Agencies cool on GCap's two-in-a-row reversal

GCap's decision to increase its ad inventory by scrapping its "two-in-a-row" ads policy has not provoked a significant uplift in advertiser demand, according to agencies.

As part of chief executive Fru Hazlitt's strategy presentation on 11 February, the company unveiled plans to scrap the controversial two-in-a-row policy, under which no more than two ads aired in succession. It argued that the increased inventory would prompt a £2m increase in revenues for 2008/09 and £4m in 2009/10.

"We estimate that the reduced minuteage policy at Capital 95.8, announced in December 2005, cost us £5.8m in lost revenue in 2006/07 compared with the previous year," GCap said.

However, agencies are not reporting a significant increase in demand from clients for the extra slots.

Helen Keable, head of radio at Manning Gottlieb OMD, said: "Over the past couple of years, we have got used to working around Capital's restricted nature, so why would we suddenly pile back in - especially when it remains one of the most expensive properties around? We have had years to buy those audiences elsewhere in London and so we won't just bounce back into old expensive habits because GCap has decided to open itself back up."

Mark Middlemas, managing partner at Universal McCann, said GCap has not made "a big deal" of the inventory change. "They must make sure they retain a sense of balance now and not flood the market with supply as the consumer is still important in this," he said.

John McGeough, GCap's trading and business development director, noted it is still "early days" for the policy: "We have just put in a new set of minuteage and placed more capacity in breakfast.

"There has certainly been take-up in the breakfast slot and there is demand for the rest of the airtime, which is why we did this in the first place. Fewer yet longer ads also ties in with Paul Jackson's content policy of 10 songs in a row."

Separately, GCap Media is planning an initiative called Fresh Thinking aimed at improving its commercial performance. One element is a series of meetings with agencies in the summer designed to re-engage them with radio.

The second part is a piece of work commissioned by GCap where researchers will live with selected participants to observe their relationships with the GCap brands.