RADIO CAMPAIGNS THAT RULED THE 2019 AIRWAVES

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In a year that saw the media and advertising industry grapple with numerous challenges such as the economic slowdown and a muted festive season, three Radio players recount the campaigns that paid off well for them in terms of reach, brand-building and listenership in 2019

RED FM
RED FM, with its continued focus on content over music has constantly been pushing the envelope with innovation, creativity and a clear focus on community building. Here are the top three campaign picks from Nisha Narayanan, COO and Director, RED FM and Magic FM.

PAANI YAAD DILA DENGE

The whole campaign idea was to sensitize people about saving water and getting into groundwater harvesting. Speaking of the campaign’s outcome, Narayanan points out, “We’ve had excellent support from authorities and corporations as well a lot of people who reached out to us in the whole state. This was also a countdown that made people aware of the few days we had in hand before we ran out of groundwater.” Narayanan is of strong belief that sensitizing people about such concerns is crucial and that radio works as a great medium to convey social messages.

RED INDIES DEBUT

Red Indies, the sub-brand launched under RED FM as a language agnostic platform used to promote independent artists, has done extremely well for the station in 2019. “We have done South Side story under the Red Indies banner and the ‘Indie Hain Hum’, which is a 13 episode series. We’re doing the Yellow Taxi Music Festival again to focus on building communities. The Red Indies debut, for instance, is a platform which lets people debut their own song every week and has generated a goodwill response, which has been excellent,” explains Narayanan.

The whole campaign idea was to sensitize people about saving water and getting into groundwater harvesting. Speaking of the campaign’s outcome, Narayanan points out, “We’ve had excellent support from authorities and corporations as well a lot of people who reached out to us in the whole state. This was also a countdown that made people aware of the few days we had in hand before we ran out of groundwater.” Narayanan is of strong belief that sensitizing people about such concerns is crucial and that radio works as a great medium to convey social messages.

AB WATAN DABAYEGA BUTTON

Another successful campaign for the station is its partnership with the Election Commission of India, through which it urged people to come in and vote. “We got excellent stories from some villages, which didn’t have the luxury of electricity or water for years and managed to reach out to them and make authorities aware of their problems. We sent a bus, since the locals were not keen on voting due to the administrative inadequacies they faced. This happened in Allahabad, but we had similar cases in all our markets, since this was a national idea”, adds Narayanan.

RADIO CITY
Radio City has always been at the forefront of creating awareness about social and civic issues across Indian cities. Being true to its brand philosophy of ‘Rag Rag Mein Daude City’, Radio City has sought to bring in a positive change in society through these campaigns in the year 2019.

GADDHAPEHELWAN

Rolled out in UP, Delhi, Patna and Ranchi, the campaign addressed the issue of potholes during the monsoon, where UP citizens notified the Radio City team about the biggest potholes in their localities. “Our team, along with the local authorities painted potholes as ‘pehelwans’ to spread the message of ‘City ka Har Gaddha Pehelwan Hoga Sammanit”, said Kartik Kalla, Chief Creative Officer, Radio City
Radio City painted 150 potholes and repaired over 50 potholes by garnering a 12.3 million digital reach through this campaign. The activity was also amplified in other cities, with a message of ‘Monsoon meharbaan toh Gaddha Pehalwan’
The campaign was also supported by international ‘pehelwans’ like Asian games Gold medallist, Bajrang Punia and The Great Khali, who urged citizens on camera to post a picture of potholes.

THE RADIO CITY KAVACH STORY IN MUMBAI

Radio City under its ‘Kar Mumbaikar’ initiative partnered with NGO Kavach, headed by its CEO, Bharati Trivedi, to spread awareness about health and hygiene amongst pre-teen girls and boys in Mumbai. The Radio City team along with the NGO, visited multiple institutions in Mumbai and conducted counselling workshops for underprivileged kids, on the importance of personal hygiene. Aimed at busting myths around topics like sexual wellbeing, menstruation, and basic hygiene both on air on and off air, the station along with the NGO distributed the ‘Radio City Kavach Kit’, with hygiene essentials. The campaign got support from the Bollywood fraternity and witnessed donations and support pouring in from the Mumbai city. “One of the highlights of the campaign was the donation from a 13-year-old child, acquaintance to a renowned musician, who chose to donate the money to this noble cause instead of having a lavish birthday party,” Kalla states.

