One of the biggest trends emerging in 2012is radio’s continuing power to start, maintain and grow conversations. Because of its immediacy, it remains one of the best mass-reach media to boost awareness of brand presence on new media platforms. Bid or Buy, kulula.com & Gumtree.co.za are just some of the big brands taking advantage of this and singing radio’s praises as a result…
“Online brands have the benefit of being able to answer that old ‘Does advertising work?’ adage as they can effectively measure traffic to their sites and drill down into very specific detail such as hourly, daily and weekly hits.This is great because it enables us to monitor the direct effect of all our advertising and use this information to inform future strategies and plans. Radio has been working exceptionally well for Gumtree.
Take our recent Gumtree campaign on 5FM for example;the campaign was incredibly successful for us, indicating that the media choice was spot on. Good media alone cannot drive sales, however. It’s a combination of the media selection and the creative element that contributes to the success of any campaign. Our client wants traffic to his site, the currency in the online world is audience, and 5FM helped deliver and drive this for us”.
Anne Dearnaly, Page 3 Media Managing Director – for Gumtree
“For a brand like ours that doesn’t have the luxury of a huge media budget, we don’t believe that integrated is flavour of the month. Radio is great for expressing humor and there’s always a call to action – all great ingredients because we can always tie this in beautifully with the overall campaign idea and our objectives.
Listeners have told us anecdotally that they love hearing our ads so we not only have a commercial responsibility in using radio, but also a responsibility to lovers of the brand to be funny in a sophisticated way. We’ve always been a champion for the people and really encourage our agency, King James to help us continuously push the envelope in terms of offerings”.
Heidi Brauer, Executive Manager: Group Marketing & Loyalty Comair-kulula, BA, SLOW
“Radio is the most targeted channel in terms of our campaign message as most motorists listen to the radio while driving.
It is therefore the key message driver for our campaign in terms of building awareness around the message we’re trying to convey i.e. promoting safer, friendlier driving.
Additionally, radio presenters have established relationships with their listeners and are often proactive online in a social sense, so it is this interactivity that we find highly useful in creating discussions around our roads and driving behaviour.
Radio’s helping us work towards achieving awareness and to drive pledges and engagement around a topic that should be close to all radio listeners’ hearts”.
Niki Cronje, Imperial Holdings (IPledge campaign)
“From an online campaign point of view, our aim is to attract as many potential users to the website as possible, with a view to converting them into registered transacting users, at as little a cost as possible.
The general public is rather cautious when it comes to online businesses especially when purchasing products online. We therefore use radio mostly to create that brand awareness and to remain top of mind when users go online to look for products to purchase or research.
We believe it helps in re-affirming the authenticity of an online brand when users need to make the decision to click on a link or visit your website directly.
That said, I believe that radio stations have a responsibility to educate the general public around online businesses, benefits and possible risk areas. Radio stations have a very powerful influence on listeners and asmore and more people access the Internet via their mobile phones or tablets, tech programmes on radio, featuring regular industry experts could go a long way in educating them on what’s on offer.
Jaco Jonker, Managing Director, Bid or Buy
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