Advertising on radio in India is bound to increase with a new realisation about the medium's potentials and a decline in regulations surrounding it, much like what has happened in the western countries, according to Steve England, the radio-advertising guru of the United Kingdom.
England is on a two-week maiden visit to the country on an invitation by private FM channel Radio Mirchi. He will interact with the advertising and media-planning community here and deliberate on various aspects of advertising on radio.
"Commercial radio in India is in a similar state as it was in Britain in the 1970s. The amount of regulation and the very little faith that advertisers had in the medium ensured that radio stations like Capital, that are very popular now, went through frequent refinancing to survive," England told Business Standard.
Asserting that a significant reduction in the license fee was imperative for radio to realise its untapped potential, he said the very nature of the medium meant that there were different rules on advertising on radio that needed to be relooked at.
"Radio enters your personal space like no other medium. The kind of relationship you develop with the 'anonymous' jockey and the trust you put in the medium vis-a-vis others is different," England said.
Explaining that the key to successful advertising on radio was to be different to make a commercial outstanding, he said one needed to 'break the rules'. Unlike other mass media, one needed different scripts to outline the 'ten' details about the product being advertised. Most importantly, the commercials needed to be reviewed regularly.
Although private FM channels in India ranked high on the creative side, the activity was in its infancy and advertisers and the agencies needed to understand and be convinced about the medium's inherent ability to bring consumers to the point of purchase, England noted.
He also highlighted a number of global trends that were bound to come to India as the world came more close to becoming a 'global village'.
As the amount of time spent on Internet became important, radio's significance as a secondary activity was increasing. The effectiveness of the medium was also supported by several case studies in Europe, England added.
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