Brand Support Blog

"Künstliche Sachen gehen gar nicht"

2011-08-18T09:41:00.006+02:00

Interview mit Arno Müller von 104.6 RTL in der aktuellen w&v.

Der Artikel ist leider nicht online verfügbar, daher hier die Screenshots. (Für größere Ansicht einfach anklicken.)

Lockere Sprüche reichen nicht mehr

2011-08-04T15:46:00.006+02:00

Für einen Artikel im Radio-Special der aktuellen Ausgabe der w&v (Nr. 30/2011) wurde Brand Support Senior Partner Christoph Pöschl interviewt.

Hier die Screenshots (für größere lesbare Version bitte anklicken):
Seite 1

Seite 2

Lokalrundfunktage: Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows

2011-07-27T16:25:00.008+02:00

A few weeks ago, our CEO Christoph Pöschl was part of a radio panel at the Lokalrundfunktage conference in Nürnberg. The panel was called "Success through word content and personality - programme strategies for gaining listeners" and was very well-received.

Our fellow media consultant Nik Goodmann from the UK refers to the discussion (and Christoph's part in particular) in his blog, listing the top 10 criticisms listeners have regarding morning shows.

Please find the whole article here.

You may also take a look at some pictures from the event on the official website (linked on the front page or in the Mediathek area).

'80er Musik Quiz' - hilfreiche App

2011-06-14T16:36:00.002+02:00

Wer komponierte für die Bangles den Hit Manic Monday?

a) Jennifer Warnes
b) Prince
c) George Michael
d) Freddie Mercury

Die iPhone App ‘Die 80er - Wie gut kennst du die Kult Stars?’ ist ein prima Tool, um die 80er Kompetenz der Moderatoren und Redakteure zu testen.

Auch für einen kurzen Spiele-Break in der eigenen 80er Show ist diese App durchaus verwendbar. Man kann zwischen 5, 8 und 12 Fragen pro Spiel wählen.

Sicher sind auch einige nicht ganz formataffine Songs dabei - einfach ausprobieren, interessant ist es allemal.

Und mal Hand aufs Herz, wer von Euch hätte schon gewusst, dass Manic Monday von Prince komponiert wurde???

Facebook Tips for Entertainment Brands from Mashable

2011-06-08T14:29:00.004+02:00

Mashable published an interesting article with marketing tips for the Facebook pages of entertainment brands. We think this is quite relevant, not only for music artists or actors, but also for radio stations, so we are posting a summary and some excerpts here.

You can read the full article on Mashable's website.

Tip 1: Use Questions, Polls and Quizzes to Engage Your Community
"If you post a piece of content on your Facebook Page, you might generate a good number of comments. But if you post your content in the context of a question, a poll or a quiz, you make your content interactive and provoke viral distribution."

Tip 2: Reward Your Fans
"Engaging fans is one way to keep them happy; rewarding them is another. While there are many ways to reward your Facebook fans, many entertainers have found that sharing exclusive or free content gives fans a reason to come back time and again. (...) Rewarding your fans can also be as simple as making sure your Page provides valuable information, such as upcoming show dates or releases.

Tip 3: Let Fans Behind-the-Scenes
"Jessica Sitomer, CEO of TheGreenlightCoach.com, encourages entertainers to use their work as an opportunity to promote themselves creatively on Facebook. Sitomer suggests doing a “behind-the-scenes” video before a shoot or a show."

Tip 4: Use a Facebook Storefront to Turn Fans into Buyers
"Facebook is the perfect place for musicians, comedians and other entertainers to promote and sell their content and merchandise. Their fans are already there, and Facebook users don’t like to leave Facebook … so why send them to a separate website to transact?"

Brand Support Focus Group Varianten

2011-04-12T09:35:00.002+02:00

Nach wie vor ist die Morning Show die wichtigste Sendung eines Radioprogramms. Doch bei vielen Radiosendern ist die Morning Show in der Krise, da sich die Anforderungen der Hörer verändert und die Sender nur unzureichend auf diese Veränderungen reagiert haben. Vor allem qualitative Antworten sind gefragter denn je, um den Trend der Hörerabwanderung am Morgen zu stoppen und wieder mehr Hörer bereits in der Früh für das Programm zu begeistern.

