Rahul Gupta, is one man who would know small towns and big media companies. He has done his schooling from Kanpur and graduation from the UK, Rahul worked in the newspaper markets of the UK and Ireland and then pursued an MBA from Lancaster University Management School. Post his MBA, Rahul worked with a start-up involved in Corporate Social Responsibility and "The Independent" in London. After garnering international experience, Rahul is now in-charge of the radio division of the Jagran Group Radio Mantra.

As director of Radio Mantra, he tells us about operations in small towns, content differentiation, growth, marketing strategy and bundling n barters at Mantra.

Q. In how many towns have you started operating?
A. We have started operations in four cities. We currently cover two cities in Haryana Hisar and Karnal; one in Punjab Jalandhar; and one in U.P. - Bareilly. We have licenses for stations in Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Ranchi and these will roll out by June 2007.

Q. How different is a station from a small town, different from that in a city?
A. Small towns are virgin markets for private radio. In a way, radio for them was long gone and forgotten. We being the pioneers in these markets have the onus of bringing back radio into their lives. While metro's today are what i would like to call evolved radio markets where a lot more can be done in radio and a lot more is accepted (e.g. niche programming, talk radio etc.), in the virgin markets, the focus would primarily be on programming for the masses and catering to different audiences using day-parts.

While metros have prime-time and non-prime times, the listenership pattern in smaller cities is expected to be more-or-less stable. The paucity of electricity supply and entertainment options is going to be a massive boost to listenership in these cities.

Q. Are you going to project yourself as a regional radio station or will you go into bigger cities?
A. To start with, our objective is to maximise our coverage in the Jagran Domain. After covering the domain, we would be looking at expanding our presence both nationally and internationally.

Q. What do you mean by unlimited engagement? How do you plan to do that?
Unlimited engagement for me is mantratainment! It is unlimited fun, entertainment and interactivity. Radio Mantra has an added advantage over all its competitors while others base their programming solely on research, we base it on extensive research augmented with the tremendous experience garnered serving these markets for years with the leading daily Dainik Jagran.

It is easier for us to connect with the local pulse of the community and engage our audience providing them the best of music and content. The music and content are both relevant to the city while maintaining an aspirational value for the listeners and advertisers.

Q. What kinds of programming will your station in these Hindi-speaking places? Will it be Hindi film music only or more?
A. The programming of the station would be very similar to any other Hindi-speaking place, like that of Delhi. Although the core music of the station would be Bollywood-centric, the peripheral values would be added with non-bolly, region-specific music depending on the taste and demand of the city.

Q. Being in all Hindi-speaking places, does it allow you to share content and do common marketing?
A. Radio by its very virtue is a local medium and it is very important to have content which is relevant to the city. Moreover, with the dialect of a city changing every 20 kms in India, listeners might not be able to relate to the RJ's they hear on-air unless local. Further, as we operate in varied zones like Punjab, Haryana, East UP, West UP and Jharkhand, both the musical preferences and talk differ. Hence, syndication is not on the cards for us.

In terms of common marketing, yes, all efforts of both ATL and BTL are replicated all across; however local sensibilities and needs are taken care of.

Q. Are there any existing trends or patterns of radio consumption in these places?
According to the IRS, all the cities in our domain have radio consumption ranging between 5% and 20%. The figures comprise of the All India Radio and Vividh Bharti audience. What is interesting is never do you find people accessing radio.

Radio listenership is limited to the bottom half of the pyramid and our research suggests that currently the medium does not hold any aspirational value to attract the affluent class. The FM culture is set to change all this. With the introduction of good content and high ownership of radio in these cities, would result in a very high number of tune-ins.

Q. What research did you do and what kind of insights are you banking on?
We conducted both qualitative and a quantitative research in these markets. It provided us an insight on not only the music preference of the city but even lifestyles to ensure the best fit for our channel.

Further auditorium testing was conducted on a massive library of songs to verify the appropriateness of the song selection based on the time, day parts and lifestyle of the city.

Q. Who are your RJs and how will they take the stations personality forward?
Our RJ's are young, dynamic, and enthusiastic creative people who have forayed into radio from various professions. They are locals, well versed with the sense and sensibilities of the markets in which they work.

They have been trained extensively and groomed well to ensure that the content and dialect is local while the style and packaging isn't. The stations promise of local flavour in a metro dish is personified by these RJs.

Q. What is your promotion strategy?
The promotion strategy of the station has been to bring back radio into the life of the city. The launch campaign plays on the most basic premise of radio music. We have adopted a 360 degree approach to promotions and have conducted various ATL and BTL activities. Our activities range from simply advertising in newspapers and using outdoors, to doing road shows, parties etc.

Q. What kind of BTL activities have you planned and at what regularity? How do listeners in these towns respond to BTL activities? Could you give some examples?
One simple premise of promotions has been to expose the listeners to the brand and the frequency at multiple points. We have successfully done so by giving out freebies like t-shirts, key rings, sun shades, stephaney covers, radio sets and exposing audiences to branded station vehicles and hydraulic trucks.

Q. Why the name Mantra?
Mantra has originated from Sanskrit and it means instrument of thought. Mantra was identified as a brand identity because it helps create a niche by not entering into the existing regime of frivolous brand names in the industry.

Mantra is a universally accepted expression simultaneously can connect at an individual as well as at a mass level. It also extends the versatility and scalability to our programming with its multiple interpretations as it be a synonym for funda, belief, principle, attitude, style, etc.

Q. How does the station help in overall cross-ownership of media? Do you have special rates or bundled offers along with Dainik Jagran?
We do not have any bundled offers or add-on rates to sell with Dainik Jagran, although the Jagran sales force is equipped with the offerings and rate cards to sell the product as and when required.

Q. Are you considering doing RJ mentions as advertising?
Yes, we are currently doing RJ mentions.

Q. Who are the sponsors on board till now?
Most are local advertisers. We even have telecom companies, educational institutes, automobile dealers, real estate firms and in a way, from all categories which predominantly use radio.

Q. How much of your inventory have you kept aside for barter and bundling?
We do not like getting into barters; we only get into it when we feel that association would result in a win-win situation. Hence, there is no fixed inventory which has been kept for barter and bundling.

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