Ukrainian Market of Radio Advertising During the War: TAVR Media's Experiences

The All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (VRK) continuously researches the situation in the advertising industry and in different channels. VRK recently conducted an interview with the commercial director of TAVR Media Volodymyr Pedorych to learn about activities in the radio advertising market. 

In the interview, we will find out what audience loss occurred during the war months and why, according to Volodymyr words, the share of radio during the war increased more than two times and who is the leader among radio advertisers today.

TAVR Media is the largest radio group in Ukraine, which manages nine leading radio stations: Hit FM, Radio ROKS, KISS FM, Radio RELAX, Melodiya FM, Nashe Radio, Radio JAZZ, Classic Radio and new radio station – Radio Bayraktar. Most of them were and remain leaders among their listening audience. 

Today, the mentioned radio stations cover 98% of Ukraine, excluding the occupied territories. So, the situation of this radio group can outline trends in the radio broadcasting market. 

According to Volodymyr, with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, all radio stations joined a single news marathon. According to TAVR Media's online listenership data, during the marathon listenership dropped by 50% meaning half of the audience was lost. Because the same information was heard from all radio stations, it did not matter to the listeners which radio station they turned on. During the marathon there was no advertising, all contracts were stopped. 

Since the end of March, radio stations have started to withdraw from the marathon. The process was long and gradual, because some stations needed reformatting to be back to pre-war operation. On June 17th, Nashe Radio was the last radio station that left the marathon. The active restoration of the audience of radio stations became the best confirmation that the decision was correct. 

Any research is not currently being conducted in Ukraine, so only digital indicators can be measured. In the pre-war period, TAVR Media radio audience share was 41.3%, that's more than seven million listeners every week and every 10th person listens to the radio directly on our websites. And this is more than 700,000 audience for the research of the audience. 

After the radio stations left the marathon, the dynamics of digital indicators were observed. If in March the listenership in the marathon decreased to 50%, then in May the audience recovered to 80%. In June, the gradual recovery continued and the audience recovered to more than 83%. Data from July shows a stabilisation of the audience (plus another 2%) and the total number is 85%. 

So, we can see that the audience has stabilised at the level of 85% of the pre-war indicators. According to Volodymyr words, this is due to objective factors related to the occupation and migration processes taking place in the country. 

All those indicators are good for today. This situation is explained by the fact that in times of crisis the audience consumes more media. 

Thanks to various formats of radio stations, the audience of online listeners corresponds to the demographic indicators that are currently in the country (the core audience is 25-45 years old people among them male audience is 43% and female audience is 57%). 

Regarding the return of advertisers to the radio, the commercial director of TAVR Media noted that the share of new and direct customers has increased significantly. 

Volodymyr also commented on current activities with advertisers.

First of all, it should be noted what kind of communications advertisers are using now. In April-May it was communications exclusively about social responsibility. Also brands told their consumers that they were alive and working, that they had kept prices at the pre-war level, that they were helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the country, etc. Gradually, the mood of the audience changed, and already in June advertisers returned to pre-war communications. 

According to TAVR media data, until May there were no clear industry categories of advertisers, there were simply businesses that had something to say to their consumers – the business works and supports the country. 

During the May-July period, the situation began to change. The top five categories (by the number of minutes of advertising) were pharmaceutical companies (25%), charitable foundations (20%), betting/casinos (16%), banks/payment systems/insurance (7%), mobile operators/Internet providers (6%), food products (6%), education (6%) and others. 

According to quantitative indicators, radio currently has the largest number of advertisers among all offline media. Volodymyr commented that the share of radio during the war increased more than two times. 

This can be explained, by his opinion, by the following factors:

1. Radio was able to launch advertisers very fast on the air in comparison with other media

2. They can easily and cheaply adapt creative materials

3. Low budget entry threshold

4. The possibility of local advertising from a specific region 

VRK thanks the commercial director of TAVR Media Volodymyr Pedorych for the detailed conversation and we believe that despite all the difficult circumstances, Ukrainian business will recover and contribute to our overall victory.