Indiantelevision.com Team

(17 January 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Radio City became the latest FM channel to add 'activation' to its range of brand value services after Red FM's Red Activ and Radio Mirchi's Mirchi Activation. While Red and Mirchi 'activations' are in house, Radio City has announced its strategic alliance with Vibgyor Brand Services. Radio City promises to provide clients end-to-end marketing solutions, thus consolidating 'activation' as part of its core business.

In fact 'activation' has become the key word for radio channels as they search for ideas to both brand themselves as well as source new ad revenue mediums or what is called NTR (non-traditional revenue). Activating helps not only in terms of revenues but also in terms of on ground presence, visibility and an opportunity to reach out to the consumer.

Speaking on the occasion Radio City CEO Apurva Purohit said, 'Over the years we have realized that every client wants his brand to be felt, touched, sampled and seen to deliver immediate results and the nature of radio being 'immediacy' it fulfills the role perfectly. We have always had 'activation' as a key component in the services that we have been offering. While Radio City will continue to entertain listeners with our music expertise, which is our core competency, along with Vibgyor, we aim to keep building the effectiveness of the brands associated with us in a more comprehensive manner.'

Radio City national head marketing Rana Barua added, 'The reason activations are gaining ground within FM stations is because they provide a 'single window' approach to our clients. Radio City has been part of on ground events and promotions for our clients earlier as well. Except that it was on an ad hoc basis. Our core expertise is music and entertainment. So we wanted to partner with a firm whose expertise in on ground brand building is established and will help our clients.'

Vibgyor Brand Services is an event management company, headquartered in Delhi and has a roster of clients including Hindustan Lever Limited, Modi Group, Dabur India, America Online, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Gillette India which it promises to bring to the table for Radio City.

According to Vibgyor Brand Services, managing director Ankur Karla 'Radio is an extremely powerful medium, which touches millions of people in one go. We believe that activations truly demonstrate the power of radio in driving response or footfalls. We hope to see a fruitful alliance with Radio City and provide enhanced value to brands.' Radio City promoted by Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL) airs across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur. The station has also bagged licenses to broadcast in 13 more cities.