It’s the time of year media businesses have been waiting for: come Friday, the 8th of October, and the first of the nine Navratras which mark the Navratri festival will see the festive season well and truly underway. This is the time of year for creative, marketing and selling initiatives for greater awareness, stickiness and revenues. In a season series beginning today, RadioAndMusic.com brings you a glimpse of all the initiatives the Radio Industry will unleash this Navratri.
We begin with the plans of BIG 92.7 FM, the network which, from a physical presence in 45 cities, claims to reach 20 million people across 1200 cities and towns in India.
Shikha Shah and Pavan R Chawla spoke with Soumen G. Choudhury, Business Head, Big FM, who believes localization of the festive celebrations is BIG’s key differentiator.
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Navratri is all about religious fervour through music and dance. What is your strategy to attract the maximum listeners? What are the programming specials that you have planned to be able to co-opt the on-ground fun, celebration and masti from the Navratri pandals?
This, the third quarter of the year, is the festive quarter when people are happy and euphoric, and as always, we will try to reach, engage and enrich listeners through the power of relevant ideas across our multi-media platforms. Hence, we create customized entertainment properties that go with the spirit of the season, creating larger-than-life entertainment and excitement for our consumers.
We have conceptualized â€?Navratri Ke Nav Ratna’, which will touch upon nine things that one must know during the Navratri festival. These include Navratri special attire or style, places to go shopping for Navratri, Navratri special make-up and accessories, dance steps, fitness tips to get you going through the nine nights, Navratri special songs, happening Navratri pandals in town and a chance to win something pertaining to all of the above.
To which cities and how will you extend this programming?
While I just listed the Programming pegs, the cities we will cover these in are Mumbai, Sholapur, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Indore, Gwalior, Bhopal, Kanpur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Kota and Bikaner.
In Kolkata, especially, these nine days should be a massive opportunity. What are your special plans for the city?
In Kolkata, our station will have a papier-m??ch?© â€?Green Durga’. This is an idol of Goddess Durga, made from newspapers collected from the people of the city. Households across the city are being mapped — with each household donating just one newspaper — making them part of the green cause.
We believe our idea is different as everyone knows the importance of going green, but does not know how to participate and contribute. Through this initiative, BIG FM is giving them an opportunity to make a difference, while creating awareness at the same time.
What are your promotional plans during Navratri, especially for the listeners. What B2C magnet will your programming have?
We have several plans. For listeners, we will have Disha Bhabhi, the famous character of the TV series Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma on our stations, sharing her knowledge and tips about Navratri. And apart from popular dandiya dance music and garba mixes as part of the â€?BIG 30 Countdown’ between 7 pm and 9 pm, we will have two significant offerings that should appeal strongly to all during Navratri: with the help of BIG’s Jammu station, we shall air the live aarti from Vaishno Devi temple during the festival period. There will also be the popular â€?Aambe Ma’ aarti from Gujarat. And simple things like time checks will be altered and replaced by special time checks in the evening related to getting ready for the Navratri evening with aspects such as clothes, make up or food.
How do you plan to market BIG’s Navratri offerings?
We’ll be indulging in fun activities. BIG 92.7 FM will give out 927 passes in each of the relevant cities for entry to some of the best Navratri mandals. To ensure our listeners look their best, we will give away coupons for makeovers. Also, coupons of food joints that serve Gujarati food; and passes to dance schools that teach the latest Navartri moves can be won by our listeners.
A float based road-show is being organised for all nine days during which we will invite people to come and dance. A dance troupe of four people will be present on-stage to dance with the crowd and too keep the spirits high. The ultimate gratification would be passes to the biggest â€?Dandiya Nights’ in the city.
Any unique promotional plans?
We have a digital plan in place where we will give the listeners an opportunity to play Dandiya with their favourite RJ online These will be flash web banners where users can choose their favourite Big FM RJ and play Dandiya online. A message will be displayed saying: â€?To continue the fun tune into Big 92.7 FM, this Navratras!’
What are your special offerings during Navratri for ad sales? What special properties have you developed to help local businesses and regional/national brands strengthen their businesses through advertising with you?
This entire plan will ensure optimal returns for any advertiser. Reliance Broadcast Network is a multi-media entity and we will offer this to our clients. We will hence see all our business verticals coming into play to ensure our clients gain optimal benefit. The radio property will hence be amplified across on ground, outdoor and online.
Traditionally, how does Navratri impact advertising on radio in general, and on your network in particular?
Well, it is not Navratri alone, but the festive quarter, which is good for business.
Often, media businesses use such festive, entertainment-driven events for B2B promotion too.
How are you doing this for and during the Navratri festival?
We are reaching out through e-mailers, SMS push, interactive flyers and more.
On the whole, what will be the key differentiators that will make your network stand out during the entire festival?
We spread and take our entertainment across 13 key relevant markets. Localization of the festive celebrations is our key differentiator. For instance in Chennai, they will have the golu, which is the decoration of a doll. So each region is really different and unique in itself. We will not replicate a common Navratri template across the cities.
(Tomorrow, RnM Navratri Series will feature the plans of Radio One)
