ASIA

Adthos has announced that it has won IBC’s Best of 2021: Radio World Award.

Launched earlier this year, the Adthos platform combines an innovative ad-server designed specifically for radio, with Adthos Creative Studio which provides advanced text to speech and synthetic voice technology to create audio advertising on the go.
The first release of the platform featured first-of-a-kind ad-serving technology specifically created for radio and online streaming. The second release offers the first broadcast-quality AI- generated voice technology to create powerful, targeted advertising at a moment’s notice.
Demonstrating the possibilities, in November this year, the platform launched a readymade campaign for radio stations focused on encouraging vaccine uptake which could be downloaded and used for free.
Using Adthos Creative Studio it was possible to generate 13.000 geo-targeted creatives in 70 different languages, all within a matter of hours.
CEO of Adthos, Raoul Wedel says: “The team has worked incredibly hard on bringing Adthos to fruition and to receive independent recognition of everything we have achieved is fantastic. And we’ll have even more to share in 2022.” […]

Commercial Radio Malaysia (CRM) has awarded GfK another three-year contract to provide radio audience measurement (RAM) in Malaysia from 2022 to 2024, following GfK’s successful pitch during an industry-wide tender in September 2021. This will be the third time CRM and GfK work together for RAM, since their first collaboration back in 2016.GfK will continue to implement a combined methodological approach of paper diary and e-diary for RAM in Malaysia, utilizing its own software solution to analyze the garnered data and subsequently produce additional Radio Insights reports for the industry, instead of the previous annual reporting. Additionally, GfK and the industry will investigate innovations such as streaming integration in the country, as well as jointly look at a possible coverage expansion to East Malaysia.“We are very honored that Commercial Radio Malaysia has chosen to extend their partnership with GfK — a testimony of the great work we have been doing in the past six years,” said Lee Risk, APAC Commercial Director for Media at GfK. “As we continue to deliver relevant and actionable insights for the Malaysia radio landscape, we will also look at ways to innovate and bring additional value through a possible scope and coverage expansion.”

Dhan Andreas, President of Commercial Radio Malaysia, said: “The Council had unanimously voted to continue partnering GfK Malaysia for the radio measurement service, based on the company’s global expertise and great track record of delivery which we have experienced since their appointment in 2016, particularly on their eDiary survey methodology which is well-implemented both in Malaysia and globally.”For more than four decades, GfK has been providing radio and television audience measurement. The largest German market research institute delivers currencies in various APAC and European countries. It has also recently announced the most significant change in radio audience measurement history in Australia in conjunction with Commercial Radio Australia. These innovations can also guide developments in the Malaysia market. […]

A radio commentator in Cebu, Philippines was shot at by unidentified gunmen on Thursday.Rico Osmeña, a blocktimer of radio station dyLA, was riding a minibus when the suspects, who were riding a motorcycle, attacked him.“Based on what our investigation team has gathered from witnesses, there were two men, riding a motorcycle. The jeep was about to make a left turn from Urdaneta Street to M.J. Cuenco Avenue. Then the gunman fired his gun,” said Police Major Edgar Labe, chief of Waterfront Police Station, in Cebuano.

Osmeña sustained gunshot wounds on his shoulder and was rushed to a hospitalPolice are looking into the motive of the attack, whether it was work related or due to a personal grudge.The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines noted that Osmeña has been making commentary on hot issues such as politics and smuggling.Last July, dyRB commentator Renante Cortes was shot dead in front of the radio station, also in Cebu City.The shooting comes a month and a half after Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy, a radio journalist, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman inside his home in Bansalan town, Davao del Sur, in October.The Philippines is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), via its Global Impunity Index, ranked the Philippines as the seventh-worst country in the world for reporters, saying that 13 murders of journalists remained unsolved there. […]

Have you noticed more #BREAKING news tweets in your twitter feed lately?Of alerts about Covid by people calling themselves Doctor?At radioinfo we are hearing an alarming amount of stories leading us to believe that various social media lobbyists and disinformation peddlers are gearing up for some serious activity in the new year.

