Radio is one of the most fascinating forms of entertainment, although there are many glamorous forms of listening media. Radio channels can bring potential information to the masses via radio. Since the government has provided licenses, private radio stations have been in the lead.

The emergence of private players has revolutionized the entire private sector. Now, this sector of entertainment has monopolized the business model. With the rapid uptake of digital media consumption, it is important for any business to choose a digital medium as a source of revenue and brand awareness.

The erstwhile digital early adopters—those who consumed data prior to the massive fall in data prices in 2016—were a fairly homogeneous group. Broadband subscribers today are much larger and more diverse.

It reaches over 69 million listeners in 34 cities. Its network provides terrestrial networking through its digital interface. While the pandemic led to an obvious drop in ad volumes in the medium, things are slowly on the path to recovery. If recent data from TAM is to be believed, after a 27% drop in radio ad volumes in 2020, there was a 29% year-on-year growth in 2021.

The Changing Environment

Despite being one of the oldest mediums, radio has stood the test of time. Apart from the fact that it has a massive reach in the country, it still remains one of the most trusted mediums. Over the past few years, most of the major FM players have gone digital because, at the end of the day, it is all about evolving with consumer needs and giving them exactly what they want.

During the last two years of the pandemic, when the internet was full of misinformation and fake news, the radio came to play a critical role—that of a trusted source of information. “In addition to bringing people closer during the lockdown, it also built a community that thrived on shared togetherness and positive influence.”

As ways of entertainment are evolving, the growth of various FM is on the rise too, which creates competition amongst them. It is not easy for an FM channel to keep the audience hooked on the stations, as it is easy for listeners to switch to different channels.

RJ plays a pivotal role in the making of the station; they are the voice of the channel, the way they interact with their listeners, and how often that is done. It determines their awareness of the digital space they are in.

To create good engagement with the listeners, stations need to run campaigns with various hashtags. This results in better reach, which requires the support of analytics and good insight into the data.

Radio stations run campaigns in association with sponsors for better reach. All these engagements require solid analytics and data to be promoted. The radio segment is likely to grow at a CAGR of 10.1 over the next five years, and the key technological endeavors aim to enhance customer engagement.

Konnect Insights provides an omnichannel experience and brings all the critical data together.

Objectives

The core objective of the radio station is to gain popularity, and through leadership, they can exceed the limitation of being known.

Hence, it is necessary to create brand awareness and analyze the competitors to ensure they know what people are talking about their brand and to ignite interest in liking their brand pages.

Also, understanding metrics on how each RJ is performing on their individual page, how many followers they have, and engagement are critical pieces of information for a station to know and make strategies out of.

Talking about why radio continues to be a powerful advertising medium Radio as a medium, at one end of the spectrum, works as a last-mile reminder medium, and at the other end, helps the marketers reach the target audiences in the media dark areas, where electricity or literacy can be a challenge.

The privatization of radio in 2001 opened a lot of opportunities for marketers—large and small. For large marketers, radio helps to build frequency and hyper-local targeting. For retailers, it is a cost-effective medium that helps them reach their audience with the least amount of spillover.

Radio stations run shows for the giveaway and also broadcast music shows that gain huge engagement from social media, so posting these shows online attracts followers for whom structured data needs to be there.

A shift in the digital age brought tremendous competition in all media, and to be head of the curve, every brand needs to be in line with current trends. To decipher the complex reporting requires a unified platform, which Konnect Insights offers.

As a medium, radio has huge potential. It is an interactive medium that holds its listeners’ attention by offering socially-viable content and enhanced on-air properties.

The medium’s digital platforms have become another consumer touchpoint. Moreover, most radio stations have powerful influencers in their RJs who have been able to build a deep connection with their listeners on various social media platforms, making them strong voices in the industry.

What role does Konnect Insights play?

The role of Konnect Insights comes into the picture when there are complex data metrics and we can further reduce them to simple ones, to have a clear picture of how our brand is performing and to work towards it.

Social listening basically provides data to understand what people are talking about your brand, from which we can analyze and monitor the media performance. The city-wise dashboard helps in gathering the data in terms of the performance metrics month-on-month.

And in the comparative analysis, they can gauge the brand’s performance with the help of their social channels, and being in sync with the competition means a brand can truly perform and be on foot. Campaign management is the primary driver for a radio station, and in Konnect Insights we can get the data on how the multiple campaigns are performing.

To get valuable insights, a brand needs to invest in a social media strategy and to get the right results, Konnect Insights comes to the aid, which is a centralized tool for the key metrics.