ASIA

By Peter YiamarelosIn part one we took a look at some of the important aspects of the radio- listener relationship needed to build a successful station. In this edition we’ll look at the further aspects involved.EstablishedThe “established” phase is a when a listener will be happy to tell their friends they are a listener of your station or breakfast show, but they are still not loyal fans yetYes they are an established listener and are habitually listening to you daily but they are still listening to other stations as well.Some content directors are happy with that achievement. BUT these listeners don’t stay in this phase for long, they either become loyal fans to your station or they become loyal fans of your competitor.This is the last phase where you have to fight to win this listener over. Because once you do win them over it becomes very hard to lose them. Even when you make inevitable major content adjustments like launching a new breakfast show, changing the music or format for example.How? with over an above-promotions, with money can’t buy prizes, music tactics an entertaining content that your competitors can’t copy.

 LoyaltyThis is the phase you’ve been waiting for.The loyalty phase that you and the team have worked so hard to achieve.When this stage is achieved you can use and communicate to this community of listeners that have been out of reach in previous stages of the listener journey.Here is where you can capitalise the wealth of information available to you from this group. Through focus groups, call to action events and tactics you can drive this audience.Loyalty is the foundation you can build on audience growth incrementally.At this point your overall share is growing and gaining momentum.Remember once your station gets to no.1 to implement a defence strategy to maintain that no.1 position.A tool to help retain loyalty, while also making noise to generate awareness and all previous phases, is podcast catchups.This tool is essentially a small effort to allow your listeners to catchup on what they missed out on from their favourite show.While podcast catchups are used for the breakfast shows, it’s not uncommon to have podcast catchups for drive shows or other specialist shows within your overall line up.One of the other benefits of having a loyal listener base is that these listeners will drive most of your Time Spent Listening (TSL). While your casual listeners will drive your overall cumulative listenership numbers, your strong TSL numbers is what will drive your overall SHARE.Evangelists are those fans who talk about your station, music, or breakfast show…a lot. It’s the strongest form of word of mouth there is. Those who tell their friends, “did you hear this on station x?”These evangelists will also regularly share your digital content.That’s why your content distribution structure for social media must be set up to “spread the word” about your station by your evangelists / social reactorsCross check to ensure your social accounts are active and updated often.Finally, while your loyal fans will stick by you in the tough times, do not take them for granted. Look after them, spoil them. […]

Selling Radio Direct with Pat Bryson60 or 90 days ago, if you asked a client what their Number 1 concern was, the answer was probably “finding enough staff.” That’s still an issue, but in the last 60 days or so, it has slipped to Number 2 or 3. It’s been replaced by “the cost of fuel and products.”Each day our clients wake up and try to successfully navigate an ever-changing business landscape. They juggle having the right products at the right time, taking care of customers with skeleton staffs, competing with hundreds of places to buy what they sell, and trying to make a profit to stay in business. It’s a balancing act!Enter the world of rising fuel costs. Any product that moves anywhere, whether by air, truck or train is affected by rising fuel costs. The cost of containers full of merchandise stranded at ports has risen ridiculously.As the cost of goods goes up, only a portion of that cost can be passed along to their customers. The only way to safeguard their profit margin is to raise top-line revenue. That’s where advertising comes in.Advertising creates traffic. If we produce more warm bodies into stores, and the store converts them into sales, revenue goes up. Smart business owners know they must invest money to make money. High cost of doing business is EXACTLY why they need to advertise.I’d like to point out that we need to constantly be asking the question, “What’s the Number 1 problem you are dealing with today?” Their answer will change month to month, sometimes even week to week. What should their message be? The answer to this question may tell us.Keeping pace with the shifting business landscape is a never-ending job: for us and for our clients. Keep asking questions. Help our clients to find answers. Higher revenue awaits for our clients and for us!

Happy Selling! […]

