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 Killer Bits: October 2004
Three recent reports are all showing healthy and sustainable increases in radio advertising revenue over the past 12 months.
The Commercial Economic Advisory Service shows an increase of nearly 15 per cent for the six months to the end of June 2004, compared with the same time last year.
Joan Warner, chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia said CEASA's Advertising Expenditure in Main Media report shows total radio advertising has outperformed all other total mediums in the first six months of 2004 and captured more than nine per cent of the market.
"Compared to increases in other mediums like television (13.1%) and print (7.8%), the growth in radio advertising (14.8%) for the first six months of this year is extremely pleasing and augurs well for one of the best years on record," Ms Warner said.
The CEASA figures show strong growth in advertising revenue for both metropolitan (up 16% to $253.2 million) and regional (up 12% to $129.2 million) radio for the six months ended June 2004.
Following on from the CEASA numbers, figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers also show strong growth in the first quarter of 2004/05 compared with the same time last year.
The PWC figures show metropolitan radio advertising revenue increased by 16.1 per cent in September, and by 17.7 per cent over the quarter, to $142.9 million in the five major capital city markets.
Breakdowns on category spending by ACNielsen data for the full financial year 2003-2004 show that retailers were the biggest radio advertisers, spending a total of $144.9m on air-time. Harvey Norman, Myer and Woolworths supermarkets were the biggest spenders.
13 out of 39 advertising categories in the ACNielsen report increased their spending last financial year including dental products (up 392 per cent); hair care (up 113%); education and learning (up 100%), pet care (up 60%) and clothing and accessories (up 51%). One of the few categories to show a significant decline was garden, which decreased by 37% as a result of the drought.
One of AudioNET's competitors is dead. As of September 1st 2004, DART stopped delivering. DART pioneered digital delivery of audio files in Australia. It was established in 1995 by Stellar Group chairman Rob Lynch and used Telstra's ISDN technology to delivery radio commercials from DART's Sydney headquarters to radio stations across Australia. In April 2004, DART was acquired by Adstream and five months later all DART boxes in radio stations were turned off.
So, if clients ask for DART delivery, remind them it no longer exists.
Steve Young at Plus Audio has seized on an opportunity to add a new studio in his York Street premises.
"A DSP that used to be at SMR became available and I bought it as a back-up," Steve says. "Then I decided it was silly to have it sitting in a cupboard so we built a room over the stairwell and set it up as a mixing room."
Engineer Matt Gerber-Corn helped build the new studio and will use it as a second control room and for editing and file conversion. The new studio has also provided the impetus to upgrade the mastering computers and increase storage space for masters.
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| Steve Young (standing) and Matt Gerber-Corn in the new studio. |
Good Audio Sense has set up a WAN (wide area network) linking booking and talent databases across their Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide operations.
Senior Melbourne Producer and Manager Les Molnar says "GAS clients now have instant access to all facilities from any studio, saving time and money. Our clients can now access talent in Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne and pay just $50 for the ISDN link-up.
We can now record a session in Melbourne for a client in Sydney and not charge a connection fee, line costs or even a second studio." Les says.
The WAN effectively allows GAS staff to triple the resources available to clients without having to spend time on the phone ringing interstate, and all bookings and talent details are updated across the network.
Polly McGregor from Metropolis in Melbourne came back from a seven week holiday overseas walking on air after accepting a very romantic proposal from boyfriend Bill in Paris. "We were going for a stroll after dinner on the Pont-Saint-Michel along the Seine. We were looking down on Notre Dame and there was a full moon over Notre Dame so Bill decided it was the perfect moment to pop the question. It was very romantic and very exciting," Polly says.
Someone's put something in the water at Song Zu and there's a baby boom in progress. Two babies are due in January, one in February and one in March.
SMR is happy the election is over. Engineer Simon Murphy says for the duration of the campaign the Liberal Party takes over a room at SMR and all the radio and TV spots (and those infamous recorded telephone messages from the PM) are written recorded and edited on the spot. "We're here all day every day for as long as they need us."
Simon did manage to sneak away for a birthday drink during the campaign frenzy. And he wasn't alone! Simon, John Rowlands and Stephen Renfree from Metropolis were all born on September 22nd. Who would have thought it? While Simon dined with SMR colleagues, John and Stephen started their celebrations by joining us for AudioNET® drinks to welcome aboard our new client services manager Sandy Campbell.
Rowlands has found a novel way to combine stress management with sound design. To get authentic SFX for a new animation feature "Pinata" they're bringing pinatas into the studio and destroying them.
