Month: March 2023

“Audio is the new cool, so we need to become the leader of audio,” said Charles-Emmanuel Bon from Radio France during a panel discussion at RDE23.“We need to segment in the way audiences use digital media, not in the traditional way through age demographics. Audiences need to be profiled by understanding their content interests and how they consume content…“We aim to produce less content, but more targeted content by forging links between our marketing and programming areas to inform our content and delivery.” Bon explained that his station segments content by thinking it through, producing it and distributing the content on a targeted platform.These are the key strategies to meet Radio France’s identified challenges for the future:• Think about content as being non linear• Understand how we can use technology and help our journalists use AI in their work.• Hybrid radio• IP distribution is important as users are moving faster• Spend more time on packaging program content to reach audiences that will never tune into our stations as part of Public Broadcasters’ mandate.• Opinion isn’t difficult but some of the population sees us as biased… we must present the facts and keep the conversations going.“We plan to further invest in our people by training them to move from sound design to motion design,” said Bon.Martina Rihova from ACTIVE contributed to the discussion saying, “our biggest challenge is creating appealing content for the audience. We often forget about content and focus too much on new technology.”She identified these further challenges:• AI coming in can be leveraged as a useful tool in assessing the viability of podcasts.• Creating different ways to deliver content to keep younger audiences on multiplatform distribution.• People are tired of news so we have less news less on air and more news content on our podcasts.“My advice is to learn to make AI your friend,” she said.“Collaboration is the common goal,” said Cathinka Randon, NRK, from Norway. “Together we focus on the most important aspects and deliver through our own  platform NRK radio app.”“We will continue to build our content and understanding of our listeners by understanding their habits and how they find their content.”Guy Frankel, Director. Rock Antenne plans to keep up with Generation Z and Alpha “by seeing what they are looking for like anchor points in music which can then be packaged by announcers on social media.”“Creating multiplatform content has lead to a change in the sales unit to work more closely with marketing through straight brand management. We’re increasing our sales by working with clients to increase their profile on digital platforms where they wish to be.” […]

In a traditional session at RadioDays Europe, six of the best presenters are selected to summarise their talks from the conference into a tight 5 minutes.They give 5 tips each, totaling 30 tips in this 30 minute fast paced session.Here are this year’s speakers and their tips.Tanya Tarr has a corporate learning and development company. Her 5 tips are about burnout:
Admit you are burned out (and stop judging yourself)
Stay curious and not furious. Wonder creates positive chemicals in your body and presents opportunities
Refocus on purpose – especially shared purpose (every sacrifice matters because we’re building a better world, do for yourself what you ask others to do)
Be a protective steward of the people who surround you
Steal every moment of joy and ‘drive like you stole it.’ Encourage your teams to use their power and tell them how great their work is – be specific. 
Internationally renowned audience researcher Tom Webster from Sounds Profitable’s ideas are formed as questions.
Don’t ask ‘Where did you discover my podcast,’ ask ‘HOW did you discover it?’ The answer will probably be ‘from friends and family,’ but go further and find out how, that way you will learn what to do to market your podcast.
What other podcasts do you listen to? From this question you can discover why they listen and round the audience out as a 3 dimensional person.
How long should my podcast be? This is a bad question and unanswerable. Instead, ask,’ should my podcast be shorter or longer?’ This will help you explore what more is needed in the show or what has to be cut.
How would you describe my podcast to a friend? A specific person. What exactly would they say. This will give you an authentic insight into what people value in your podcast.
If my podcast died tomorrow, what would you miss the most? People can be very precise about what they would miss. If the answer is nothing… then you have a problem.
Comedian Sadia Azmat focused on self promotion to enhance your career.1. Believe in yourself2. Get over yourself3. Be less emotional and be more strategic4. Reassess/ Review and think about the ways you can overcome your challenges5. Sales, it’s a numbers game, don’t give up, keep knocking on doors“Self promotion is layers… telling others about yourself and the things you do.”David Fernández Quijada is Research Director at South 180. His tips are abot forward planning.1. Think and act long term. Focus on what is important, not what’s urgent.2. Appoint an AI explorer. It’s not just a fad or hype, AI will be able to satisfy a lot of your future needs, so you need someone dedicated to understanding and progressing it in your team.3. Do different things, do things differently. Don’t race to the bottom by copying others, race to the top by being distinctive. Bring unique content, surprise your audience.4. Work on context to boost your content. You need to understand where your power is, it’s not just in the content, but in the wider context in which you operate. Your competitors in Big Tech are just data providers, you are more than that, you have connection and unique editorial content.5. Measure and explain the content you deliver. Are you keeping listeners and clients up to date about your strategy and what’s happening in your business.Angela Stengel, from the ABC’s Innovation lab advised how best to build teams who can reach young audiences.1 Give young people decision-making power. Give them autonomy and trust, it goes a long way.2 The internet is full of sub-cultures. Go niche, and do it well. At the ABC we’ve been getting talent who can do things well and we’ve built a large audience on social media.3 Stay authentic to your station or brand.4 Set up the scaffolding and then get out of the way. Make sure they have access to quick decision making, including budgets.5 Stand strong in the face of criticism. It will come.Swedish Radio’s News Director Olle Zachrison’s tips are about quality behind the hype:1. Define your strategic goals within all the AI hype. Don’t get distracted from your mission by the hype2. Use AI to add value in our products and people, not to replace them.3. Go from broadcast chunks to digital atoms. We are tending to concentrate on long form content for podcasts, but your best journalism can also be short. Short chunked stories are easier to work with for automation and for audiences to personalise their content.4. Get senior editors involved in AI. This is about their audience, so they must be involved.5. It’s the journalism stupid! Be guides to the truth in a flood of misinformation. Explain, investigate and use your knowledge to produce the best journalism.Peter Niegel , the General Manager of RadioDays told the audience that there are more RadioDays conferences around the world, “You can go to Canada in June and RadioDays Asia in Kuala Lumpur in September if you want to continue to be  part of RadioDays,” he said.The next European RadioDays will be held in Munich, 17-19 March 2024.[embedded content] […]