by Evadney Campbell MBE
Radio is often overlooked as a medium for client coverage but it remains as valid today as it always was and continues to offer impressive listenership figures.
You’ll learn:
• Why targeting radio for client coverage is worthwhile
• How radio listenership continues to broaden thanks to the technology at our finger tips
• About the opportunity offered by podcasts
As PR professionals our raison d’etre is to gain free media coverage for our clients. We’re constantly on the lookout for avenues through which we can raise the profile of our clients to secure that coveted ‘third-party endorsement’.
In this constant search for media outlets, is radio still a valid media option?
Unlike the marketing / advertising department, the PR team achieves third-party endorsement through earned media coverage. This means getting our clients’ stories to appear on media websites, in print, i.e. magazines, newspapers, trade or otherwise and via broadcast outlets, purely due to their merit. PR secures this without having to pay the media outlets, as opposed to the paid space secured by the marketing and advertising teams.
The interesting consideration is that both disciplines share the same goals - that of promoting clients, making them look successful, honest, important, exciting or relevant.
Ultimately, everyone’s job is to make our target audiences choose our clients’ products or services above their competitors. It is this end result, which is the goal of both the PR and the marketing teams, which frequently leads to confusion on the part of clients.
The distinction comes from the different means used to achieve the end results.
Validity of radio in the PR’s box of tools
While various avenues are used to deliver a successful campaign for clients, one media outlet which frequently gets overlooked is one of the oldest still available to us - radio.
In this time when social media or even the use of influencers seem to be the main medium being used to promote, raise profile and reach the audience, many clients and public relations agencies fall into the trap of believing radio is dead. Or if not dead, dying and that audiences are no longer to be reached this way.
Let’s be realistic here, listenership of radio has been on the decline. It’s worth noting however that during the COVID-19 pandemic, this has changed. Whether it will be sustainable is yet to be seen and I would argue depends on your target demographic.
Listening to traditional radio among young people is indeed on a downward trajectory. Recent research into the state of radio by British Council [1] paints a bleak picture for the future of radio.
We, at Shiloh PR however, beg to differ. We’re a boutique public relations agency and work hard to really take advantage of all avenues we have available at our finger tips to get our clients maximum exposure.
As a company with founders who have decades of working in radio in a variety of roles, we’re acutely aware of the power of using this medium to get maximum attention from the stories we pitch.
Alongside my management of Shiloh PR, I’ve worked as a broadcast journalist. This means using broadcast media as a key part of our PR strategy.
When it comes to radio specifically, I work part-time as a lecturer in radio production for one university and teach how to carry out radio interviews for PR graduates at another.
Students have questioned the value of radio countless times. “No one listens to radio”, or “I never listen to radio”, are just two of the many reasons I’ve been given by students as to why radio is no longer seen as a useful medium.
This leaves me constantly having to convince these young people that radio stations are far from obsolete, or that they are only being listened to by ‘older’ people.
What we need to recognise is that what we consider as radio listenership is now much broader.
Proof radio is still a major player
Take a look at these figures from Rajar [2], the official body that monitors radios across the country. These figures show the number of listeners across these main stations for the last quarter of 2019.
• Heart 90S - 627k reach
• Heart Dance 380k reach
• Capital Xtra Reloaded 330k reach
• Smooth Radio Chill 301k reach
• Heart 70s 248k reach
• Smooth Radio Country 204k
If those figures are not impressive enough, bear in mind that all the above stations are aimed at a specific demographic.
Here is yet another station that more than demonstrates the value and importance of targeting radio for your clients. BBC 5 Live went up from 4.9m to 5.4m listeners during that same period.
In addition, BBC Radio 4 saw its figures rise from 10.4m a year ago to 10.9m now. I could go on, as those same extraordinary figures are reflected by many other radio stations.
Now which PR professional would turn up their nose at giving their clients access to those figures?
Changing face of radio
The more I explore radio listenership, particularly among young people, the more I am assured that PR professionals need to view radio as a key part of their PR strategy.
It is important to understand that radio is no longer the piece of equipment which sits on the sideboard in a room. It’s on every computer, iPad or laptop. It is in each individual’s hand on our phone. Through a single app, or the press of a button, you can listen to a radio station broadcasting anywhere in the world.
According to Ofcom [3], podcasts are booming in the UK. Nearly 6 million adults now tune in each week to a podcast. Its 2018 report claims that the number of people listening to podcasts has almost doubled over the last 5 years.
And as referenced earlier, in the midst of this pandemic, one surprising finding according to a BBC article [4], is that radio listening has increased as a result of more people staying in their homes.
“Global, which owns Capital FM and talk station LBC, said online radio listening had risen by 15%. The BBC said streaming of its radio stations had risen 18% by the end of March 2020.”
During this global pandemic, the importance of radio has grown, argues a spokeswoman for Global. “These figures indicate that the public are turning to radio in times of crisis”.
Now, many PR professionals may not have considered this medium when working on a strategy for a client. But, we would strongly advise them to think again.
A question we as PR professionals must ask is, will this trend continue? My view is that if radio was no longer a valued media outlet, new radio stations wouldn’t continue to be launched.
A new national speech radio station, ‘Times Radio’, was launched on 29 June 2020. I think this is to be celebrated and with a growth in specialist radio stations which are being launched online almost daily, whatever your area of PR expertise, there will be a radio platform eager to have your content and showcase your stories.
Sources
[1] https://music.britishcouncil.org/news-and-features/2019-01-28/sounding-out-is-radio-dead
[2] https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/02/rajar-q4-2019-london-and-national-brands-round-up/
[3] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/uk-podcast-listening-booms
[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52037461
Evadney Campbell MBE is the co-founder of Shiloh PR. Shiloh PR offers public relations services and media training to corporations and persons in senior management carrying out broadcast interviews. In addition, the team have expert knowledge in reaching the UK’s black and ethnic minority communities through the media.
Evadney was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 1994 for her services to the African and Caribbean communities in Gloucester following her dedication to charity work.
A former BBC broadcast journalist, Evadney is also author of the book ‘How to Carry out Media Interviews’ and is an international speaker/trainer who has had engagements across West Africa, the Caribbean, the UK and Europe.
Evadney was awarded the WINTRADE President Awards winner 2019.
She’s an ambassador for Women in PR (WIPR) and a judge for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards (GBEA) and the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.
Evadney is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire, Luton and University College London.
Twitter: @shilohpr
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Web: shilohpr.com