium across its platforms to drive increased usage for the medium.
Throughout 2023, RAB has referred clients to relevant broadcasters per geographical and other specific needs, addressed misperceptions, and has partnered directly with brands and agencies to advocate on behalf of radio, provide consultative, planning and execution guidance and helped them best use the medium to generate results.
A partial list of RAB partnerships in 2023 are inclusive of national, regional and local brands and agencies who continue to realize the power that radio across forms brings to their brands.
Partnership with the Ad Industry's Largest Trade Association
The ANA serves 20,000 brand marketer members representing $400 Billion in ad spend each year and a database of 50,000 marketers and marketing service providers that subscribe and follow ANA for content.
Ongoing contextual engagement with ANA brand marketing members through original content, contribution of research and content to the ANA Knowledge Center, events, conferences, speaking engagements and networking opportunities has resulted in:
- Articles pushed to over 76K brand marketers and marketing services partners by the ANA four times per year.
- Page views and unique page views for RAB content consistently outperform ANA benchmarks by about 30% with ANA brand marketer members reading and taking note of each of RAB's editorial contributions.
- Radio had an exceptional presence at the annual Masters of Marketing confab in 2023 which attracted nearly 3,000 in-person attendees.
- RAB's activation included a podcast booth where interviews were recorded with over 17 brand marketers, agencies and research providers for a robust Radio on Main Street series.
- RAB participated as a round two REGGIE Awards which recognizes excellence in marketing and promotional campaigns judging jury.
- Direct connections and advocacy/partnership opportunities as a result of conference attendance.
RAB 2023 Social Media Audience
12,384 (all social channels)
RAB's database of subscribers currently includes over 5,000 marketer and agency professionals. A minimum of four, quarterly email blasts are sent to this audience to direct them to priority marketer driven thought leader content and to engage with events and other activities.
In 2023, RAB delivered content and promotion for events that are designed to inform, inspire, and share the wealth of possibilities for the radio medium with an average open rate of over 22%.
Topics included:
- How Radio Builds Effectiveness for Retail Media Network (RMN) Campaigns as RMN's continue to grow and this piece stresses the complementary effectiveness of radio's always-on audience and retail media networks' deep datasets.
- Using Radio to Drive Growth in Local Markets reinforces the reality that consumers actively seek out local businesses and prefer brands that understand them and their communities. Supporting and connecting with local communities can pay dividends for brands and radio is the local partner to make that a reality.
- Audio Rules the Attention Economy promoting the collaborative study released by Dentsu with broadcast partners including Audacy, iHeartMedia and Westwood One and the corresponding webinar produced by AdAge.
- Radio Works to Drive Business Forward emphasizes the trusted, immersive, influential and effective attributes of radio using outstanding and impactful data and research to prove the point. For brands, tapping into radio's loyal, attentive, and social audience yields a boost to the bottom line.
- Promotion for the first Radio Mercury Awards Best Practices for Audio Creative live online presentation.
Throughout 2023, RAB has continued to develop and nourish partnerships with industry trade associations, research organizations and collective partnership groups that serve marketers within their categories and focus of business. Partnerships have resulted in speaking engagements for member learning via RAB live online presentations, RAB speaking engagements to advocate among various industry groups, business development opportunities and thought leader content for RAB membership and the ad community at large. Partnerships in 2023 have included:
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4A's
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Ad Council
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Auto Care Association
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Alliance for Women in Media
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CMO Syndicate
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Destination Analysts
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EGTA
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Engagement Labs
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Fractional CMO Consultancy for Performance Marketers
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Horizon Media's WHY Group
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NAB South Africa
Radio Mercury Awards
#SetTheFrequency was the 2023 theme as we began the 32nd annual Radio Mercury Awards season with a Call for Entry campaign created by VML. With Chief Judge Sherman Winfield, executive creative director, VML Atlanta, the Radio Mercury Awards team brought together radio and advertising creatives for another in-person event on June 8 in New York City. Along with over 150 attendees in person at Sony Hall, RAB streamed the awards live for the second consecutive year.
By fall 2023, there were over 600 views of the awards including live and on demand viewing. Social media continued to be a great place for winners and finalists to share their excitement with nearly 90 new followers across all platforms. Winners joining us for the in-person even shared on social throughout the show.
The year's Best of Show award was presented to FCB Chicago for their "Glad Strength: App" radio commercial for The Clorox Company and Glad Products. This marks FCB Chicago's second consecutive Best of Show winning brags with a different client, proving their agency has made radio an important component of their agency creative team.
This year also marked the return of the Radio Marketer of the Year for the first time since 2019. This year's recipient was well over-due as it was bestowed to Procter & Gamble for their ongoing efforts with the radio industry. P&G's Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer, and Charlotte La Niear, North America senior director for multicultural media accepted the award.
You can watch a recap of the awards show here and listen to all the inspiring creative. Click VISIT below.
In the fall, we launched a monthly newsletter, "What We're Hearing" to further nurture engagement with the creative community and in December we launched a Creative Webinar Series featuring Mitch Bennett, Chief Creative Officer, Baldwin& in a live presentation titled "Why Creative Matters: Best Practices for Crafting Audio Advertising." The webinar had over 300 registrants including radio production and creatives, account executives along with agency creatives and media professionals. The webinar is available on demand here.
As a direct output from RAB's Strategy Committee, RAB led and hosted an Advertising Marketplace Committee launched in 1Q 2023. It has been renamed "Audio Advisory Board" by advertiser/agency committee members.
The overall mission of the Audio Advisory Board is to drive productive evolution and revenue growth for the radio industry through guidance from key advertising agency and marketer stakeholders sharing the most important and impactful trends, an exploration of relevant implications and best practices for positioning the medium.
The group of 15 marketers and agencies convene quarterly to share interests, concerns, and suggestions for the radio industry. RAB steers the focus towards the development of plans and efforts that will help better position radio in the marketplace, to identify test and learn opportunities and to create industry best practices and guidelines.
Active projects of note steered by the Audio Advisory Board include:
- The Attribution White Paper - an exploration of what is currently possible across all radio platforms and what the future may hold.
- Certified Radio Marketer - a training and certification program for agency planners and marketers with the first classes to be rolled out in 1Q 2024.
- Creative Webinars - a series of hour-long presentations showcasing what is possible in audio creative through Radio Mercury Awards.