Radio Mirchi North and East regional director and SVP Vivek Modi

Growth

The last quarter (July to September) has been the best quarter for Radio Mirchi. We have done pretty well and we grew in revenue by 20-25 per cent over the previous quarter. Our EDIBTA grew 25 per cent, which is an amazing number, and we outshine other media houses which are growing at 10-15 per cent. We have grown faster than the market.

On-ground

Most of radio stations in metros had an over-whelming response from on-ground activations or events related to health. Marathons that we have done across the country were really huge and that has worked well for us. We partner and co-organise the Delhi marathon, and do lot of events like the Delhi half marathon, leading up to the Delhi marathon which is the main event. In fact, this year we launched the Kolkata marathon along with Procam. Our Mumbai marathon received good response as well. We have seen good traction and participation in the past few years. It helps us generate more revenue for us.  

The interest of sponsors has grown over years. More and more health brands are coming forward to explore opportunities that will help them connect with premier audiences.

The other interesting space that received great traction is the entertainment and music sector. The event that took place in Ahmedabad to celebrate Navratri, did well both in terms of revenue generation and traction. During Durga Puja, our Kolkata team organised an interesting activity called ‘Mirchi Jalsaghar’. We brought on board Arijit Singh and managed to accommodate 7,000 plus people. We sold tickets and we got good number of sponsors for that event. Our Pune team orgnaised the ‘Mirchi Queen Bee’, which also received good traction. The events in their second or third season have generated good revenue and traction.

MMA Bangla is in its fourth year and has received tremendous traction and revenue generation opportunity. Overall, it was a great year for on-ground events beyond radio.

In Punjab, we introduced the Mirchi Music Awards (MMA) and it did well in that region. We launched a music video for MMA Punjab which received traction on YouTube and it also became viral through various messaging services. Punjabi artistes have a great following on Twitter and Facebook, so they promoted the awards as well. We carried out print, radio and television ads but digital ads worked very well for us.

Brands

For MMA Punjab, we had Royal Stag as a title sponsor and then we had the event powered by Idea. When we created the theme song we kept in mind our title sponsor along with the concept of royalty in Punjab. Then Gaana.com was our sponsor and we did activations for them. We gave away an award titled Gaana’s Listeners Choice award, based on the popularity of the songs.  

In all our fitness and health related events, we had Adidas, Reebok, Olive Oil brands and brands related to fitness and health like watches and other accessories, partner with us. On the other side, for music and entertainment, we had telecom operators, online music brands and liquor brands partnering with us. We also had local brands that partnered with us like Lovely Group and Catch Masala partnered with us for MMA Punjab.

Events and growth

We are not targeting growth but looking at making the IPs look fresh. We are taking our IPs to a new level. We have to innovate our IPs, which is a long-term growth plan.

MMA was developed and expanded to regional space with an aim to grow in terms of fresh content. The IP- Mirchi top 20 was a radio property that developed into on-air property gradually. After the success of the IP Mirchi top 20, we decided to make it an annual property that can be spread across the country. When we develop a television property, you need to have a long-term plan in mind. For such property, you need lot of commitment. Over the years, it will become profitable. The first few years are the building years, and then it turns into a growing business.

Changes on-air

Mirchi brands have become very active this year. For instance, the ‘Murga’ campaign with RJ Naved has received huge response digitally. We have also realised that the views we are getting online for the show are huge and more content from the Murga Campaign is going viral. We also had a morning jock RJ Rohit who had Arvind Kejriwal on his show ‘Recharge Rohit’. Many media outlets covered the special activity we did on Radio Mirchi to welcome Arvind Kejriwal when he came on-air. We introduced new segments on-air. We tried organising the on-ground activity called ‘Kiss of Love’, which was a symbolic campaign but the mall authority cancelled permission for the event due to security issues. We had to call off the event because there was a lot of pressure from certain groups of people in society.

In terms of growth of the station, most have done well, especially Jalandhar due to MMA Punjab. Activations related to sports grew immensely last year, due to various leagues in India.

Challenge

The challenge we faced last year was how to meet the growing requirements of inventories. The shortage in inventories is a major issue because you need a have a balance between the ads and music played on-air. There are listeners who switch to radio for music and their special jocks. We had to meet the growing demand of the inventories and at the same time not to lose on the ads or our listeners.

This year started with the elections, so there was a huge demand for radio this year. There were many new product launches and then came the festive season, so the year was great for the radio industry. 

Trends for 2014

The entire medium is buzzing so the national and local players are looking at partnership with radio players. Brands have understood the power of medium.

Phase III

I would not be able to comment as we are working out a plan but in the coming months we will be able to reveal more in-depth details about the network. It is too early to talk about it.

2015

The challenge will continue on radio until the industry builds capacity. All radio operators are facing the same challenge. This year also there will be a hike based on the demand.

We are growing digitally and we will continue to strengthen Radio Mirchi in the space. We are using Gaana, YouTube and social media to reach out to global audience as well.

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Vivek Modi has been with Radio Mirchi in 2011 as East India cluster head and VP, and has moved up in his hierarchy, during this period. Prior to working in the radio industry, he was with telecom operator-Vodafone.