ASIA

On the second day of the ongoing ABU RadioAsia conference, a showcase presentation titled ‘Show me the money!’ discussed if radio stations have really made money out of their social platforms.The first presentation about this was made by Vickneswaran Kajindran, Head of Business Development, Media Prima Omnia and Nadiah Sanchez Yu Strategy Planner, RMG.Yu discussed how monetization and an improved product offering go hand in hand in offering more value.“Going beyond tapping into radio listeners involves leveraging on creative solutions to extend a campaign’s reach,” she saidShe discussed various case studies like the launch of Disney+ Hotstar in Malaysia, for which FlyFM, HotFm, 8FM & BuletinFM  all became Disney+ Hotstar FM leading up the OTT launch starting with teasers, followed by a countdown and the final launch, which saw 26.4 million impressions and their site crashed due to an overwhelming response.FlyFM, HotFM and 8FM hosted an online contest for FoodPanda, a food delivery service which had a reach of 7.2 million.In another case study about Central Sugar Refinery, key announcers from FlyFM and HotFM interviewed 30 frontliners over 30 days on how they cope with the pandemic. The campaign reached 71. Million people, overachieving its target by 195 percent.Kajindran said: “From a client servicing perspective, with these kind of results, it’s easier to go to clients and pitch more ideas involving social media.”Richard Phelps, Senior Digital Producer, All in Media spoke about leveraging Station Apps to generate revenue.According to him, “Radio is an amplifying platform. It works well when integrated with social media.”A great app should balance your business objectives, create simplification for users, focus on your strengths, grow consumption, only collect meaningful audience data and give opportunities to monetise content.He discussed various content monetizing opportunities on station apps, including display advertising, digital ad insertion, ad replacement, vouchers, rewards, in app messaging or push notifications and pop-up sponsored content. […]

On the second day of the ongoing ABU RadioAsia conference, Anna Dixon, Senior Service Designer, ABC Innovations Lab gave a showcase presentation titled ‘The smartest things you’ve never seen’.She discussed an exciting new project at the ABC Innovations Lab which started with the thought of being able to choose some articles from the ABC website and have them read to you as you drive into work or head out for a walk.The pilot objectives were to develop a custom ABC synthetic voice to a level capable of reading out articles, evaluate voice capabilities by comparing a custom ABC branded voice and an off the shelf voice, apply synthetic voice in a text-to-speech trial to understand audience appetite and deliver insights into potential accessibility benefits as well as translation capabilities.Dixon took the audience through the steps involved in developing this voice, giving a history of voice synthesis, which kicked off in the 70s with format synthesis, followed by a technique called concatenative synthesis, where recorded chunks of sound are reassembled in different ways and through to the modern voices of our smart home assistants and phones today produced by a few big tech players.She discussed developing a voice using neural networks – a series of algorithms that endeavours to recognise underlying relationships in a set of data through a process that mimics the way the human brain operates.She spoke about taking samples of three of their presenters and how they ended up developing an ABC virtual voice in partnership with Microsoft and applied it in a ‘text-to-speech’ trial at the ABC News website and app.Discussing the viability of the pilot, Dixon said: “Is it practical or useless? We try to learn via tracking analytics, a survey that is attached to the feature, and some specialized usability testing with accessibility experts.” […]