To fact check some dodgy covid related tweets and facebook posts over the past few weeks, we clicked on one or two posts from accounts by so called doctors. It was pretty easy to see that these ‘Dr’ accounts were new, with only a small number of followers, and those followers were also mostly new accounts.It was also easy to verify that they were not medical doctors by checking those names in Australian medical registers. Yet the social posts were medical in nature about covid. Upon checking many of the posts with seemly credible journalistic headlines, we found they went to dodgy websites or unsubstantiated conspiracy stories.And of course, the more we clicked on them, the more such stories we began to see in our feeds.The other phenomenon we have observed lately is an increase in bogus social posts tagged with #breaking or #breakingnews. Radioinfo has been told by two different large Australian media companies that they have had to contact twitter and facebook in recent months to have bogus accounts bearing their company name, corporate colours and logos removed. Our sources say that it took several days for the social media companies to take action against those accounts and that similar look-alike accounts keep popping up.As with the ‘Dr’ example, the more we clicked the bogus #breaking posts, the more similar posts we began to see.And then there are the obvious scam ads with pictures of celebrities and politicians on them selling everything from vitamins to bitcoin that have been around for a long time. Trying to get rid of them by lodging consumer reports is like playing whack-a-mole. ABC News reported on this phenomenon here.The motivation for the money scams is pretty clear, but the motivation for the fake Doctor and Media Company activity is more sinister.With elections looming in many countries next year the companies behind these accounts are slowly building up their followings and their activities so that once it comes to a couple of months before the election they appear to be genuine and have built up enough gullible followers who will share their posts without checking the content. One recent example of this is ABC Brisbane radio host Loretta Ryan who had her facebook account cloned, but went public about it quickly so as to warn her followers.This is big business. There are now companies all over the world who sell their manipulation services to political parties, foreign governments, extremist groups or anyone else who will pay them to manipulate, cause doubt and spread misinformation. These are not kids in hoodies hacking for fun, they are professional IT people wearing shirts and ties, working in offices and selling their services for profit.If you are reading this you are probably well aware of what is happening, but the trouble is that many people are not well informed about these practices and unwittingly help the misinformation peddlers spread their mischief. Despite many exposés of these activities they still continue, because they work. This tech article in Wired details how Cambridge Analytica operated and the video below from the UK’s Channel 4 is one of a series of reports exposing the shadowy practices.All these things are different from the real social media political lobbying campaigns that are already taking place as we approach the next election. In democracies anyone has the ability to express their political opinions, like Alan Jones or the Institute of Public Affairs or the Friends of the ABC, but good practice should be that their political backers are transparent and that they comply with the appropriate laws and disclosure regulations for the platforms they use.While media companies can’t solve the problem for the whole country, they can do more by increasing awareness and acting fast when their security and accounts have been compromised or cloned.With New Year holidays looming, when security systems may be unattended and staff will not be checking emails and social posts, there is a clear and present danger.Some tips from security experts we consulted for this article:Hackers lurking in your systems1. These people are professional. They will have been trawling your company for passwords and vulnerabilities for months but will wait until the Friday before the long weekend of your Christmas shutdown period before they act. Ensure that your IT and website security team has someone rostered on continually through the holidays to monitor intruder alerts from your systems. The BBC detailed these methods here.2. People are the weakest link and most vulnerable point for intruders. Educate your staff about how hackers trick them into revealing their system and email logins and to click links that install keyloggers or trojans.3. Ensure there is an experienced editor monitoring your websites and news output. If hackers are inside your system and want to plant stories they will do so when your A-Team is on holidays and staff have clocked off after the Christmas party or before the long weekend. This is when they will plant their story, then will use their social media sock puppet accounts to share it quickly. By the time your team has woken up the next day and overcome their hangovers, the misinformation planted by the hackers on your website or news service will be all over the internet.Cloned fake corporate accounts4. These will be used to direct people to scam websites, believing they are following a link from a credible news company.5. There is complexity in this. If you educate the followers on your real social media accounts that some posts they see might be bogus, there is a chance you may undermine the credibility of your own brand. But if you don’t educate your followers they may unwittingly share bogus posts from fake accounts. The best advice is to confirm your real accounts by displaying them next to reporter’s names on your website, tv news bulletin and to mention them in your radio broadcasts.6. Put into place methods that your audience can use to contact you, to verify posts that they suspect are bogus. Ask your audience to contact you if they suspect something is fake and want to check it – this takes resources, someone has to be available to monitor audience queries, so only promise what you can deliver.Hacked email accounts7. Another common disinformation scam is to hack a reporter’s email account and use it to send ‘tips’ or off the record bogus source material to other media, in the hope that it will be picked up and published by someone – usually a junior rostered on to cover holiday shifts who thinks they have a scoop . These emails often contain links to fake news stories, fake ‘eyewitness’ or ‘whistleblower’ posts on sock puppet social media accounts, or fake videos on Youtube.8. Once people start searching for fakes, Google helps surface the fake content because it thinks that the content must be real if lots of people are searching for it.Sorry to spoil Christmas break, but this is the time when malicious players strike. None of this is new, but the stakes are higher at the moment in countries where elections are looming.Happy Christmas… Bah humbug![embedded content] […]

