MediaBuyerPlanner: Though overall numbers for short-form radio spots remain low – representing only about 10 percent of total ad billing for radio ad sales firm Interep, for example – advertisers in increasing numbers are asking for those spots.
According to Interep, the number of 10- to 15-second spots it sold in 2006 jumped 400 percent over 2005. Sales of 30-second spots jumped 1000 percent, writes MediaPost.
Kirk Combs, general manager of Interep’s D&R Radio, points out that while the short form ads represented just a small portion of billing, “clearly, we are going to see more and more business availed in 2007 requesting shorter-form commercials.”
Clear Channel Radio’s Less Is More initiative, which attempted to reduce ad clutter by pushing 30-second rather than 60-second spots, may have had an impact on the situation. In order to reduce inventory by 19 percent and limit commercial breaks to four minutes, Clear Channel advertisers were required to buy a certain percentage of 30-second spots with the standard :60s, with the :30s priced at about 75 percent of the cost of a :60. At first, this led to a scarcity of inventory and reduced ad sales for the radio giant, and in 2005, revenue was down 6 percent from the previous year.
As Clear Channel expected, however, the initiative eventually led to impressive audience gains, and in 2006, revenue grew 5 percent in the first and third quarters, and 6 percent in the second quarter.
Clear Channel now offers two-second and five-second spots, and recently introduced a new ad format, two-minute spots.
Related stories:
- Clear Channel Offers Two-Minute Spots to Advertisers
- Clear Channel Finds Takers for ‘Adlets’
- Cumulus, Clear Channel Split Over ‘Less is More’
- Clear Channel Revenues Increase in Q2 Thanks to Radio
- CC’s ‘Less is More’ Strategy Increases Ad Revenue
- Clear Channel Posts Impressive Gains, Credits ‘Less is More’
- ‘Less Is More’ Working as Ratings, Prices Rise
- Clear Channel Revenue Sinks 6.5%, Less Is More Grows Slowly
- Clear Channel: ‘Less Is More” Works, Apparently
