Big FM promotes its countdown show on a big scale

Big FM has launched a show called the Big 30 Countdown, which plays the most popular 30 songs, with Bollywood as the backdrop. The show is aired across the 36 stations in the Hindi-speaking markets.

Big 30 airs from Monday to Friday between 7-10 pm in New Delhi; while in Mumbai and other markets, it airs between 6-9 pm in a slightly deferred time.

The 30 songs are selected on the basis of several parameters -- song requests on the radio station, ring-tone downloads across mobile service providers, album sales, box office collections and radio play-out across radio stations. Big FM also conducts its own research to test the popularity of songs and rank them in order.

The songs selected seek to represent the preferences of the 36 markets. Chakravarthy says that the choice of songs is usually similar across markets; only the order might vary.

The countdown is being promoted through a 360-degree campaign. The six-week campaign has a mix of outdoor, print, online and television; along with activations in malls, petrol pumps and marketplaces across the cities, in order to drive tune-ins.

The television commercial is in association with the movie, Kites, starring Hrithik Roshan. The TVC shows him getting into the car after a hectic day, and switching on Big FM to listen to the countdown.

A co-branded outdoor campaign has also been launched, conveying the show's promise of latest songs and Bollywood gossip. On Facebook, the radio station has created an application that enables members to vote for the top 10 songs, which could make it to the top 30 list. There is also a mobile application, through which listeners can vote to alter the ranking of a particular song.

Big FM is spending close to Rs 2.5 crore on the campaign.