For two consecutive years, Radio Mirchi UAE has won the ‘Masala Award’ for ‘Best Asian Radio Station’. ENIL chief strategy officer speaks to Radioandmusic.com’s Jescilia Karayamparambil about its journey so far. Radio Mirchi partnered with the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) to launch the station in UAE. Shetty talks how movies and cricket have done well for them, about the revamped breakfast show and his understanding of the UAE market.

What are the various programming/formats that work well among the UAE audiences? Which on-ground properties have done well for Radio Mirchi?

UAE is an amazing market for radio with around 40 channels to choose from for the listener. Religious Arabic radio, Arabic music, Bollywood, Malayalam, Tamil, English contemporary, English classical, etc all these formats co-exist ensuring every listener has something that he connects with. The largest space is occupied by stations targeting the south Asian population and in this space Bollywood rules.

On ground activities are one of the most important tools to get up close with our audiences and this has been a big focus area for Mirchi. We have focussed our efforts on primarily four areas – Movies, Music, Cricket and festivals. Some of the activities are organised by us and some we partner with. Our jocks have a huge fan following and the recently held inaugural IPL gala dinner was also hosted by our jocks. The Holi beach party was also a huge hit.

How many on-ground activities do you organise around the year?

As a new entrant, with competitors being more than a decade old, the impetus has always been to make the brand more visible. We have identified two key categories that resonate with the South Asian Audience – Bollywood and Cricket. It is therefore our constant endeavour to associate with the best movies, concerts and cricketing events. We not only partner with them but also try and integrate the brand with the events by getting our RJs to host, organise meet and greet for our listeners, contests for our listeners etc. On an average we partner with over 25 to 30 events in a year.

How is the UAE market doing in terms of content and revenue?

It is an amazing market for content. As far as revenues go, the market has seen a revival in the last couple of years. We have been clocking month on month growth since our launch in February 2011 and are already one of the leading stations in the Abu Dhabi Media radio channel bouquet.

What is the growth you witnessed in terms of listenership?

Brand ‘Mirchi’ was truly tested when we launched 3 years ago; we were the sixth radio brand in the Bollywood space. I am really happy to share that Mirchi has been voted as the ‘Best Asian Radio station’ for two consecutive years in the ‘Masala Awards’. This is the award which honours excellence in the Asian Community and is voted for by the listeners.

Which stations do well among the three stations?

All three stations i.e. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain are doing extremely well. We broadcast the same content across the three stations and it has been very well received across the Emirates.

List down the sectors that partner with Radio Mirchi (often) for various initiatives?

On the commercial front we have had advertisers from across categories including Telecom, FMCG, Medicare, Restaurants, Automobiles, Real Estate, and Jewellery. On the Marketing front, we have consciously associated with activities that resonate with the South Asian Audience – Bollywood, Cricket, Concerts and Local Festivals.

How is the competition and competitors in the market?

It is an extremely competitive market. It has seven players, in the Bollywood space, trying to reach out to less than 3.5 million people (estimated South Asian Population). Besides that, many stations have been around for over a decade. Also unlike India, radio is much more popular than television here given the drive times and the absence of any local television content.

Do you integrate programs that are run in UAE and India stations?

As a radio station, we are a city centric medium and hence cover all that happens locally, the same goes for the stations in the UAE. Having said that, there are strong synergies in content especially Bollywood and music where the UAE team picks a lot of stuff from India, be it celebrity interviews or events like Mirchi Music awards or In house Mirchi Sparklers.

What are the challenges and risks in the market? What are the advantages of being present there?

The challenge is to replicate the success we have had in India. In India we have been one of the first channels to launch or we launched alongside couple of other channels in most cities, so from a brand building point of view we were not at a disadvantage. In the UAE establishing Mirchi as a leader brand being the sixth to launch was a challenge. The other challenge is that we are talking to a diverse audience Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis and have to keep their sensibilities in mind while designing the product. The good news is that we have been there, and done that decently well, which gives us the confidence to take Mirchi to other markets.

Is there any new show or on-ground activity that would be introduced in the coming few years?

We have recently revamped our breakfast show with new jock duo – Mohit and Vikrant. The show has been very well received and both these guys have become the toast of the town. There are lots more lined up.