The Rowlands crew were all cheering for Holden over the Bathurst weekend - they'd already prepared ads to celebrate Holden's win and when the victory came to pass, Access films sent the final footage back from the mountain, the ads were completed and the weekend ended on a happy note for everyone.
There's a new voice on reception at Rowlands. Rachel Namugerwa joined in September and is doing full-time front of house as well as helping with production.
Karla Henwood is burning the candles at both ends. She's returned to full time work at Tiger Recording after being promoted to manager.but can't bear to give up her night-time DJ gigs. So far, she's running on adrenalin (and fire engines.)
Kearon from Tiger Recording is shamelessly promoting his new album with a video clip and website promotion. His album "Urban Survivalist" is receiving airplay on Sydney community station Fbi Radio. www.makinnoize.com
Still in Sydney, Paul Avery is now running Frodi's Mill as a solo operation in Balmain and picked up four new clients in September. Paul says the move means he's spending more time on creative and less on paperwork.
AudioNET Version 4 - Our codemaster Vaughan is getting very excited. Not only is the summer brew from Cascade due out soon but we're nearly ready to unveil AudioNET4. New features include:
- Pausing a delivery - You'll now be able to pause a delivery in the middle, saving whatever you've already keyed in. When you resume a delivery you've paused you'll be able to add more tracks or delete tracks already selected, plus add / delete stations or edit any track details.
- Mixed sending - Previously you could either upload new tracks from your computer or re-send from your AudioNET archive. Now you can send any combination of new tracks and archived tracks.
- Studios fulfilling orders -
- When you open an order, if the key number matches a track in your archive, you'll be prompted to pull it from your archive.
- Previously you could only fulfill an order by uploading new tracks. Now you can fulfill an order with new tracks, archived tracks, or a combination of both.
- If you put tracks in the holding pen while you're waiting on orders you'll be able to fulfill those orders more easily, because the prompt feature will find the right tracks for you.
- One-time passwords for Radio Stations - The link on all delivery alert emails will now contain a one-time password that will automatically log you in to AudioNET® and give you access to the spots from that delivery only. If you want to access other tracks you'll be able to sign in with your normal password and go searching. This feature also makes it easier for production studios to send spots to agencies for approval because the client won't need to remember passwords or log-ins, they'll just have to click on the link in the email to access the spots.
Anyone from studios or radio stations interested in beta-testing AudioNET4 please contact Dave or Vaughan by phone 1800 003 155 or email support@dbmsystems.com.au. ps Dave's had a go and he can't break it. The challenge is on!
The upgrade to AudioNET4 will take place on a weekend in November and we'll advise all studios and radio stations at least a week in advance.
Number Crunching - We don't often brag, but here's some stats that might be useful for client pitches:
- The AudioNET website gets more than 10,000 hits a month. That's from studios, radio stations and agencies that are sending and receiving radio commercials. (There's probably another 10,000 on this site reading the newsletter every month too.)
- AudioNET maintains a current (and growing) list of more than 350 radio stations in Australia and New Zealand that is available to all registered users.
- AudioNET maintains a current list of more than 1,000 (and growing) contact details for production studios and radio stations, which is available to all registered users.
We're giving you these stats to remind you that all work-based contact details on the AudioNET site are available for all users. You can look up radio stations and studios and phone and e-mail them directly if you wish. You can e-mail direct from the AudioNET site by clicking on the e-mail address that pops up when you click on a logo or name.
Need to Know Fast - Use the AudioNET NotifierT. The most useful feature that constantly gets rave reviews from radio stations and studios is the AudioNET NotifierT. The AudioNET NotifierT has three main purposes:
- It takes you directly to the AudioNET® site, without having to log in every time.
- If you're a studio sending audio, it allows you to monitor the status of all your current deliveries. The AudioNET NotifierT will also pop up on screen or turn red when all stations have downloaded.
- If you're a radio station receiving audio, the AudioNET NotifierT changes colour when you have new audio to download. Traffic managers can click on the AudioNET NotifierT to check key numbers, without having to retrieve their notification e-mail, or log-in to AudioNET®.
(Yes, we realise that 'Notifier' isn't really a sexy name - but it does what it says, and we'd rather spend time inventing these great gadgets than naming them!)
If you would like to be alerted to new AudioNET® deliveries even when your e-mail is down or be able to login to AudioNET® without having to type your password, then download the AudioNET NotifierT now. We have Windows and MAC OS9 and MAC OSX versions available to download.
"Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques." - Bill Bernbach.
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