MxMIndia

Tag: Indian Radio Forum

  • Measurability, co-existing with digital and a bright future were some of the key terms that emerged from this year's IRF Conference

    Challenges and the future of Radio @IRF

    The Indian Radio Forum (IRF) held this year’s annual conference on May 13 at The Westin, Mumbai. RajatUppal, National Marketing Head, Red FM and AshwinPadmanabhan, COO, Reliance Broadcast Network opened the conference. “There are great opportunities for Radio and we have to make Radio relevant” said Uppal. Padmanabhan focused on what challenges lie ahead for radio. “One of the biggest challenges is the measurability of listeners. It needs to be looked into”, he said.

     

    The first session was conducted by Gaurav Mehta, CEO, OLX South Asia on ‘Measuring ROI for Radio’. Return On Investment (ROI, is indeed an concern for advertisers and media agencies who are challenged more than ever to achieve it and sales goals due to the increasingly diversified media landscape and extraneous market challenges. Mehta spoke about the usage of analytics to understand the contribution of Radio spend to business. He said that adfolk speak about radio being a potential medium but they do not invest on it. He ended his session by saying that “We do not understand radio as much as we should”.

     

    The next session was a panel discussion on ‘Telling brand stories through effective and creative radio’. This was moderated by Reliance Broadcast COO Ashwin Padmanabhan and the panelists for this session were Manish Bhatt, Founder Director of Scarecrow Communications, Manohar Nayak, Managing Director, Lingo India and Sunil Kumaran, Country Head, Dentsu Story Lab. Few marketers have been able to leverage the strengths of the radio medium to design effective, creative radio advertising that brings brand stories alive in the minds and life of a radio listener. Nayak,  who considers radio to be his first wife, said:  “Radio is a very personal space. It can be used effectively to reach out to people”.  Kumaran spoke on what needs to be focused on to make it more effective. “One basic challenge is to understand the medium deeply. Measurability is also a huge concern.” “We are trying to make radio cool by using social media,” said Bhatt about increasing the reach of radio.

     

    This was followed by a session on ‘How can radio kill the video star?’ by Hari Krishnan, the Managing Director of Zenith Optimedia Group. Krishnan’s presentation was quirky and creative from the word go. He started the session by showing the1979 music video of ‘Video killed the radio star’ by Buggles. Then he proceeded the session by saying that he will be giving tips on how to take revenge on the visual medium. “Look at the limitations of the visual medium and use it in your radio pitches”, he said. According to him, radio retained its magic but brands left radio behind. “I think the time of radio is here. Radio offers opportunities beyond just reach and engagement” was his signing off message to the audience.

     

    Nisha Narayanan, COO, Red FM, moderated the discussion on ‘Radio- selling beyond FCT’. The panelists for this discussion were VanitaKeswani, CEO, Madison Media Sigma, Suresh Balakrishna, CEO India South Asia, Kinetic and Jaideep Singh, Senior Vice President and Business Head- Integrated Network Solutions, Viacom 18. FM brands today offer radio beyond FCT (Free Commercial Time). We all know about the various awards shows and concerts hosted by these radio channels. So, why is there a need to sell FCT only on radio, was a question which was critically discussed in this session. They unanimously agreed that organisations should not just be concerned about business and numbers. They should explore the medium more and creatively tackle situations. “Radio has larger potential because they can create localised content”, said Singh.

     

    The first panel discussion post lunch was moderated by Suman Srivastava, Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, FCB Ulka. Topic of the discussion was ‘Is radio relevant in a mobile world’ and the panelists were Nandini Dias, CEO, Lodstar UM, Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network and Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive Vice President- Marketing, Product, Digital and e-Commerce, HDFC Life. They all agreed that in today’s rapidly evolving technology, it is about the co-existence of radio and digital. Katial agreed that, “It is not about one versus the other but about co-existing.” Tripathy shared that how they created a radio campaign to promote their digital campaign. “The way we perceive radio has changed. It is not just about music but the power of sound,” said Dias

     

    The second panel discussion was about ‘Steaming music- threat or opportunity for FM”.  It was moderated by Prashant Panday, Managing Director and CEO, Radio Mirchi (ENIL) with Aditya Swamy, Digital Media and Content Marketing, Flipkart and Shridhar Subramaniam, President- India and Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment as the panelists. They all agreed that it is clearly an opportunity for FM and if they think beyond the FM platform there is a chance of growth for their brand. Subramaniam said the biggest threat iss the machine algorithm which takes an average measure to calculate the consumer’s taste and offers them that particular category every time they tune in. Both the panelists agreed that FM broadcasters need to embrace streaming. “They should offer local experience and try to figure out a revenue stream,” said Swamy.

     

    The conference ended with the ‘Radiopitch Challenge’. On its sixth successful year, the top four from the Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) category of ‘Most outstanding use of radio in an Ad campaign’ are invited to present a media plan for a product in front of the judges. This year’s winners were Team Motivator who presented their campaign for ‘Hike messenger’ and the runners up were Group M media for their ‘Crash the Pepsi IPL’ presentation.

