MUMBAI: India Radio Forum (IRF) 2016 witnessed some interesting revelations about the advertising scenario on radio.

These revelations were made by moderator Reliance Broadcast Network chief operating officer Ashwin Padmanabhan and a panel of other dignitaries – Manish Bhatt of Scarecrow Communications, Manohar Nayak of Lingo India and Sunil Kumaran of Story Lab.

The theme for this panel discussion was ‘Telling Brand Stories Through Effective and Creative Radio’. But, before they could head the creative way, the big question was - are stories being narrated in an effective manner on radio? The statistics do not state so, according to Padmanabhan, who took the audience through a study that Big FM had done on some of its ads.

According to the study, only 30 per cent of the ads being played on radio leave a good impression on the listeners. The panel attempted to explain the reason for the radio ads not doing well with listeners.

Kumaran stated that radio as a medium is effective but it is not being tapped well. He added, “Radio is ‘theatre of the mind’, thus it gives the consumer an ability to imagine.

Therefore, advertisers should make concepts that will work in this medium.” Bhatt pointed out that we have an emotional audience and the ad makers need to play with this idea.

They just cannot be making happy-go-lucky ads. Nayak, on the other hand, said that radio needs to be treated as a person for it makes a one-to-one communication with the listener.

“Ad agencies do not want to give time to radio. It’s always added in the eleventh hour. One needs to take radio more seriously,” he added. The panel concluded that the radio industry needs specialised radio professionals to create an ad storyboard. If not they need to educate the advertising agencies about the medium.

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