Unmittelbares qualitatives und zugleich ‚gezieltes‘ Feedback liefern professionell moderierte Focus Gruppen. Um immer ganz nah dran an den Bedürfnissen der Hörer zu sein, sollten sich die Radiomacher regelmäßig ‚live und direkt‘ über Focus Gruppen mit ihren Hörern austauschen.

Die Möglichkeiten zur Durchführung von Focus Groups sind heutzutage vielfältig. Neben den klassischen Gruppendiskussionen mit Hörern in einem Teststudio gibt es die Online-Variante sowie die Kombination mit anderen Methoden.

Die klassische Variante

Brand Support führt seit Jahren mit seinen Kunden Gruppendiskussionen mit Hörern durch. Die Erfahrung der Brand Support Berater aus der Moderation von mehr als 50 Radio Focus Groups im deutschsprachigen Raum stellen sicher, dass nicht nur die Schwachstellen der Sender in den Bereichen ‚Positionierung und Inhalte‘ aufgedeckt, sondern auch Lösungsansätze erarbeitet und neue Ideen mit den Hörern diskutiert werden.

Brand Support bietet seinen Kunden sowohl die komplette Abwicklung der Gruppendiskussionen an (inklusive Recruitment, Moderation & Reporting) als auch die ‚blanke‘ professionelle Moderation von Gruppen, die durch die Sender selbst organisiert werden.

Online Focus Groups: Brand Support audienceXchange

Im Brand Support audienceXchange werden über eine innovative Online-Plattform mit gezielt ausgewählten Hörern die Themen diskutiert, mit denen der Sender direkt verbessert werden kann.

Im Gegensatz zu ‚klassischen‘ Focus Groups bietet audienceXchange zu vergleichbaren Kosten:
• eine größere Befragungsbreite und -tiefe
• vielfältige, innovative Befragungsformen (z.B. das Relation Tool und das Sketch Tool)
• die Möglichkeit für die Programmmacher, sich aktiv am Researchprozess zu beteiligen (z.B. durch Rückfragen)
• eine bessere regionale Verteilung der Teilnehmer
• eine hundertprozentige Dokumentation der Meinungsäußerungen

Ideale Anwendungsgebiete für audienceXchange sind die die Exploration des kompletten Markenbildes eines Senders (Station Benefits, Logo, Kampagnenmotive, …) oder die Optimierung Ihrer Morning Show (Themen, Moderation, Comedy, …).

Nachteil der Online-Variante ist allerdings, dass das unmittelbare, spontane Erleben der Hörer fehlt. Auch wenn online ebenfalls ‚live‘ und häufig auch sehr lebhaft diskutiert wird – einem Menschen direkt gegenüber zu sitzen, führt doch oft zu einmaligen, sehr ‚eindringlichen‘ Erkenntnissen.

Die Kombivariante: Morning Show EKGplus (mit angeschlossenen Focus Groups)

Eine aus unserer Sicht äußerst wirkungsvolle, umfassende Erkenntnisse liefernde Studienvariante ist die Kombination von Focus Groups und einem Morning Show EKG. Das EKG, bei dem Hörer mittels Regler ‚live‘ ausgewählte Programmstrecken bewerten, liefert auf quantitativer Basis Programmerkenntnisse, die im Anschluss an die Sessions unmittelbar mit ausgewählten Teilnehmern der EKG Sessions in 30-45 minütigen Gruppen vertieft werden. Hat man die Hörer schon mal vor Ort, kann man sie auch noch zusätzlich befragen, ohne dass erhebliche Mehrkosten entstehen.

Da die Hörer sich beim EKG längere Programmstrecken anhören, sind sie für die Gruppen ‚gut vorbereitet‘ und erfahrungsgemäß kaum zu bremsen darin, ihre Eindrücke zu kommunizieren – eine Idealsituation für wissbegierige Researcher und Programmgestalter.

Welches Konzept ist für Ihren Sender und Ihre Fragen das Optimale? Kontaktieren Sie uns, wir erstellen Ihnen gerne ein maßgeschneidertes Angebot.

Radiodays Europe 2011: More of Everything

2011-03-25T13:20:00.005+01:00

More than 650 participants from 45 countries and 27 sessions – the Radiodays Europe in Copenhagen 2011 were really a huge event. It is great that just a couple of years after the ‘death’ of the NAB Europe the interest in a European conference for radio is so high.

