Introducing Charity Fillers

According to Ofcom, nine in ten people (89.6%) in the UK listen to the radio at least once a week.

That’s millions of captive ears.

Want to promote your charity to them, for free?

Thanks to Charity Fillers, you can.

Launched by C.I. Broadcasting, the service aims to plug unfilled airtime on UK radio stations with third-sector commercials and content.

What are ‘fillers?’

If you were around in the 70’s, you may remember the Green Cross Man; a costumed superhero who featured in a series of TV commercials in the 1970s to teach children about road safety.

This is a prime example of a ‘filler’; a non-commercial public service announcement that’s used by broadcasters to fill gaps in TV and radio programming schedules.

Charity Fillers is a similar concept, but it promotes third sector organisations rather than public announcements.

Call-out for charities

The newly launched platform has signed up 30 regional radio stations so far, including Together Radio, True Radio, Apple FM, and Brum Radio.

And registered charities are now being invited to sign up and take advantage of their unsold airtime.

Want to get involved?

Here’s what you need to know.

To get started, fill out the form on Charity Fillers’s website. Once the team has checked your credentials, they’ll set you up with a user account, through which you’ll upload your audio commercials (with accompanying copy clearance details).

Once uploaded, the radio stations will be able to view, download and use your content.

Reporting

As part of the service, radio stations will submit weekly online reports to Charity Fillers, detailing the number of times a commercial has been used (a single piece of audio cannot be played more than 28 times in week).

The reports will then be collated and forwarded to partner charities so they can gauge the effectiveness of the service.

On its website, Charity Fillers says that (currently) the ‘vast majority of U.K. radio stations using Charity Fillers are non RAJAR reporting stations, which means it is difficult to gauge an individual station's actual audience.

However, in the current RAJAR reporting period, just over five million adults listened to these stations each week, representing 9% of U.K. radio listening.’

Is radio advertising worth the effort?

Yes, for three reasons.  

1. Radio is the most trusted medium

A survey by Eurobarometer found that radio is trusted by 56% of the population, compared to 49% for TV and press, 35% for the internet and 20% for social media.

2. Radio advertising is effective

According to RadioCentre, radio advertising increases awareness of charity campaigns by 79% and relevance by 27%.

3. Charity Fillers is a free service

What have you got to lose?

Looking for a broadcast-savvy fundraiser to get your commercial in the can? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get the conversation started.