RED FM's moral policing acts

RED FM is going places with its latest brand awareness campaign, which has a humorous take on the harsh realities of a common man's life

With the number of FM radio stations set to mushroom in the coming year, wisdom perhaps lies in compelling top of mind recall rather than in diligently but softly vying for attention. RED FM has certainly decided to follow the 'shout out loud' mantra in an amusing way in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The 'Bajaate raho' tag line is going places with RED FM's new brand awareness campaign. The FM channel has spanned a variety of touch points such as trains, buses, malls and theatres with this campaign. The ideas has been conceptualised by RED FM and executed by Bee Hive Creatives.

The campaign centres around the banal grievances and experiences of a layman while out of home or commuting. For instance, handles in buses in Mumbai have been branded, as have doors of trial rooms in malls. Window transfers in trains have been spreading smiles, thanks to the funny messages stuck on them, one of which reads, "Ab deodorant nahi laganewale ki bajegi!"

"It's being done to drive salience and visibility" says Abraham Thomas, COO, RED FM. He says that this initiative reminds the listener about the radio station at various touch points so as to get tune-ins. "And the best way to do it is to reach them when they are most likely to listen to radio, that is, while commuting," he explains.

To ensure that the communication is being noticed, RED FM is running a contest asking listeners to recall the six lines in the campaign. In Mumbai, the radio station has painted a considerable number of air-conditioned taxis for their new show 'Taxi 93.5', which has taxi drivers giving traffic updates to listeners.

Talking about the heavy use of public transport in their communication, Thomas says that it's the most effective platform as it is the lifeline of the city, and it catches the prospective listener when he is most captive. Support is provided by events in multiplexes with radio jockeys as the main drivers.

Last year, RED FM, in a similar endeavour, campaigned for social issues such as water shortage, bad roads and the plight of Mumbai bar girls after dance bars were banned in the city.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com

RED FM Abraham Thomas