Germany
Scattered landscape that remains attractive for national advertisers
The German radio landscape is quite scattered with more than 350 stations of which 250 sell advertising. The diversity of stations on the German market is quite substantial – between 1997 and 2009 the number of private channels increased from 166 to 217 channels. As fragmented as the radio landscape may be, only two sales houses collect over 80 percent of the market’s adspend. Radio has a 6,3 percent share of the advertising market in Germany, with TV accounting for 45,1 percent and press taking a share with 43,9 percent of adspend.
The sales house Radio Marketing Sales GmbH (RMS) represents most of Germany’s private commercial stations and covers 62,3 percent of the radio advertising spend. ARD-Werbung Sales & Services Radio GmbH (AS&S Radio) commercialises the stations from the public ARD network as well as 28 private stations – among them RTL and NRJ. RMS and AS&S Radio have both developed advertising packages combining stations on the basis of geographic or demo targets. AS&S Radio also placed theme packages such as information and soccer.
National advertisers today account for roughly 73,6 percent of bookings.
Retail, furniture and cars remain strong advertisers on radio. New among the list of top ten advertising sectors are automobile accessories as well as media and publishers. Due to the German government’s economic stimulus in 2009 called “Abwrackprämie” the car sector grew the most with clients such as Toyota, Daimler and Fiat.
New ad formats and packages
Even if the economic crisis affected radio in 2009, investments didn't fall into negative figures but simply remained flat. In a bid to compensate lost revenue and develop new revenue streams Germany like other countries has been actively developing non-traditional revenue formats.
As web radio stations boom in Germany – there are over 2.000 web radios of which 4/5 are Internet-only stations – both AS&S and RMS are offering audio ads using ad-server technology and as such able to offer real contacts. In October 2009 AS&S Radio in cooperation with Germany’s leading online Sales House United Internet Media launched the first real crossmedia combination “Listen & Surf” which turns radio campaigns interactive by online support.
In October 2009 RMS started RMS SUPER KOMBI DIGITAL.
The offer combines 3 channels in a national crossmedia combination: Radio + Online + Webcast.
In cooperation with the Sales House OMS launched RMS SUPER KOMBI DIGITAL PLUS.
Radio: RMS Radio Stations, Webcast: RMS NEXT, Online: RMSi RadioNetworld + Online: OMS 150 Websites of regional newspaper.
Creative generic marketing campaigns
The German radio market is active with generic marketing campaigns aimed at promoting the medium radio. The German Radiozentrale – a marketing body – has aired a number of promotional radio campaigns and in addition launched a nationwide public voting contest for radio ads. In addition the entire industry meets once a year for the RADIO DAY, an event focusing on networking and exchange of best-practice that is attended by sales houses, stations, advertisers, agencies and other industry stakeholders as well as journalists.
Still a long way for digital radio
Much debate is taking place in Germany regarding the development and funding of DAB+ technology, with on the one hand the ARD (the German network of public broadcasters) arguing that their private sector counterparts (the VPRT – Association of Private Broadcasters) are not willing to invest, as it might affect their shareholders’ profits, and, on the other hand, the VPRT stating that it is, in fact, the license fee payers who will bear the brunt. The debate is giving way to an uncertain future for the new technology.
In addition more and more people are watching TV and listening to radio via the Internet. In 2009 10,9 million people using the Internet (called “onliners”) listened at least sometimes live to internetradio – which represents 25 percent. Still 12 percent listen to internetradio and 6 percent watch live TV via the internet weekly. Listening to radio via the internet gets more and more mobile since almost every radio station offers its own iphone app.
Audience measurement panel extended again
In 2009 above EU-foreigners and younger people also Non-EU-foreigners were for the first time included in the media usage survey – Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse (ag.ma). By including all foreigners living in Germany and speaking German in order to do the CATI interview, the basis of people represented within the survey increased from roughly 70 million to 74 million people. Radio is the first medium within the ag.ma that extended its sample .but it is planned that print, outdoor and perhaps online will follow radio.
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This section contains more specific information on the market; including overviews of the market players, adspend, media mix, household equipment, pricing policies, seasonality indexes, legislation concerning advertising placement, as well as audience measurement technical factors.
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