Feature | How radio brands centre their radio activations around youth...

Radio in India has always been the medium of the masses since its inception in early 20's. Ever since then it has evolved as a channel and grown along with its audience base. From being an information disseminating medium, today it is one of the prime means of entertainment. With the entry of private players in early twenty 'first century, radio became even more popular. With its wide reach, radio was the preferred choice of entertainment from rural areas to metros. As more players entered this space of FM radio, the competition grew stiffer which led to better programming. Today everyone is targeting at the youth, which happens to be the biggest audience base for many channels. Radio too is strengthening its youth connect by doing a number of radio activations around this segment of their audience.

Talking exclusively to Adgully, some of the radio gurus discussed about the logistical issues and the need for youth connect initiatives.

Rana Barua, Business Head, 93.5 Red FM Network is of the opinion that logistical issues were of early days and now issues like initiating the process, handling multiple cities, cost of an event, deliverables and so on are problems of the past. "So those were the fundamental problems for activation and now they have become part of life," Barua said.

On the other hand Sujata Dwibedy, General Manager, VivaKi Exchange said, "Normally the radio stations are thorough professionals and things are planned well in advance. The activation team puts down the flowchart of each and every stage. Gratification is the driver to these activation and hence agency needs to make sure that the right quantity is provided and they are not defective."

On reaching out to the youth, Barua commented, "I think we are the strongest in that segment. We reach out online, we reach out to twitter. We reach out to all on ground campuses. We have tie-ups with lot of institutes, colleges, coffee shops, movie halls- we have a national tie-up with Cinemax. So we covered all hang out joints, for certain audience in Mumbai."

Most radio brands are following this trend of emphasizing on the youth category. Dwibedy further explained, "It works best for the young audience because of the high thrill, interactivity and instant gratification etc. Also it aids in displaying the Client's products, it can create ambience and generates opportunity to touch and feel the brand."

Adding to that Harrish M. Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer, 94.3 MY FM said, "It depends on what kind of activation you do and the kind of audience you are targeting. At different time length you have different powered audience, it depends on what the client wants to focus on."

Bhatia is of the opinion that there are huge logistical challenges especially when doing an on ground activation. Also he further states, "There is a lot of cost involved. We generally rope in local talent because we need them to work with. You cannot export talent from other cities."

Brands today use radio as a frequency building medium and it is an integral part of all communication and marketing strategies. Today with the youth hooked on to this medium while commuting and otherwise, brands recognize this as a useful medium where effective strategies can be implemented.

Dwibedy further added, "Normally clients are into Corporates or Pubs or Malls or College activations; Clients can leverage the platform to connect with their audience at the ground level and encourage sampling. It is very focused targeting."

Danish Khan, Vice President and Head of Marketing, Sony Entertainment Television said, "Radio is an engagement building medium. It is a pure reach and frequency medium and in those terms perhaps radio is not scoring well at the moment. It is very live, active and localized. We use a lot of radio to build engagement and frequency with our audience."

Discussing about the type of activations done by radio companies today, Barua said, "It is multifaceted. Some have complete ground activation in every sense. Activation is a complete medium which we all are using and I think some of the ideas at Red FM are absolutely the way we are, very different from what others do. So it is far more effective than the others."

As the country is becoming younger, Radio channels too are focusing their attention on the younger segment of the population and this also depends on the kind of audience they are looking at. Every radio brand does have their logistical issues but with better technology and more man power, also with detailed planning, most of them are countered effectively. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]