A few days ago I wrote a post inspired by Orion Media’s decision to rebrand their stations in the English Midlands. My central point was that big gestures are increasingly necessary to make a difference.

Now, here’s another example of big, unmissable change in radio.

On India’s highly commoditised, highly competitive FM dial, radio stations slug it out for market share playing largely an identical mix of Bollywood-infused hits and gossipy celebrity news.

As Indian producer and consultant Jardin Lobo explained in a recent edition of the Earshot Creative Review, segmentation has come slowly to the market. Most stations still sound the same.

Why? Well would you want to be the first to shift your positioning off the most popular and lucrative high ground?

Of course not, but it’s inevitable in a maturing market and those who move early with a plan are more likely to be in control of their destiny than those who sit and wait.

Focus is a natural characteristic of market development and is necessary for radio as a whole to maximise revenues and for listeners to enjoy the benefits of choice.

But turning your focus away from any section of your audience is tough. Radio listeners are so close to their favourite stations that a segmentation excercise is like nominating favourite children.

Now, one station in India is embarking on this difficult journey with a language switch and a live music initiative.

Yes, 94.3 Radio One has switched from Hindi to English language in Delhi and Mumbai while building a reputation for its live concerts through a series of events called Live Works.

The concerts deliver the visibility that drives awareness, recall and trial of Radio One and they generate an additional revenue stream through co-branding with a sponsor and ticket sales.

Cleverly, they also define Radio One’s more distinctive music positioning at a time of change, attracting new listeners who are guaranteed to be in the centre of its new target.

Managing Director Vineet Singh Hukmani (pictured) believes now is the right time to focus and specialise:

It’s too early to know what difference this will make to Radio One’s performance, but it’s another example of radio stations taking giant steps to define the shape of the future market.

Disclosure: I am contracted to the BBC which holds a minority stake in Radio One, India through its commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide Ltd. Views expressed are personal.

Simon Rushton, Jardin Lobo and Tim Johns. They never actually met.

Recorded at the height of London’s recent Indian Summer heatwave this podcast brings together radio creatives from India, Kenya and the rural British county of Lincolnshire.

You’ll hear Jardin Lobo explain how spot advertising and live talk-ups work on Indian FM stations and get a wider sense of the changing nature of radio in that huge country. You’ll also hear Gillard award-winning producer Tim Johns from BBC Radio Lincolnshire play his promos and show production. Together Jardin and Tim compare their work and generally try to keep a conversation going over a flaky Skype connection.

Also this time, Nairobi-based radio advertising consultant Simon Rushton says we should always prioritise effective advertising over creative advertising and he explains how to do it. On a beach.

Get the audio

Play the audio here: Duration 43’12″

Download audio file (ecr_october2011.mp3)

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Subscribe to the Earshot Creative Review via iTunes.

Photographs from our beach location in Sierra Leone

Credits

Imaging by Wizz FX, beds by Radiobeds, sponsorship by Hobsons. Indian music is Haratanaya See by Veena Kinhal. Used under Public Domain licence. The beach relaxation music we knocked up in 15 minutes on Reason. It’s not available in the shops.

Next time

The evolution of Capital FM’s imaging with Chris Nicol and writer, voiceover and producer Helen Quigley on the appeal of shifting from television to radio creative.

Views expressed are personal. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purposes of education and review.

In 2006 I was invited to speak to a gathering of advertising agencies and radio people in Mumbai. As the new private Indian FM radio networks were getting established they wanted to talk about creativity in radio, managing listener attention and other aspects of promotion.

Among the things I didn’t expect was the quite delightful way with which I was treated. Indeed, the level of respect, scrutiny and attention was a little unnerving with people noting down carefully my every word. Then the press queued up for interviews. The journalist from the Hindustan Times seemed particularly anxious to get my personal view of everything I’d experienced in Mumbai from the radio scene to the nightclubs to the hotel food. Talking about radio may be my meat and potatoes but that doesn’t mean I have a view on the Alloo Gosht.

In Indian radio no cross-ownership is permitted with the result that the main networks fight largely over prime territory in the mass market centre ground. They have to find qualities beyond their playlists to distinguish themselves in the minds of the consumer. On-air personalities, talkable promotions activity and brand attitude all become very important.

Radio One 94.3 is one such network. Its CEO Vineet Singh Hukmani sums up his station’s brand as being for “the fataafat generation”, meaning “quick and convenient”. Says Vineet, “todays Indian 24 year old wants everything fataafat…be it love, money, fame, justice… they want it quick and convenient”.

And here’s how that looks set to music:

This track and video was released unbranded to all the prime music television channels where it gained popular airplay, and radio where some of Radio One’s competitors even scheduled it. Now this branded version is spreading virally before a full-blown television, cinema and on-air campaign breaks, all to mark Radio One’s extension in to a seventh urban conurbation, Kolkata.

I love the way Radio One is confidently doing its own thing in this promotion. It’s not hitching itself to an established celebrity but instead created its own house band “Neo” (Neo = One, geddit?). Radio One owns the band, owns the song and now it owns the attitude.

Even two years ago the self-confidence of India’s new radio industry was very clear to me. It wanted to learn from others’ experiences but then proudly build its stations on its own terms. And so it has. It’s high time I went back, this time to learn from them.

What properties does your station truly own? What attitude does your brand convey? What do you do to help people think of your station when they’re not listening to it?

Sorry, I came over a bit Mark Ramsey there.