With music being the common element across all radio channels, it becomes essential to brand it appropriately to create a discrete identity
At the India Radio Forum 2006, held at Taj Lands End, Bandra, Amar K Deb, head, Channel , India, spoke on the importance of branding a radio channel among its competitors. Currently, there are only a few FM channels dominating the scene in a select few metro cities of India. But according to a study by Channel , this number is going to grow at an explosive rate and will touch 370 channels in the coming few years.
The biggest problem that today’s radio sets are going to face is that of having limited preset channels. A conventional radio comes with a fixed set of only six channels. If the channels increase by just one, the listeners will have to struggle to tune in to the other frequencies. This problem is akin to that faced by TV sets in 1994. TV sets then came with only 12 channels, but TV companies had to change this format once the satellite channel boom began.
The biggest problem that radio networks will face is that of differentiating their content from that of their competitors. Deb cited an example to emphasise this point further. He said that on his way to the conference, he listened to FM radio and all that he could hear while surfing through the current crop of channels was Himesh Reshammiya’s ‘O huzoor, tera tera tera suroor’! Therefore, with music being the common element on all the channels, creating an identity for any one channel was extremely relevant.
According to Deb, radio channels could follow the example of TV music channels, which have been able to create uniqueness in their content in a highly cluttered market. He referred to how Channel has created a branding for itself on television to differentiate it from its competitors. He remarked that the identity of a music channel rested only between the spaces of the songs played through the day.
He said that one big idea was enough for any channel to achieve this mark. Four years ago, Channel created its mascot, Prof. SS Sodi, aka Simpoo, the eccentric school maths teacher. Classroom jokes were created around the character and a successful connect was achieved with teenagers across all dimensions.
With another stunt in the summer of 2004, a stir was created about the much awaited Channel ’s sizzling swimsuit calendar. Prominent celebrities were roped in to create impressions about how hot the calendar was. When the calendar finally turned up, it displayed Simpoo in various seductive poses, clad in a wet, skimpy swimsuit. The calendar apparently attracted critics such as Shobha De, who failed to get the point, but it was eventually successful in creating a connect with its audience. The campaign was further extended to promote vegetarianism through PETA, with Simpoo dressed in a lettuce-leaf sarong, instead of a conventional female model.
Deb accentuated the point that it was very important for a channel to keep reviving its ideas before they went stale and come up with new innovations that are violent in terms of idea. According to him, creating public service ads that create awareness among people also helps in establishing a discrete identity for a channel. Channel , he said, currently runs two animated ads that address the social issues of road safety and sexual harassment.
To add humour, a recent promo also features an Indian rock star duo playing the Guns and Roses track, ‘Sweet Child of Mine’, on a sitar.
Deb concluded by saying that only those ideas that give you a sweaty feeling and may seem a little dangerous to be featured in public, like the Simpoo swimsuit calendar, could make a difference in creating a prevailing brand name for a channel.
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