According to the latest Nielsen Radio Survey, Mediacorp is the top audio network in Singapore, with an increased dominance on the airwaves following a significant jump of 8.8% (280,000) in listenership from the last survey to reach 3.7 million people1 weekly. This represents 88% of total adults, with close to 13 hours of engagement recorded weekly. Its free-to-air radio stations also command 85% of the radio market share2, an increase of 5.1% compared to 20203, further improving its lead over its competitors.Mediacorp’s digital radio stations are also leading the pack with more listeners tuning in digitally – a testimony to its efforts to stay ahead of consumer preferences and market needs with a customer-centric, digital-led, multiple platform strategy. Compared to the last survey, the company registered an overall 50% jump in digital listenership, bringing the total to more than 1.5 million listeners, or nine in ten digital listeners1 weekly. The increase in engagement (+ one hour) to nine hours five minutes weekly clearly signals Mediacorp’s ability to attract listeners with the enhanced offerings on its revamped digital service meLISTEN.The findings are based on the latest Nielsen Radio Survey conducted from August to October 2021, which tracked radio listenership via diary recordings by 2028 adults aged 15 and above, with the results weighted by age, sex and race to be representative of the Singapore population.

As the leading radio network, Mediacorp has continued to cement its leading edge by recording improvements in both its reach and share, while taking the majority (eight) of the top 10 spots in the ranking of stations, with the top six being Mediacorp stations. The strength of its network is further supplemented by the fact that the top choice for key audience segments4 is a Mediacorp radio station, and that out of the 14 hours and 14 minutes that listeners spend their time tuning in to Singapore’s radio stations weekly, 12 hours and 48 minutes (90%) were on Mediacorp’s radio stations.Coming in first is LOVE 972 with a record 1,007,000 listeners (24% of weekly listenership), after gaining a survey-high of 158,000 additional listeners. As the number one Chinese radio station in Singapore, it is the first choice for various audience segments, including women aged 15+, as well as Chinese aged 15+, and listeners tuned in for eight hours 54 minutes weekly.Chinese station YES 933 takes a close second with 934,000 listeners (22.3% of weekly listenership), with an increase of 28,000 listeners from the previous survey. The station also recorded the highest jump in audience engagement (+ almost two hours) among all stations surveyed, with listeners tuning in for eight hours and 42 minutes weekly5. It also has the highest reach among the following audience segments: millennials aged between 25 and 34, and PMEBs (professionals, managers, executives and businessmen).CLASS 95 is the reigning top English station in Singapore with 718,000 listeners (17.1% of weekly listenership), who spent an average time of four hours and 39 minutes listening weekly. It is also the prime choice for the premier audience segment.CAPITAL 958, which is fourth with 675,000 listeners (16.1% of weekly listenership) has demonstrated boosts in its performance, having recorded an improvement in audience share (+1.9%), and is the Chinese station with the highest engagement rate, with listeners tuning in for 13 hours 22 minutes weekly5.Top Malay radio station Warna 942 leaps to the fifth spot this year from its previous eighth position, with a noteworthy increase of 35,000 listeners to reach 505,000 listeners (12% of weekly listenership). The station is the favourite station for Malays aged 15+ and topped the chart for its ability to engage its fans who tuned in for 14 hours 55 minutes weekly5, representing an increase of one hour 14 minutes from the last survey2.Coming in sixth is GOLD 905 