Commercial radio at a glance

Tuning In
The audio market
Why use radio?
How to do it
Clearance
Search

Tuning In

The audio market

New national radio brands, the advent of smart speakers and a surge in streaming and podcast listening has led to an audio revolution.

Why use radio?

Whether new to radio or wanting to use radio better, here's why radio will be an effective advertising medium for your brand

How to do it

Getting your radio campaign to air has never been easier. Here's what you need and how to make it creatively brilliant.

Clearance

To enquire about ad clearance call 020 7010 0608 in office hours, 07710 400276 outside of hours or clearance@radiocentre.org

Commercial radio provides brands with a way to speak to millions of people via a medium they trust.

Radio provides reach, with 40.5m listeners every week; resonance, as an emotional influencer with power to enhance brand perceptions at a subconscious level; and results, delivering an average ROI of £7.70 for every pound spent.

Radio advertising also stretches beyond the traditional 30 second ad, with longer ads, sponsorship, branded content and innovative digital solutions increasingly providing advertisers with new and more creative ways to get their message to potential customers. Throughout this section of the site you’ll find more on how to plan and buy radio, how to make great radio ads, and to use our tools, research and case studies.

40.5m

adults listen to commercial radio every week

Radio and the audio revolution

Radio – the broadcast linear flow of curated, predominantly live, presenter-led music and speech based audio entertainment – is now part of a much wider audio ecology

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Introduction to
radio advertising

Radiocentre offers three types of free training, depending on which area of the advertising chain you work in.

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88%

of adults listen to radio every week

Discover

Great radio
creativity

20.5hrs

of live radio consumed weekly on average

£30m

radio raises over a year for charity

The 7 roles of radio

Radio for brand building

The high reach of radio combined with its mood enhancing effect on listeners means that it is able to play a more ambitious role for brands than the tactical role it often holds.

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For targeting: right people, right time

Radio’s unique combination of targeting opportunities enables advertisers to more efficiently reach their audience and optimise their advertising effects.

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Radio for ROI

If your goal is to increase ROI, econometric analysis highlights how moving money into radio from other media leads to greater returns at a total campaign level at no extra cost.

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Using for activation

The short-term, sales-response model of advertising is the way many advertisers use radio, and is based on its obvious strengths of short term lead times and low production cost, cost efficiency and effective targeting.

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Using radio with other media

Radio can play a highly effective role for advertisers either on its own or alongside other media. Using radio as part of a wider media combination can enhance overall campaign performance.

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Radio for local advertisers

Radio is a fantastic medium for local advertisers as it allows you to reach out to the local community in a highly targeted and cost effective way. However these aren’t the only reasons why you should be using radio. If you’re trying to understand how radio can help grow your brand, find out more about how effective radio advertising can be.

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Radio for direct response

With its huge reach, low ad avoidance, and ability to reach people at relevant times, radio is a strong call to action medium. Find out how radio has the ability to drive response.