The Hindu Business Line : Radio gaga

Radio is a promising medium of advertising as borne out in the Australian experience but India is far behind in its exploitation of it, says Steve Ahern.

There is a re-energisation of the industry here because of new licences and networks opening up competition.

STEVE AHERN, Head of Radio, Australian Film Television and Radio School. — G. R. N. Somashekar

Lounging by the poolside, a sleek portable radio set in hand and earplugs in place, Steve Ahern was all set for his photo shoot. Not that he is any movie or rock star, but Ahern seemed keen on enjoying all the attention, given that he has spent all his life with a medium where the face doesn't really matter. Catch up with him after the shoot and Ahern, Head of Radio, Australian Film Television and Radio School, discusses - in an unmistakable Aussie accent - what he strongly believes in: the power of the radio.

So, what makes radio relevant even today? And what makes Ahern so passionate about this medium? "It's the strength of that personal relationship with the radio ... You wake up in the morning in your bedroom, the most intimate friend is probably the radio on the clock ... there is radio in the kitchen while having breakfast - there are not many other personal friends you invite into the kitchen; and then there is radio also in the car as you are travelling," says Ahern, who was in Bangalore recently for a seminar `Radio Rocks,' organised by Radio City.

Radio advertising

As a medium of advertising, its potential is tremendous. "One of the big powers of radio is to be able to sell and also bring great comfort and warmth to people's lives. I have been told that in India, two per cent of the total advertising pie is being spent on radio. Australian commercial radio gets 9 per cent of the total adspend. Clearly, there is huge growth to be had," he says.

McDonald's is a company that understands how to use the radio, vouches Ahern, who has been in the radio industry for over 20 years, including a stint with ABC. "It has fabulous point-of-sale recognition with its big M and outdoor billboards usually within five minutes' drive of McDonald's. You see them everywhere," says Ahern, shaking his head vigorously.

"What McDonald's has done to complement its outdoor, TV and print strategy is to place ads around breakfast time, morning teatime and lunchtime on the radio. So, at 9 a.m. or quarter to nine, on my way to work, most days actually, I hear the ad — `On the way to work, grab a cup of coffee on the go at McDonald's.' On weekends, when I am driving with my wife and kids, the same message is aired at around lunchtime, and the kids say, `Dad, can we go to McDonald's?' So, even though I am outside the range of the billboard, they (advertisers) know that when I get near McDonald's, the radio ad will ignite my taste buds."

He continues: "Recent research has shown that if advertisers who hadn't advertised on radio for a campaign took a little bit of money out of television and put it into radio, they got between 6 and 22 per cent increase in brand awareness."

Ahern says media campaigns across several media, including radio, is extremely beneficial for advertisers. In Australia, some years ago, banks were seen as very old-fashioned and very conservative with very limited hours. They opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 3 p.m. Then Commonwealth Bank ran a campaign spanning several media to communicate that it was updating itself and entering a new era. "On radio, it was a very simple device. They made a very short ad and booked it for 9 p.m. It was the last ad played in the ad-breaks going up to the 9 o' clock news. It simply said - it's 9 o' clock and the Commonwealth Bank is now open for business. That was a powerful message that, unlike all the other boring banks that were only open till 3, Commonwealth is a forward-looking bank that's open extra hours when one wants and its convenient."

The Australian model

Radio is a huge hit in Australia given that the Aussies aren't such great consumers of television programming. "In our country, the tradition of consuming immediate breaking news is still through radio. Usually people in Australia consume news and information programming at breakfast. That's the most heavy consumption of that format; the next heaviest is while driving home and during the weekend, especially of sports news."

In Australia, a mass of commercial, non-commercial and community radio stations entertain and inform people. There is the Australian Radio Network, a consortium of a locally owned and an American-owned company, Austereo, a publicly listed Australian company with two stations, the Daily Mail Group, a British company which owns two stations, and ABC, a government radio network.

Challenges from other media and the need to sort out regulatory issues with the government prompted the creation of an umbrella body called Commercial Radio Australia (CRA). "CRA pitches the benefits of radio to advertisers and to the industry at large and speaks with a united voice as an industry body," says Ahern. One of the reasons radio is successful in Australia has been this body. "If radio as an industry works together and keeps the hype up, even though each station is very competitive with each other, the whole industry grows."

The Indian radio industry

Where does Ahern see the Indian radio industry going? "Your radio sector is growing, you've got all the energy and hype, businesses want to find out how to jump onto the bandwagon and put their ads on this medium and make them sound as good as possible and achieve what they want to. There will be a lot of people who will want to work in radio, and there will be job opportunities created." He believes Indian radio is at the stage where Australian radio was 30 years ago. "There is a re-energisation of the industry here because of new licences and networks opening up competition."

"If you ask if what happened to Australian radio in the last 30 years is a model of what might happen over the next five to 10 years in India, the answer is yes. There was an evolution of programme formats, there was a buzz, and kids came back to radio. I can see it happening here too. People are putting radio in autorickshaws here. You know radio is coming back when this is happening."

Good formats will always drive radio's success, but technology may drive the way consumers listen to radio. Radio is reinventing itself by finding a presence in portable devices such as phones, iPods and PDAs, triggering multi-platform development. "Globally, this is the biggest trend. Listening to radio not only in the radio but also in every consumer device. Everybody is looking at repurposing and repackaging core strengths onto as many platforms as possible," explains Ahern.

Looking ahead, Ahern believes one of the challenges lies in communicating to advertisers the benefits of radio as an advertising medium. "Another challenge is to be able to speak as an industry collectively to the government, the advertisers and the listeners to give the message that radio is exciting again, but at the same time be fiercely competitive in one's own sector of the market."

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