BHANGAAR CHE ACTIVITY IN BARODA

Radio City initiated a campaign on World Environment Day that encouraged recycling of e-waste and urged listeners to do their bit by donating scrap to create a gigantic structure of the radio, using the e-waste. Thus was born Gujarat’s first and only radio sculpture at Baroda’s prominent traffic signal, later named ‘Radio City Circle.’ The station invited listeners to paint the installed structure and distributed saplings around the city to encourage citizens to work towards conservation and sustainability. The activity was amplified by adopting a 360-degree approach, with on-air, on-ground, and digital activities across the city.

BIG FM
With a clear focus on brand-building in 2019, here’s a look at BIG FM’s top three campaigns.
Dhun Badal Ke Toh Dekho with Vidya Balan

This multimedia campaign also happens to be BIG FM’s positioning for over a year now and means ‘change starts with you’. Sunil Kumaran, Country Head – Product, Marketing and Thwink BIG, BIG FM believes that bringing about a change in society needs to start at an individual level and that BIG FM stimulates thinking by giving different perspectives on any topic. “We signed on actor Vidya Balan as the ambassador and picked up about 24 hot button topics that we need to talk about in India. We presented that across Radio, which was the primary medium, but also on all platforms where audiences were available,” said Kumaran. The campaign brought to the forefront social issues like mental health, body shaming, and child abuse, among others and had experts and celebrities who have actually endured the same coming in and talking to Vidya Balan, with listeners contributing topics for discussion.
While the campaign objective was primarily to build brand BIG FM on Radio, its impact was felt across other platforms like 9XM, Universal Music India and also on Republic. “Vidya Balan sang a rap song around relevant topics and by the end of the campaign we were one of the leading stations in Mumbai for the morning and evening drive time show. We’re currently number one and a large part of that is because of this campaign,” said Kumaran.

BIG Mahalaya

The Kolkata festival Mahalaya, marking the arrival of Goddess Durga typically includes celebration through the recital of scriptures around the idol. As tradition would have it since 1932, the festival usually took off by listening to the narration of scriptures by radio broadcaster Birendra Krishna Bhadra. This year, however, Kumaran says, “For the first time in history, we had a lady, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta who narrated the scriptures which we recorded for 40 minutes. This broke the age old tradition of the narration, which had only been done by a male before.”
Through this campaign, the radio station drove home the importance of inclusivity and breaking stereotypes, and received a stupendous response. “Breaking stereotypes is one of the biggest pillars of brand-building for us. This again gave us a very good response in terms of people participation, listenership and our channel became the number one channel post that, in Kolkata”, added Kumaran.

DILLI KE DHAAKAD

The Dilli Ke Dhaakad campaign, another one aimed at brand-building, picked upon the issue of women’s safety. The BIG FM RJs went on field visits around Delhi, talking to people and patrolling in the night to understand the real issues that made Delhi unsafe for women. “We didn’t make sweeping statements about unsafe places, but detailed the things that we needed to do in that specific area, to help improve safety for women,” said Kumaran.
Open air drinking was identified as an issue threatening women safety, since the places were located around women’s hostels and the metro stations. “We got to the extent of getting these ‘thekas’ removed and also went back after a month to ensure that the change was permanent,” explains Kumaran. The campaign resonated well with the audiences in Delhi and saw participation from the Deputy Chief Minister and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who came on air and spoke about BIG FM’s achievements throughout the campaign, driving it to a number two position on the morning drive show.