     

  • A night that was all about cheering, enjoying, encouraging and most importantly radio

    Red FM, BIG FM & Radio Mirchi earn top laurels at IRF

     

    By Anuka Roy

     

    ‘Happiness is like a radio station, broadcasting all the time. You just have to learn how to tune in and receive it properly. Stay tuned and be happy always!’ Nobody knows who said that but it sure is a true saying. It was indeed a happy environment when people from the radio and media industry gathered together to celebrate the best of the best in radio. This year the Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) were hosted on Friday the May 13 (this was another highlight for everyone) at The Westin Mumbai.

     

    This year, a total of 43 awards were given out across various categories. To celebrate the spirit of radio and the winners everyone in the audience was given a whistle to cheer for the winners. And did they cheer? The only thing that can be said is, hardly anything else was audible every time an award was announced. Some of the award-winning stations this year included Radio Mirchi, Red FM, Suryan FM, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd, Radio City, Radio Mango, Club FM and MY FM.

     

    Without any doubt this year’s ERA was painted red with Red FM winning 13 awards including the ones won by sibling Suryan FM across different categories and regions including the ‘Best Radio Sparkler (Hindi)’ for the character Bauua, who plays pranks on people over the phone and the ‘Best Community Service Award’ for ‘Himmat ki Kimat Delhi’, an initiative by Red FM Delhi in recognising the true heroes of Delhi.Suryan FM won two awards ‘Best Breakfast Programme/Show (Tamil)’ and ‘RJ of the Year (Tamil)’ which went to RJ Blade Shankar. Reliance Broadcast Network Limited or Big FM also won 8 awards, including the award for the ‘Best Radio Programme  (Hindi – For Non-Metro Station)’ and ‘RJ of the Year (Hindi – For Non-Metro Station)’ which went to AnnuKapoor for his show ‘Suhaana Safar With AnnuKapoor’.‘RJ of the Year (Hindi)’ went to RJ NeeleshMisra of Big FM.TLG India (Zenith Optimedia India) won two awards for’ Most Effective Use of Radio in an Activation Campaign’ and ‘Most Outstanding Use of Radio in an Ad Campaign’. However, the most anticipated award of the evening, ‘Best FM Station’, was taken home by Radio Mirchi Delhi.

     

    Speaking to MxMIndia, Vishaal Sethia, Senior Vice President, Programming at Radio Mirchi said: “It always is a fabulous feeling. It is a station which has a lot of initiatives regularly. It is a very creative team; this also re-establishes the fact that we are leaders in Delhi. It is a great feeling to be rewarded for all of that”.

     

    Nisha Narayanan, COO of Red FM spoke about the road ahead for the station. She said: “What I am really happy about is the fact that, we are winning a lot of regional awards. I have always been saying that awards need to move out of Delhi and Mumbai, needs to be encouraged in other cities as well. The road ahead, as I keep telling the team, we need to continue to innovate, be fresh in our thoughts, think out of the box and keep entertaining. ” Speaking on behalf of Team Red FM on bagging a dozen awards, Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head said: “It is nice. We always have been winning so many awards and this year is no exception. We won 13 medals today; it feels great.”

     

    With much debate on about the future of radio in our country, the awards surely are a source of encouragement and a hope for brighter days ahead for the radio industry.

     

     

  • The seventh edition of Indian Radio Forum (IRF) discussed quite a lot of issues on the strength and opportunities of radio, the road ahead for the medium, especially with FM Phase III expansion

    Takeaways from IRF 2012 (+Vdo)

    By A Correspondent

     

    The seventh edition of Indian Radio Forum (IRF) discussed quite a lot of issues on the strength and opportunities of radio, the road ahead for the medium, especially with FM Phase III expansion, how to maximize radio’s assets and how to gain share of market spend; the use of social media and monetizing it and much more. MxMIndia spoke to couple of industry veterans on their takeaways from the IRF 2012.

     

    Mr Premjeet Sodhi, COO, Lintas Media Group:

    One major takeaway with which I am going back is that while there are issues on how radio is performing commercially, there are certainly people who are passionate about the medium, and therefore, there are a lot of possibilities on how to do well on radio.

     

    The second major takeaway is the use of social media and radio, we had never thought of a subject as such. Radio has a lot of potential to work along with social media and be commercially successful as well.

     

    Third, I don’t think we are doing enough for radio, overall as an industry. There is, however, a lot of scope for improvement in this area.

     

    Mr B Surender, Senior Vice President, and National Sales Head, Red FM:

    I think the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) style of evangalising the medium is needed because UK’s RAB is so active in not only the developed markets like the UK, but it is also quite active in developing markets like South Africa.

     

    InIndia, probably, this kind of promotional activity is required for radio as a medium, because in India FM radio started very late and it did not get enough time before social media and the online or digital media arrived. Therefore, I believe there is a different need for a RAB kind of body which promotes radio.

     

    Mr Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Senior Vice President – Marketing, Shoppers Stop:

    I think each industry within radio should develop its own tools, and this is really important in judging the input-output in efficacy because I am not chasing radio just for reach, OTS or number of impressions. Radio, as a channel, is a response medium and so it must deliver much beyond intermediary variables, it must deliver final business variables and I think radio can do that. However, it depends on how well a radio channel partners with a client, wherein the client is also willing to share some amount of data and information and a radio channel is also willing to partner it and jointly experimenting which works for all of us.