In Conversation with Rajat Uppal, Red FM
In our chat with Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head, RED FM, he throws light on how the channel has always won hearts with its marketing efforts and how it still manages to stand out of the crowd.
Q. Your journey with Red FM spans over 7 years and I see the channel winning a number of awards for its marketing campaigns. Which one of these campaigns received the maximum traction? Please share some insights and numbers.
A. It’s been an action packed and satisfying journey so far at RED FM. Creatively, the brand’s positioning of “Bajaate Raho” allows you to do so much more, be edgier and be bold. With the awards tally currently at 380 wins, it would be unfair to pick up any one campaign. But surely, campaigns which have been bold and executed innovatively have found resonance with the listeners and eventually won many metals at many forums. Brand RED is not always about taking tongue & cheek dig at issues of the society or playing pranks on people, the brand has a softer and emotional side too which reflects in some of our initiatives over the years. Few of the campaigns/ initiatives which are close to me – National Jock Exchange, Bajao for a Cause, Don’t be Horny, Pothole Utsav, Malishka ko Matt Sunn, Kabaad se Jugaad, Riders Music Festival and The Yellow Taxi Music Project.
Q. TV & Digital have gone through tremendous change in the past years. However, especially after Phase 3, Radio has been a rather stagnant medium. Where does Red FM see itself in this space?
A. Radio always has been a steady medium with measured growth and not exponential. It would be incorrect to say that radio is stagnant. It might have seen marginal growth but is not a medium which is out of contention. Digital space is growing at a tremendous speed with everyone jumping onto the bandwagon with the radio industry following suit. Radio brands have extended themselves into the digital medium over the last few years. At RED, we have made digital integral to all our marketing initiatives. We follow a policy of “RDR- Radio Digital Radio” for our initiatives, wherein Radio drives the digital assets and digital integrates back to Radio. We also have extremely strong social media communities with high engagement numbers. We are doing digital content for our brand and also advertisers like Vodafone, HUL, Indus Valley, Honor India, Tinder, Havmor to name a few. Our website hosts a lot of radio content as podcasts and we have recently launched the RED FM App. As a brand, we offer advertising solutions which are a combination of Radio, On-ground and digital. In nutshell, digital will be a way of life for RED…
Q. With the emergence of online music streaming platforms like Gaana and Saavn, how is the business of radio being affected? How did you re-strategize your marketing plans?
A. Most mediums have faced the digital disruption. The Television has been hit the most as the OTT platforms have taken away huge chunk of viewers, especially in the metro cities. The music industry has gone through some challenges in the past due to emergence of digital streaming apps replacing the audio cassettes and CDs. India is a vast market, with the reach and adaptability of radio being much higher than any digital streaming app. Radio is also live, interactive, local and a free to air medium. There is no evidence that that the streaming apps have impacted radio listenership. For many listeners even today, radio is the most trusted source of information. It is also how radio packages and presents the content that makes it stand apart from music streaming apps. Music packaged with interesting RJ content is a plus for most of the audiences.
Q. Recently, we did an article on advertiser’s inclination towards podcasts and audiobooks. Should this worry the radio channels? What is your take on it?
A. Most Radio brands are doing podcasts and audiobooks. I see it as an opportunity if advertisers have an inclination towards it. At RED, we have podcasts on our website and App. We have done shows like “EK Kahani Aisi Bhi” & “Short-cuts”, which are essentially short audio narratives like the Audio books.
Q. Red FM has its presence across 68 cities and caters to over 40 million listeners. Since the listener profile differs in each city, how do you synchronize your communication strategies? How do you make sure that communication is effective at all stations?
A. I have always said that RED FM is a ‘Nat-local’ brand, national in reach and local in connect. Radio is a hyperlocal medium. For a national brand like RED FM, being locally relevant is the biggest challenge for the marketing team. While we would want to create the local connect, it is important that the core proposition of the brand is not diluted. We pass most of our marketing campaigns and initiatives through the brand filters to see fitment. The communication might be adapted to city-specific lingo and dialect to make it effective, but the tonality of the communication still remains very RED- Edgy, Bold and Irreverent.
Q. You have been recently rated as India’s most admired FM radio station by the ASF. Over the years, you have won more than 375 awards, across various forums. What are you doing differently in terms of your marketing efforts?
A. Like I said earlier, the positioning of the brand allows us to be extremely edgy and bold creatively. That’s surely an edge for us over the competitors. In addition, the teams make most of this edge and are consistently disruptive & innovative in the ideation they come up with. Disruptive ideas backed by consistency in brand communication and scale of execution of these marketing initiatives could be attributed to the wins.