Radiodays Asia 2022 has announced more speakers.Megan Davies is the International Managing Director at Acast. Meg has been able to fuse her extensive experience in the worlds of innovative tech, media and sales. At Acast she is responsible for supporting brands’ expansion into new markets, managing centralised multi-market activations and growing Acast’s business through both introducing global partners to new markets and also developing new partnerships with local brands and advertisers.Adam Uytman is the Creator Network Development Director in the International team at Acast, working with podcasters in new markets around the world to help them grow audience and find opportunities to monetise their content. Adam was previously Director of Content at independent UK audio production company, Listen Entertainment, leading a team to deliver audio content to the likes of the BBC, Audible, Spotify, MTV, commercial brands and more.Timi Siytangco is the Key Account Director in Sales for Acast Singapore, responsible for leading commercial growth in the region and establishing Acast’s first on-the-ground presence in Asia. Timi’s career of more than two decades spans creative and commercial experience in digital media across the APAC region, with previous key roles including leadership, strategy, sales management and marketing positions at Outbrain, Splice Newsroom, Possible Worldwide and Branded.James Cridland is Editor of Podnews, a daily podcast newsletter. He is a radio futurologist – a writer, consultant and public speaker on radio’s future. James has worked in audio since 1989 as an award-winning copywriter, radio presenter, and internet strategist. He is also a well-known industry commentator beloved on the speaking circuit for his comprehensive knowledge of podcasting, radio and technology.He will present a session titled “Cool new tech for radio that you should be using – Radiodays Asia edition”. With new tech everywhere; there are plenty of new tools that can help radio succeed. Software that makes audio editing as easy as a word processor, the radio presenter who does so much in-air he’s trained a robot to do some of it for him, the syndicated show that sounds like it’s tailor-made for your station, and how to make a show in a language you don’t speak, the possibilities are endless. Join radio futurologist James Cridland to see what’s possible for your station today.Radiodays Asia 2022 will be held in-person and online on September 6 and 7 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.This will be the third edition of the new conference from the team who produces Radiodays Europe, the world’s largest and leading conference for radio and audio development, in collaboration with broadcaster organisations in the Asia-Pacific.

Radiodays Asia includes a fantastic line-up of speakers, leading experts and professionals from around Asia, Australia and across the world. Topics ranging from radio and podcast strategy, new digital developments, successful formats and content development, fact checking and investigative journalism, podcast storytelling and business, social media, audio advertising, sales and the latest research about consumer behaviour. The most important trends and new ideas worldwide in one place.The main conference runs over two days with two parallel tracks of sessions. It will have meet-ups and interactive sessions as part of the programme to facilitate networking and sharing of ideas. There will also be an exhibition area where you can learn the latest about services from our commercial partners. In addition, four educational training workshops will be included in the offer, as well as an evening networking event.Click here to register with the Early Bird Price before July 15. […]

India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati released its new logo on Monday.Headquartered in New Delhi, Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises of the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio (AIR), which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.According to a statement, “The new logo is replete with rich meaning. The elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security, and perfection for the common man.”“While the elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security and perfection to the nation, its colour, ‘Dark Moderate Blue’ represents both the sky and the sea and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity.Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, and intelligence. The colour blue also pays tribute to the Indian ethos and traditions associated with religious figures; mythological characters found in the Indian miniature paintings.”On the occasion of unveiling of the new logo, Member (Finance) DPS Negi opined that in the earlier format, the corporate office of Prasar Bharati used both AIR and Doordarshan logos on both the sides of the written text ‘Prasar Bharati’ along with the Indian emblem in the middle. Inspired from the identities of both AIR and Doordarshan, the new logo of Prasar Bharati is defined as a blend of both AIR and Doordarshan. It not only encloses the elements from their visual identities, but it also leverages their colour combinations, to complement the identity of Prasar Bharati as a public service broadcaster. […]

Content from BPRBy Peter YiamarelosIt starts with one listenerEvery radio station no matter how high the ratings started with one listener. This individual person has been on a journey with the station from the moment they were “exposed” to that station. This article gives an example of how this one listener has been present over time with a radio station and its brand. Starting from the very beginning when that listener was “exposed” or “discovered” that station as a “non-fan” to the stage of being a loyal “super- fan or Evangelist”.A typical music format station has a number of content elements in place.Such as Station name, Format, Breakfast show, Workday line-up, Drive, Night & Overnight shows and Weekend shows and features.Digital content is important to the brand of the station but should be viewed as an extension of the ‘product’ of the station and not part of it.The listener journey cannot move forward without a consistent product or content.

