• by September 9, 2002

A new partnership between the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab and national advertisers is designed to measure radio’s effectiveness based on actual sales.

RAEL, part of the New York-based Radio Advertising Bureau, will help fund research and testing. Advertisers, who will also help pay for the studies, will develop tests that have sufficient radio weight to allow measures of comparable performance with other media. Plans call for up to three studies the first year with major clients from top radio revenue categories.

The client or brand names may go anonymous in some situations, a RAEL release said.

“The RAB is committed to this industry-wide initiative to secure radio’s continued success as an advertising medium. The research program, which has received strong enthusiasm in the advertiser community, will have a significant and meaningful effect on the future of radio and will create some very important ‘partners’ for the radio industry,” said Gary Fries, president and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau and co-chair of RAEL.

Owen Charlebois, president of Arbitron U.S. Media Services, is RAEL’s other co-chair.

“Long term, the goal of the research program is to elevate the credibility of radio advertising across a variety of account categories. The research program is designed to raise confidence among advertisers so that they would be encouraged to increase or begin their spending on radio,” he said.

The RAEL Research Committee is responsible for determining the direction of all research projects funded by RAEL. Committee members are: Jerry Lee (chair), WBEB; Mary Bennett (vice chair), Radio Advertising Bureau; Jim Peacock, Peacock Research; Megan Bearden, Coca-Cola; Gerry Boehme, Katz Media; Paul Bronstein, Westwood One; Glenn Bryant, American Urban Radio Networks; Michele Buslik, Mediavest; Ed Cohen, Arbitron; Rex Conklin, Sears; Tom Evans, ABC Radio Networks; Don Goldsmith; Andrew Green, OMD; Edie Hilliard, Jones Radio Networks; Kaki Hinton, Pfizer; Helen Katz, GM Planworks; Len Klatt, Premiere Radio Networks; Charlotte Lawyer, Susquehanna; Betsy Lazar, General Motors; Stu Naar, Interep; Andy Rainey, Radio Advertising Bureau; Paul Silverman, Pharmacia; Jim Spaeth, Advertising Research Foundation; Ira Sussman, Initiative Media; Natalie Swed Stone, OMD; Kim Vasey, The Media Edge; and Branch Watkins, Pfizer.

The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab is an independent organiation established in 2001. It’s funded by radio industry companies and works with advertisers, agencies and radio broadcasters to further the understanding of how radio advertising works, to measure radio’s effectiveness and to increase advertiser and agency confidence in radio.

Last week, the Radio Advertising Bureau launched a two-tier revenue verification program to audit the credibility of radio revenue. About 40 stations will be audited every quarter.