• January 29, 2003

Radio rep firm Interep says its new business group developed $88 million in new radio business in 2002, 64% of which went to Interep’s client radio stations. National accounts that bought radio advertising for the first time in 2002 include: Kinkos, Pontiac Vibe, Travelworm, Mail Boxes Etc., Kiplinger, The Princeton Review, Time Warner’s Roadrunner, Sony Ericsson phones, Pharmacia recruitment brands, Yahoo, Retina A, Neutrogena for teens, Just for Men, and Maxim. A number of Proctor & Gamble brands also used radio for the first time last year, including Charmin, Cheer, Febreze and Folgers Coffee. According to Competitive Media Reporting, P&G increased radio ad spending to $32 million from January to October, the most in the past five years. Interep Marketing Group president Debbie Durben says one of the categories they are aggressively pursuing in 2003 is pharmaceuticals. “Since radio receives less than 1% of the enormous DTC advertising expenditures, the upside potential is enormous,” says Durben.