ABU Secretary General Dr Javad Mottaghi welcomed delegates to the first face to face ABU radio conference in three years.“Radio has been important in helping the public to survive during the covid crises… it is a trusted source of information and a way of connecting people when they had to be apart. “Broadcasters have been able to cope with covid and continue serving the audience during this challenging time… we have all been affected but we have been able to cope with the disaster. “The ABU also adapted very quickly to deliver our services online during these challenging times,” he said.Radiodays founder Anders Held talked about the partner conference RadioDays that follows the ABU’s Radio Asia conference.“RadioDays was originally founded in Europe and has grown into the biggest radio and audio conference in the world…  “The challenges are similar for radio industries all over the world, it has been shaken up and we have to learn and look forward to the future. We value the collaboration with ABU and our ability to bring the best speakers in the world to these conferences.”A top level experts round table began the day’s sessions.Dr Hendasmo, RRI’s President Director has confidence in the future of radio because it can enhance culture. “Our social function is to unite our country… we all face the same challenges with new media platform disruptions, but it is a part of life.”Traditional radio listening in Indonesia has decreased by 37 percentage points in recent years, from 50% to 13%, according to the 2018 census, while internet usage has dramatically increased.  Time spent listening to broadcast radio sets has also decreased. So RRI has increased its services on new platforms to continue to deliver its mission. “Radio can survive by delivering its content in new ways and cultivating audience interaction.”David Hua, the Director of Language and Audience Services at SBS said there are similar sobering statistics in most countries, but it comes down to how we define the word ‘radio.’ David talked about the connection people have to radio. He told the story of an old man who had many radio sets and when he died his wife wanted to give them to others in the family, when she turned each one of them on, they were all tuned to SBS Radio. “People are connected to radio in different ways, linear broadcast radio is still important to many, especially those who cannot connect via internet and data, while other types of new radio content connect in different ways.”Sanjiv Dosajh, Assistant Director General of Programmes at All India Radio talked about the huge diversity of languages, geographies and cultures in India. “Radio is alive in India, during the pandemic radio came to the people’s rescue… we had talkback with doctors who gave information about covid. When people called we asked them, how are you listening… 50% of them said they were listening to live broadcasts on a traditional radio set. “The challenge is to keep reaching the younger population too, they are shifting to web radio and social media platforms so we are developing new programs on new platforms for them. We have a talent competition to find new young radio presenters and we put them on air as RJs… it is another way we are keeping radio alive and reaching new age groups.”Dan Santa, the Director of International Relations at Radio Romania compared his small country of 20 million to the huge populations in the countries of the other speakers, saying that there are common issues no matter what the country and population size. “Remember when we thought that watches or books would be replaced by phones and ebooks, but this has not happened. The Swiss watch companies are still there, so are books… “Radio has an important public mission and as long as we continue to fulfil our mission there will be a well defined future for radio.” Keith Williams, Vice President of RCS Asia Pacific said “radio has succeeded to this point because of the content, nothing has changed about that, it is just that there are different means of delivery. Radio people are great at creating content. If I hear my radio station in a car or at the mall we are winning, it makes no difference how that content is getting to those locations.”  […]

Selling Radio Direct with Pat BrysonDo you remember the movie, “What Women Want”? Mel Gibson got hit by lightening and began reading women’s minds. That came in quite handy in promoting products to them. Ever wish you could read your clients’ minds? We can come close by studying the internal dialogue clients are having when we approach them at various stages of the sales process. Understanding this will give us the ability to answer their “Why?” This, in turn, will increase our effectiveness.Our first step is to get the appointment. Our prospect is thinking:“Do I want to see the salesperson?”“Do I have the time?”“What do they want?”“Radio didn’t work last time.”“Do I want to spend the money?”If we can’t give them a good answer to these questions, we don’t even get in the door. And that’s why we use our personal 30 second commercial (see previous newsletters or give me a call and I’ll walk you through it.)Next the client is deciding if they want to work with you. This usually happens when you are in a client needs analysis.“Is this salesperson credible?”“Do they know what they are doing?”“Can I trust the company?”“Can they help me?”How we comport ourselves, the questions we ask, the interest we show in their business contributes to positive or negative answers to these questions.The dialogue continues in the CNA:“Do I have the time?”“Do I trust them enough to share my problems?”“Will answering these questions help to solve my problems?”“Is this worth my time?”We should talk about the business of the business before we talk about the marketing of the business. This will insure a “Yes” answer to these questions.We bring back a proposal. What are they thinking now?“Does this fit my needs?”“How does this compare to other options?”“Is this what I want?”“Is there some commonality here?”If you have prepared a customized campaign based on the needs and goals you uncovered in the Phase Two needs analysis, the answer should be “Yes”. If you took a package off the shelf, it more than likely will be “No”.During the presentation the client has other considerations:“What is the cost?”“What is the value?”“Do I want to change what I’m doing now?”“Do I want to look at other options?”“Do I believe the reward is greater than the risk?”Our job is to reduce risk and stack value. One of the best ways to do this is to tell great stories. The best salespeople are the best storytellers.Now to the decision:“Do I do it now?”“Later?”“Never?”“Can I justify doing this?”Have we made our case? Do we have an ROI page to justify the campaign?And after the sale:“Did all go as promised?”“Was I treated fairly?”“Will it work?”“How long will it take to see results?”“Was this a good decision?”“Will I recommend this to others?”We should manage our client’s expectations on how and when the campaign will produce results. And, we must take very good care of our clients moving forward. Make an agreement with them on how and when you will contact them. Exceed their expectations.The last time you made a significant purchase, I bet your internal dialogue was similar to this. The more we can understand and live in our client’s worlds, the better off all will be.Now, you didn’t even have to get hit by lightening to read minds.Happy Selling! […]

