How do you market when there are so many music formats? That’s what Chris Stevens founder of Chris Country, Mark Vossen CEO of NGroup and Petra Piipari Programme manager of Hitmix were here to answer.
Mark Voseen talked about strategy with a big focus on sustainability. NGroup has been carbon neutral since 2014 and achieves courageous sustainability goals. He hopes other radio stations will take suit. When he began NGroup radio was at the centre of th brand – now it is brands which includes on air and digital. The programming has to reflect their values and they make business and creative decisions around it. Even when we create nostalgic programming it can still be fresh and exciting – it needs to be to capture your audience.
Petra Piipari says that passion is key in music programming. Music needs to resonate and it will create a passionate response in its audience. You need presenters that stand with your brand and can embody it . Another takeaway – don’t forget about the people in small towns even if your radio comes out of the capital city.
Chris Stevens created Chris Country without a desire for it to have an audience, he just loved country but it turned out it was a niche that lots of people wanted.The station grew in an uncaptured market. Recently Bauer and Global announced their own country stations but Chris has kept his brand true and in the pandemic total listening went up by 45%. Working from home means specialist stations have the room to grow as people have choice over what they listen to.
The word that kept coming up was passion. If your station has it then your listeners will too.
Written by: Meg Long and Gonçalo Borbinha
