Cats Protection's 'Find a Cat' at the Click of a Mouse - Went National on 50 Community Radio Stations on July 8th

BRIGHTON, England, July 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Cats Protection's national initiative to assist prospective cat owners navigate via the cats.org.uk website to browse, choose and adopt a suitable feline companion in their area went national via fifty community radio stations across the UK from the 8^th July for four weeks.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130719/629561 )

The new 'Find a Cat' function on the charity's homepage (http://www.cats.org.uk/find-a-cat ) allows people to view all the cats available for adoption within a 30-mile radius of their home. By entering their home postcode, potential adopters are immediately directed to pages showing pictures and fact-files on all the fabulous felines in their area in need of good homes.

Lee Bishop, Website Manager for Cats Protection, said: "The new tool is an easy to use, one-stop shop for your area, and as we are the UK's largest feline welfare organisation, it will be the UK's most comprehensive rehoming web function solely dedicated to cats. Adopting from Cats Protection means you are not only giving a home to an animal in need, but you will also have peace of mind that your cat has been examined by a veterinary surgeon, microchipped, vaccinated, neutered (if old enough) and will come with four week's free insurance."

Cats Protection is keen to encourage people to adopt rather than buy if they are considering getting a cat, as figures from the charity's national helpline currently show that for every one person enquiring about adopting a cat there are 10 people calling to give up a cat or report a stray. The ratio was one to three in 2009 and indicates a bleak future for cats.

The national radio initiative has been jointly co-ordinated by Roy Stannard of Cats Protection's national media buying agency Zerofiftyone and Jaqui Devereux, Director of the Community Media Association (CMA). Roy is himself a member of the CMA via his local station Seahaven FM and Jaqui is an inveterate cat lover so the opening up of this new national channel for national advertisers was a marriage made in cat heaven.

This brand new national radio buying platform has been designed to plumb into the rapidly growing community radio sector for national advertisers and at the same time direct much needed income into this largely voluntary sector. There are now over 200 full-time community radio stations broadcasting in the UK today-with more becoming licensed and going on-air every month. Ofcom is currently in the process of their third round of community radio licensing, which is taking place on a region-by-region basis.

Whilst it is a challenge to calculate exact listenership, the Community Media Association estimates that it is likely that 10% of populations served by community stations are tuning in at least once weekly. This produces at conservative estimates 1,000,000 listeners per week. Jaqui Devereux of the CMA commented, "We have long believed that the large weekly listening audience to our 200 member radio stations has been a sleeping giant on the media landscape. We are very happy indeed that Cats Protection and the community radio sector are collaborating to demonstrate how our listeners can assist in the urgent need to help abandoned cats find new homes.

We hope that the 'Find a Cat' tool will appeal to the cat loving public to visit the page and consider giving one of the many moggies available a loving and responsible home".

Cat Protection's National Media Consultant Roy Stannard has spearheaded this pioneering national radio buying platform, which it is hoped, will become part of the armoury of national media buyers once this campaign is successfully concluded. He commented, "The beauty of this new media channel is the ease of purchase and delivery. There is one contact for advertisers and agencies to liaise with - and the campaign can be delivered effortlessly across fifty independent stations in the UK."

Notes to editors (overleaf)

Community Media Association

The CMA is the national representative body for the almost 200 full-time community radio stations broadcasting in the UK today - with more becoming licensed and going on-air every month. Ofcom is currently in the process of their third round of community radio licensing, which takes place on a region-by-region basis. The Community Media Association estimates that around 10% of populations served by Community Stations are tuning in at least once weekly. This produces 1,000,000 listeners per week at conservative estimates.

Zerofiftyone / Roy Stannard

The scheme is the brainchild of Zerofiftyone's Roy Stannard who himself presents a weekly radio show on his local community station, Seahaven FM 96.3. He identified a gap in the market and saw this as a way of bringing a million radio listeners into the commercial fold and in the process generate much needed commercial revenue to the stations. He says, "Having set up a local station in 2003 (Splash FM) and enjoyed working in the radio sector, I could see the potential in the community radio sector. The pilot scheme has attracted fifty stations - all keen to participate and attract national advertisers. Zerofiftyone has a history of innovation in the radio sector with two former radio MDs on the client services team."

Fact File

• There are over 200 community radio stations broadcasting in the UK + another 50 have had licences approved
• Ofcom has awarded licences where there is no direct conflict with existing commercial licences - therefore, this is a new, so far untapped audience
• Over 1 million listeners nationally (Community Media Association 2012)
• Very loyal audience who support the aspirations and local roots of the station
• Association with community means extra goodwill for advertisers
• Not for profit means all revenue channelled back into stations

Full story online here: http://www.commedia.org.uk/news/2012/12/community-radio-national-advertising-pilot-scheme-to-launch/

Cats Protection

 1. Cats Protection is the UK's leading cat welfare charity and helps over 235,000 cats and kittens each year through a national network of 260 volunteer-run branches and 30 adoption centres.

 2. Cats Protection's vision is a world where every cat is treated with kindness and an understanding of its needs.

 3. Cats Protection's registered charity number is 203644 (England and Wales) and SC037711 (Scotland). Founded as the Cats Protection League in 1927, the charity adopted the name Cats Protection in 1998. We ask that you use the name Cats Protection when referring to the charity in all published material.

 4. More information about the work of Cats Protection can be found at http://www.cats.org.uk   

To search for a cat using the 'Find a Cat' tool, visit http://www.cats.org.uk.

For more information on the media and radio implications of this please contact:

Roy Stannard
 Account Director

 Zerofiftyone Ltd Tel: DD: +44(0)1273-575102
 Mob: +44(0)7803-269154 email: roy@zerofiftyone.com

Jaqui Devereux Director Community Media Association Tel: +44 (0)114-279-5219

http://www.commedia.org.uk/  http://twitter.com/community_media

https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation

For further information about Cats Protection, please contact the charity's Media Office on +44(0)1825-741911 or email  media.office@cats.org.uk