which noted an increase of 21,000 listeners to hit 494,000 listeners (11.8% of weekly listenership), and an engagement rate of six hours and 10 minutes.The remaining Mediacorp radio stations in the top 10 are: 987, the top station for tertiary students aged 15 to 24, in eighth place with 384,000 listeners (9.2% of weekly listenership), and listeners spending four hours and 26 minutes checking out the latest hits; and Oli 968 in ninth place, clocking in the second-highest increase of 106,000 listeners to reach 330,000 listeners (7.9% of weekly listenership). Oli 968 is also the top choice for Indians aged 15+.Classical music station Symphony 924 has seen an increase of 84,000 listeners (+63%) to 217,000, the third-highest growth, according to this year’s findings. English news station CNA938 too, has increased its reach by 41,000 listeners (+18.9%) to reach 258,000 listeners (6.1% of weekly listenership).On the digital front, Mediacorp’s digital radio network reported a huge 50% jump in listenership year-on-year, bringing the total to more than 1.5 million listeners. This translates to a reach of nine in ten digital listeners, with more than nine hours of weekly engagement. This is a result of the suite of digital offerings Mediacorp has rolled out, such as enhancements to its meLISTEN platform, and ramping up the variety of digital audio content, including podcasts. More recently, Mediacorp also launched indiego, a new digital station featuring the latest indie hits and more homegrown music from local talents, to add to the variety of audio content on meLISTEN.These results corresponds with the uptick in performance for Mediacorp’s digital audio service meLISTEN, which saw a growth of 11% this year in monthly average unique visitors6 to reach 621,900 listeners. In terms of podcast content, downloads spiked 106% to reach a total of 729,100 average downloads monthly7, coupled with a growth of 102,000 monthly average listeners to reach 269,000 listeners as compared to last year7.Mediacorp’s Chief Executive Officer, Tham Loke Kheng said: “Once again, the findings from the latest Nielsen survey reflect our commitment and dedication to engaging our consumers with quality content that they love – both in news and entertainment. We are honoured to be the top radio network in Singapore, with even more listeners tuning in to us on the airwaves and digitally, and heartened to know that we are the top audio choice for all major demographic segments in Singapore, which shows our diversity and ability to connect with different audiences. The strong growth in our digital listenership is also buoyed by our revamped meLISTEN which showcases a stronger lineup of locally-produced audio content and a more enjoyable and user-friendly experience. We hope our fans continue to enjoy these, and support indiego, our newly launched digital station offering the latest indie music.”1The number of listeners aged 15+ in Singapore is estimated at 4.195 million2Market share is measured by the quantity of 15-minutes spots listened across Singapore’s radio stations3Nielsen Radio Diary Wave 2, 2020 (Mon-Sun-Whole Day)4Audience segments include: Male aged 15+, Female aged 15+, Tertiaries aged 15 to 24, Millennials aged 25 to 34, Silvers aged 55+, PMEBS, Premiers with Household Income over $7000, Chinese aged 15+, Malays aged 15+, Indians aged 15+, Parent with Kids (0 to 9 years) 5Time Spent Listening (TSL) is defined as the average amount of time a listener spends listening to a radio station in a weekSource for footnotes 1 – 5 above: Nielsen Radio Survey 2021 (Mon-Sun-Whole Day). In 2021, Mediacorp digital radio stations are calibrated with Triton census-level data. Please use the data with caution when comparing with non-Mediacorp digital radio stations6Apr 2020 to Mar 2021, and Apr 2021 to Dec 2021 (Source: Adobe Analytics)7Apr 2020 to Mar 2021 and Apr 2021 to Dec 2021 (Source: Omnystudio) […]