India’s Radio City network recently concluded the first edition of its international property ‘Radio City Business Titans’.The three-day event celebrated the accomplishments of Indian entrepreneurs for upscaling their business through unwavering resilience and innovation. The event was held at Dubai and featured Indian business tycoons, Bollywood celebrities, and social media influencers.The event was held on August 27 where Radio City felicitated over 92 Business Titans across 20 business categories from multiple industries. It also featured Indian entertainment personalities Vivek Oberoi, Neha Dhupia, Sophie Choudry and Kainaat Arora who presented accolades to the entrepreneurs and commended the winners for establishing a successful venture.Dr. Bu Abdullah, Chairman of Bu Abdullah Group and Dr. Kabir, COO of Majestic Investments, Private Consultant to His Highness Sheikh Majid Rashid Al Mualla from the royal family of Umm Al Quwain also attended the event.Ashit Kukian, CEO, Radio City, said: “Indian enterprises are flourishing by integrating innovative ideas and technologies in their business strategy; thereby contributing to the growth of the Indian economy. We launched Radio City Business Titans with the objective of offering Indian businesses a prestigious platform to celebrate their triumphs and foster their business excellence.”  […]

RFmondial has successfully carried out a field test in Hanover under real conditions as part of the development of solutions for alternative distribution to DAB+ transmitters in the event of a disaster.In the event of a failure of the distribution link (modulation lines) to digital radio transmitters (DAB+), a stable radio broadcasting provision to the population must be guaranteed. As recent events have shown in the event of a disaster, broadcasting coverage in particular is an essential building block for informing citizens, since mobile phone networks are usually the first to fail. In order to increase the reliability of the broadcast an alternative distribution must be used during standard link failure (land-based lines in the event of flooding or satellite reception in the event of storms).For this purpose, RFmondial has developed a system that uses the regular air interface for the distribution, the so-called rebroadcasting. Those DAB+ transmitters that are no longer able to receive their standard link receive the program over the air from another DAB+ transmitter, convert it to a different frequency (channel) and transmit it again with a short time delay. This transmitted program is now received by one or more other DAB+ transmitters and broadcast again on a different frequency. This guarantees nationwide broadcasting coverage even in the event of a disaster.In addition, the control of the transmitters can as well be maintained via a data channel hidden in the DAB+ broadcast. The RFmondial technology was developed and tested in a field test in Hanover. For this purpose, a multiple frequency network (MFN) was operated, with a DAB+ transmitter (channel 5A) serving as the basic network transmitter in Hanover Hemmingen and another DAB+ transmitter (channel 7C) serving as a transmitter in rebroadcasting mode in Hanover Nordstadt. In addition to testing the rebroadcasting technology, the suitability of DAB+ receivers for switching to the now changed transmission frequency (service follow) has been examined. Manufacturers of consumer and automotive receivers took the opportunity to test and, in some cases, improve their receivers with regard to rebroadcasting.New developments by Plisch GmbH from Viernheim were used as DAB+ transmitter systems, which are equipped with various redundancies and thus ensure trouble-free operation. […]