Revamped RAB to unveil its plans for commercial radio

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the RadioCentre, and Martina King, chairman of the RAB, will today outline their plans to spearhead the commercial radio industry's return to growth and boost ad revenues.
The announcement follows last week's news that Simon Redican, media account director at The Times, has joined the RAB as managing director.
Changes at the RAB include a RadioCentre Certificate of Excellence for planners and buyers to be launched in April. New planners and buyers will go through an RAB training course, with a week-long RadioCentre internship programme for high-flyers.
Meanwhile, the RAB Creative Consultancy service will advise and support advertisers on "meeting the challenges of advertising on a predominantly visual-free medium". Made up of three services - audio concepts, a creative evaluation process and a sonic workshop - it will support existing and new radio advertisers.
The RAB team will create conceptual ads to help the advertiser understand how its campaign could sound, provide advertisers with a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of existing radio ads and proposed radio scripts. It will also explore different models of branding in sound by sector so advertisers can find the best sound to tap into a consumer's subconscious.
As well as emphasis on digital-focused initiative Radio 3.0, advertisers will be able to make use of an effectiveness tracker, which provides an accountability measure to improve their understanding of radio's return on investment.
King will chair an operating board that includes the sales directors of all the radio groups, as well as directing an RAB think-tank.
A panel, made up of Fru Hazlitt, the new managing director of GCap London, Morag Blazey, chief executive of PHD and head of radio at the IPA, Derek Morris, former RAB chairman and chairman of ZenithOptimedia, and Jon Wilkins, founder of Naked, will meet quarterly.
Media agencies will be asked to nominate younger planners to fill two other places.