AwarenessFrom the first moment the listener is exposed to or discovers a station, whether on AM/FM/DAB+ , Satellite, Stream app aggregator, they begin a journey that takes them through various states that will change the way they consume that station. While they may not be listening exclusively to that station they may have 2 or 3 favourite stations out of a world of choices. Ensuring the listener has your station as one of their main choices is one of the toughest challenges a Content director / Marketer, Host or content creator has to deal with.The journey begins with Awareness, one way or another a listener becomes aware of your station. This awareness can come in various forms on various devices or platforms.The initial stages of this journey begins with Exposure, Exploration, walking past a live Outdoor Broadcast, an Event, a Billboard promoting the station, Word of mouth from a friend or social media post from an influencer. The goal at the end of the day is establishing Loyalty with the listener and without Awareness this cannot be achieved.Causing a listener to become aware of your station or brand through “Discovery” is so powerful because they establish a form of ownership or loyalty with your brand. Aside from the wins you will get with ratings gains along the way, they will be more forgiving when they become loyal listeners if they are served content they feel does not fit with their expectations.The listener journey could be from the moment you launch the station or it could be from the first time the listener becomes aware of your station. Either way these steps and stages still apply.Form of listening: at this stage your future super-fan may or may not listen into the station. In fact they may not be consciously aware of the station. Your listener leads a busy life, they may not even know what a radio station is. For now you can definitely assume they are in the “non-fan” stage of the listener journey.AttentionNow your listener is aware of you via your product i.e breakfast show, workday line up including drive, nights and weekend programming and the noise you generate daily via various forms of marketing i.e traditional and digital marketing campaigns, OB’s, events as well as TVC’s. The journey has begun with some listening but they may not be returning to your product on a daily basis.The next step is to convert their “awareness” into “attention” and then covert the listener’s “undecided” state to an “established” stage on the way to “loyalty”.Attention is an amplified state of “awareness” in radio X’s listener journey , which essentially is a continuation of the awareness stage with presence through website, social media peripheral content further marketing in that space and some great PR.The ability to really have people talking about you in the market place from what you’re doing with your product will extend to great interest and attention in the listener and of course clients. Noise created the awareness & attention stages shows confidence in the product and that is infectious towards the listener as well as clients.UndecidedAt this “undecided” phase the listener may be listening to your station daily, well done! Let’s call it “general listening” or “sampling” your station.But they’re still far from being a loyal “super-fan” because they’re listening to other stations as well. In some cases over a 7 day period they’re possibly tuning into another 2 or 3 more stations. This is separate to that listeners “other “ forms of media consumption such as Movie streamers e.g. Netflix, podcasting, Youtube and social media.At this point research is one of the tools used to ascertain ‘what content the listener is consuming’ and ‘why they haven’t switched over to your station’ on a daily basis or have not yet become ‘super fans’ yet.While research should be used from inception to launch and the day to day running of station X, here is where asking the right questions and interpretation of the results of the research study will help steer the sound of the station in the right direction and convert the listener to a loyal fan.The results of that study could convert that listener over with a simple a cash prize competition or the best suited content being delivered in station X’s breakfast show.Regardless, this is where the majority of your marketing should be focused, getting as many new listeners “sampling” your station. Especially as they have already become “aware” of you and that you now have their “attention”. Your marketing should do those key things to make them aware of you, get their attention daily and ensure that the marketing has some form of call to action to get the momentum towards loyal listening.FACT: 80% off your listening hours are driven by 10% of your loyal audience.This means that as you get listeners sampling your station many will stay to become super fans and many will leave, but may also come back. Don’t give up, so long as you have people sampling your state you will continue to convert new listeners to become loyal fans.In part 2 we will explore some further interesting aspects of the radio – listener relationship. […]

Media Prima Audio Malaysia’s English station Fly FM has announced new daily lineups and segments in line with its new tagline “Fly FM, Playing Malaysia’s Flyest Music All Day“.Its weekday lineup will remain unchanged but promises more humorous and entertaining material, featuring Douglas Lim and Juanita in the morning from 6am to 10am, as well as Fly 45 with Natalie and Elysha from 10am to 1pm and 1pm to 4pm, respectively.Listeners will also be able to enjoy Fly Drive’s daily lineup which continues into the evening with Ryan from 4pm to 8pm and the Gen F segment, which features Fifi from 8pm to 12am.In collaboration with DJs Playground, Malaysia’s top DJ academy that offers professional and certified DJ classes, Fly FM will debut a brand-new segment that will air every Friday.The segment, called “FlyDays with DJs Playground,” will run from 5pm to 8pm.Weekends will see the addition of trailblazing TikTok content creator Ryan Howlett and one of Southeast Asia’s most in-demand comedians, Kavin Jay.The brand-new weekend lineup starts with Fly Weekends with Raqeem, Rika and Gabe who host on rotation from noon to 4pm; Fly Weekends with Kavin and Howlett from 4pm to 6pm; Fly Malaysia from 8pm to 9pm; Drop The Bars with DJ CZA from 9pm to 10pm; and Fly Nite Club from 10pm to midnight. […]