MUMBAI: To say the radio industry is in a vulnerable position would be an exaggeration; however, the foray of several streaming services has challenged the vitality and popularity of FM radio stations and their impact on  consumers. To reinvent itself is the need of the hour, and Radio City has discovered and implemented several ways to not only stay relevant, but lead the way through setting up trends.

In its latest effort, Radio City plans to redefine the network’s brand image through a series of activities under the newest campaign ‘Rag Rag Mein Daude City’. True to its name, Radio City focused on its loyal listeners from the cities where it airs the programs, and with the focus to provide more local region based content, the network will extend its emphasis to the regions inside the particular city.

Speaking about the intention, CEO of Radio City, Abraham Thomas said, “The consumer is evolving, and so should the radio stations. ‘Rag Rag Mein Daude City’ is an attempt to ‘retune’ what Radio City stood for, and that begins with focusing on micro-cities.” The concept of micro-cities ensures the station reaches out to dedicated portions of a city and the content would depend on the regions. For example, in Mumbai, suburbs like Bandra, Thane, Borivili and so on, represent the micro-cities and the effort would give these regions exclusivity through entertainment, interactions and other forms of content.

one of the outdoor brandings

The 360 marketing and promotion to support its campaigns has been Radio City’s most-trusted approach, and similarly, the brand will manage to reach to the people through auto and bus branding, outdoor hoardings, railway station branding, train route maps, print ads, mall brandings and more. While the station plans to emphasis further on micro-cities, it also launched an anthem hoping to create an impact on national level. Written by the network’s in-house team, the anthem has been sung in five different languages. National award winner Sukhwinder Singh sang the campaign’s anthem in Hindi, whereas the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada versions were sung by Karthik and Gujarati crooner Keerthi Sangathia provides vocal to the Gujarati version. The anthem has gone viral since its launch, thus providing a boost to its promotional strategies.

With on-air shows like ‘Joke Studio’, Radio City hopes to unearth hidden talents in the field of humour and the concept has found space in few of the City’s markets (like Delhi, South India and Gujarat) already. Following the concept of “Aap Jahan, Concert Wahan”, Radio City’s latest initiative ‘Gig City’ would provide real live performance experience for twelve consecutive weeks through six of the finest singers from the country. For the first season of ‘Gig City’, Radio City has roped in Shaan, Farhan Akhtar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Salim-Sulaiman, Ayushman Khurrana and Sunidhi Chauhan. “Every Friday, at 6 pm, Radio City will give its listeners the experience of a live music show. The nature of the program would focus on one artist for two weeks, before rounding up with a concert on Friday.”

Gig City’s first concert performance would be on 17 June with playback singer ‘Shaan’. The two-week activity related to the singer has already begun and since the concept would be aired on all Radio City markets in the country, Thomas hopes to reach five crore potential listeners. Abraham Thomas further added, “The intention is to retune the image every quarter of the year. We begin the long-term goal with ‘Rag Rag Mein Daude City’, and upon the conclusion of the quarter, we will launch another campaign that would continue our drive as one of the finest radio stations.”