Do you know how to create marketing-wise and audience-driven radio content? The session “Research insights and market intelligence that give you an edge” managed to break down facts, strategies, tools and little bit of…myths and reality in an interestingly intelligent, fun and eye-opening way.
Francis Currie, International Radio & Audio Consultant, welcomed the first speaker, Sheng Song (Research Consultant), who broke down myths about radio, counting on ancient greek myths, since Radiodays Europe is taking place in the country, where myths were born. In general, as recent research has shown, there is a significant decrease in time spent listening to radio globally, while other research projects have proved the surprising striking effect that radio and its advertising content have on listeners.
Myth has it, though, that radio doesn’t grab attention. Guess what…that’s not true! According to the myth referring to Sirens, voice has the ability to enchant people and that is exactly what radio achieves. Radio is an attention magnet by using contrasts with different voices and noises. On the other hand, it is believed that people need to see a product in order to buy it, making radio seemingly a market unable to persuade listeners to buy a product. However, when it comes to the myth of Tiresias, who was condemned to lose sight but have a clear voice, it is shown that there is no need to see the product in order to buy it, but to provoke pictures of it and experience it through real noises produced by the specific product. Closing his presentation, Sheng broke down the myth saying that radio doesn’t work for brand building, while the reality has shown the opposite. Indeed, radio is the perfect medium to build a brand at a lighting speed, with cut through messages and a compelling, simple and easy to keep up with storytelling .
Next on stage was Mikkel Lønstrup, the CEO of Radioanalyzer, with the presentation named “Remember to Brie radio”. Don’t worry…it didn’t have to do with cheese, but certainly with remembering what radio is truly about and what it needs to be for listeners. It seems that radio needs to be more like a friend to the listener, a good, trustworthy and helpful company. Mikkel also addressed another matter, concerning the fact that radio research has always been one-sided, based mostly on music without concentrating on the content itself, ideas and objective. In order to make research more inclusive, a market scan is needed, using numbers and percentages for every kind of content, while also applying a “pay off” tactic, meaning a more listener-oriented one.
Closing that session, Kåre V. Poulsen, Manager, addressed the utility of AI in media. In this day and age of AI immersed into every form of mass communication, it is essential for him to bring matters of transparency, bias, rights, hallucinations and job to the forefront and, mostly, matters of de-regulations and trust in the public broadcasting media and the people involved in the process.
