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Hello FM gets aggressive on marketing and business development
Hello FM has beefed up its brand and sales team and is now in the process of consolidating its marketing
Hello 106.4FM will embark on some marketing and programming initiatives in a few days. In its bid to cash in on the Pongal fever, it has tied up with Hindustan Lever to roll out an on-ground activity.
The initiative is called 'Hello FM Brooke Bond Three Roses Tea Time Kondattam'. Hello FM will identify 120 tea shops within Chennai and conduct a random survey. The owners of the tea shops will be entitled to win gold coins if the tea shop has Hello FM playing there. This contest is being heavily advertised on air and in print and will roll out in two-three days.
Explaining the rationale behind targeting tea shops, Shankar B, vice-president, sales and business development, Hello FM, says, "This initiative is aimed at owning these places because the maximum radio listenership in Chennai comes from tea shops." The station will also brand and decorate the teas shops with posters.
In addition, the channel has rolled out an aggressive outdoor campaign claiming its superiority over other FM stations in Chennai. The campaign is designed around the concept, 'Beware of Duplicates' and establishes Hello FM as the 'True Son of the Soil'. This campaign has been implemented following the advent of new stations in Chennai such as Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Big FM and Radio One.
The channel is also refreshing its programming strategy to enable high interaction programmes to take front seat and shelve the others for a while. "This is a result of the fan mail and audience responses that we have gathered over time," says Rajeev Nambiar, COO, Hello FM.
This is also being done to get more premium advertisers and sponsors on board. "In fact," Nambiar says, "the English band on Sundays has been increasingly attracting retail advertisers."
In order to cater to small retailers, Hello FM has created a concept called 'budget ads'. This will be targeted at retailers who are conscious about costs and have never included radio in their plan. "We will design the radio creatives at optimal costs for them and also give them airtime at optimal costs,†adds Nambiar.
Hello FM will hit the airwaves of Tuticorin next in the month of March 2007, followed by Tirunelveli, Pondicherry, Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore in May. But considering the heavy marketing investments involved, Nambiar says they may just launch all the stations in May 2007.
© 2007 agencyfaqs!