MxMIndia

Tag: IRF

  • 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.

     

     

  • Monetization is the key for survival of any business and radio stations must find ways to do that for their social media activations, say media captains

    Need to monetize radio-social media connect (+Vdo)

    By Robin Thomas (Videos: Insiyah Rangwala)

     

    Social media has, more or less, become a necessity for every organization today because the consumers are out there and no brand can afford to not be interacting with them. Moreover, social media can also help  brands know their consumers’ thoughts, behaviour, likes and dislikes. It also allows brands to have a two-way communication with their consumers, and thus provides high level of interaction and engagement. And it is not just brands but other media like radio stations which are coming out with innovative ways to connect with their listeners through social media.

     

    At the sidelines of the India Radio Forum (IRF) 2012 industry veterans from the advertising fraternity discussed the importance of social media for radio.

     

    Mr Premjeet Sodhi, COO, Lintas Media Group said: “Social media is certainly important for not only the radio industry today, but also for every other medium. In the long run we will see more integration taking place between social media and radio.”

     

    Mr Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors- Viacom 18 explained: “Social media is growing by the day. Today almost 65 per cent of the people in India are below the age of 35 and 50 per cent are below 25 years of age. I believe this is the fastest growing medium, therefore, it is a very important medium and those that have not got onto social media, must get on before it is too late.”

     

    Mr Suman Srivastava, Founder and Innovation Artist, Marketing Unplugged said: “Social media is important for radio at two levels. One is to connect with the listeners and therefore, get much larger engagement which might even result in an increase in the reach. On the other hand, it is a fantastic medium for radio channels to build their own brands as well as the brands of their advertisers. In the future, I believe, we will see a lot more advertisers using radio and social media together along with, perhaps, ground activations to create events which could have a multiplier effect for those advertisers.”

     

    Speaking on the need for radio to partner with clients, Mr Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Senior VP- Marketing, Shoppers Stop said: “The real big partnership for radio and their clients is in the digital space. Digital and radio have to come together and ally in such a way that they deliver joint value to the client, and I don’t think any of this is happening today. Radio is an out of home medium and we are increasingly seeing out of home consumption for digital. I think these two medium can go very well together and brands like ours which have large Facebook pages need content, we need engagement and I think radio channels that provide us that.”

     

    Mr Harshad Jain, Business Head – Radio and Entertainment, HT Media said: “Radio is a medium which is free of cost, it is the cheapest form of entertainment in the country, and if there are issues that can be interlinked with social media, it could call for a good integration. Having said that, it is still early days because radio as a medium still has to catch up big time before it starts integrating with social media.”

     

    While there are calls for integration between radio and social media, the radio industry must also find ways to monetize the radio-social media connect. Mr Sodhi pointed out that while social media can make radio activations richer, it is vital for radio stations to find newer ways to monetize this activation.

     

    Agreeing with Mr Sodhi, Mr Raj Nayak said that no business will work if there is no monetization. He added: “One of the biggest disservice broadcasters have done is that they have not woken up to the digital media.”

     

    So while radio and social media will see more integration in the long run, there is also another school of thought that believes that radio is still at a nascent stage and has a long way to go before it can get into integration with social media. However, monetization is the key for survival of any business and radio stations must find ways to monetize its social media activations.