Content from BPREvery promotional initiative a station decides to employ must fulfil a need or serve to assist in the realisation of a specific aim. Unless this can be clearly defined you must question why you intend doing the promotion. The intended goal or outcome of the promotional activity is the benchmark by which you will judge the success of the promotion. A promotional activity you cannot measure in some way is likely a waste of time and resources.Radio stations often approach a promotional activity, particularly a contest; as a stand-alone event, sometimes completely disconnected to everything around it. The contest will appear out of no-where annoying those listeners not into contests and then disappear following the contest pay-off potentially annoying those listeners who enjoyed listening to or participating in the contest.

When planning a major promotional activity like a contest endeavour to build a narrative that engages the listener and creates some theatre. Promotional activity is generally expensive, so the gaol is to achieve maximum bang-for-buck.  Here are ten dimensions to consider that will assist in maximising the ROI of your promotional activities:
SET UP
The best promotions are those that involve the audience in their creation. Consider ways to involve or create the perception that listeners had an influence in the promotions theme, cause, prizing, rules, twists, or even final judging.
TEASE
Do not reveal everything at once. Have a plan to progressively release more detail and new ideas in the lead up to the promotions launch. Also, one of radio’s great strengths is its ability to stimulate the imagination through “theatre of the mind” take every opportunity to use sound to achieve this.
UNVEIL
Spare no effort in making a big noise and gaining as much exposure as possible for the launch of a promotion. Even a simple cash contest can have an event supporting its launch such as a publicity shoot of a bank manager and guards escorting the money to the radio station. When thinking of launching a promotion consider using famous people, places, and dates.
EXPLAIN
Keep it simple. Sometimes promos with complex production values can be loud and confusing to the average listener. What a listener cannot understand quickly becomes wallpaper or a turn off. A good tip is to produce your promotional announcements then play them to a random group of people in the street. Do not wear station logos. Ask them four questions after you have played them the promos:
What can you win?
What do you have to do to enter or participate?
When is it on or when do you have to listen?
What is the name of the radio station involved and its frequency?
If all the people cannot answer the four questions, go back, and simplify the promos until they can. Never under-estimate the number of listeners who just do not get the message.
POLISH
Introduce some unexpected twists through a promotion to spike awareness. This will renew interest in the promotion and freshen the sound of it on-air.
IMPACT
The culmination of a promotion should be designed for maximum impact. Too many promotions “fizzle” rather than “sizzle” at their conclusion. This is often because the staff at the station has become tired of the work involved in executing it and cannot wait for the promotion to finish. To ensure this does not happen plan a spectacular finale. Think about holding a staff meeting the night before the promotion finale to wind up staff energy and enthusiasm.
OWNERSHIP
A promotion worth doing should be a promotion worth owning. Make the name and every element of the promotion as proprietary to the station as possible. Things to consider include:
Register the promotion’s name and any possible trademarks.
Secure exclusive contracts with any key suppliers or partners.
Place the station brand in all marketing materials and at every point of contact with the public.
Devote a special section on your app/website/socials to the promotion and any winners.
Run promos highlighting the winners and/or whatever the result of the promotion was.
Run promos thanking the stations listeners for their participation and/or support.
Remember that you only have one opportunity to make a first impression.

EXTENSION
Having gone to all the effort and commitment involved in setting up and running a major promotion, consider what opportunities exist to keep the awareness momentum going in the form of a spin-off promotion or new benchmark.
SPREAD THE LOVE.
The trouble with a promotion that has a single winner is that you also create a lot of losers. Look at every opportunity to recognise, reward and thank everyone who participates or attends.
MEASURE, LEARN, REFRESH.
Every promotional activity should be an opportunity to add to what you know about stimulating and engaging with your listeners. Research it, identify where it moved the needle and fold-in the new insight to make your next promotional activity more successful.And finally, never forget about the listeners who may not be interested in your promotional activity or prize. Generally, this will be the majority of your cume.  What-ever you do, make it entertaining to the casual listener and not just about a prize.By Wayne Clouten, BPR […]