Congratulations to the organizers, who selected an excellent venue for the conference - the Tivoli Hotel. In comparison to RDE 2010 the conference has also improved in terms of social events – with the opening reception on Wednesday night and the ‘Taste and Sound of Denmark’ with delicious food and stunning live music on Thursday night.

The dominant topics of the RDE 2011 were social media and the move to digital. In several sessions it was discussed what these changes mean for radio stations nowadays. Another interesting focus was on ‘success factors’ of great stations such as Z100 from New York or KIIS FM in Los Angeles.

The Broadcast Partner, one of the main sponsors of RDE 2011, participated in three conference sessions:

In a very well-received session Jochen Lukas, Mike Haas and Christoph Pöschl presented ‘Market Leadership Strategies’. Several examples from market leader stations such as Radio Expres (Slovakia), Hitradio Ö3 (Austria) and Narodni Radio (Croatia) illustrated what it takes to become a strong brand with ‘innovation ability’ and to be great in the ‘art of directing’.

Mike Haas hosted the ‘Imaging & Branding’ session and introduced its renowned speakers James Stodd (Radio Producer BBC Radio X-Trails, UK), Lee Harris (1010 WINS, USA) and Ivo Samplonius (Sound Designer, TROS, NL) with an inspiring gunfire of creative ideas.

In addition to that, our friends from FosterKent demonstrated their innovative MotionMixes tool in the session ‘The World is Audio – Control it!’.

Outlook to next year

Radiodays Europe 2012 will be held in Barcelona on the 22nd and 23rd of March. Chosing one of the most beautiful cities in Europe as the location almost guarantees that it will be another mega event. The RDE organizers have indicated some changes to the conference concept, so we are highly curious for what’s to come. Our wish list includes more ‘cross-over’ sessions (such as ‘What radio can learn from other markets’) and more ‘down-to-earth workshops’ where programmers can take home even more direct input for their daily work. Let’s see what will happen!

Marken übersehen Musik als Marketinginstrument

2011-03-22T15:08:00.005+01:00

Marken nutzen die Emotionalität von Musik nicht ausreichend für ihre Marketingaktivitäten. So lautet das Ergebnis einer Studie zum Thema ‚Musik & Marken‘ der Musikberatungsfirma Brand Support aus Schwaig bei Nürnberg.

Obwohl Musik im Leben fast aller befragten Menschen (90%) eine zentrale Rolle spielt, können 80 Prozent der 500 Befragten im Alter zwischen 14 und 59 Jahren keine Marke nennen, die sie spontan mit dem Thema Musik assoziieren. Übersetzt bedeutet das, dass Marken sich entweder nicht über Musik positionieren oder die musikalische Botschaft nicht richtig ankommt.

Nur eine einzige Marke positioniert sich über das Thema Musik erfolgreich bei den Konsumenten: Coca-Cola. Ein Drittel aller Befragten, denen überhaupt eine ‚Musikmarke‘ einfällt, nennen spontan Coca-Cola.

In Summe belegen die Studienergebnisse eindrücklich, dass Musik als Marketinginstrument von den Marketingverantwortlichen anscheinend noch immer komplett unterschätzt wird.

„Es ist unglaublich, wie wenig dieses Potenzial genutzt wird in Zeiten, in denen in segmentierten Märkten verzweifelt nach identitätsstiftender Differenzierung gesucht wird“, urteilt Brand Support CEO Christoph Pöschl. „Daher haben wir uns sofort entschlossen, das Thema weiter zu verfolgen. In einer neuen Studie soll nun identifiziert werden, welche Musikwelten für die großen Marken überhaupt in Frage kommen. Da Musik in Zukunft nicht nur für das Markenbild an sich, sondern auch für die Kundenbindung z.B. im CRM eine wichtige Rolle spielen wird, holen wir uns noch den CRM-Spezialisten defacto x aus Erlangen mit ins Boot.“

Mit den Ergebnissen der ersten großen Studie zum Thema ‚Music & Brands‘ ist Anfang Mai zu rechnen.

Details zu den Erkenntnissen der bereits durchgeführten Studie finden Sie hier.

Coca-Cola - Deutschlands Musikmarke Nummer 1

2011-03-17T12:17:00.005+01:00

Coca-Cola nutzt Musik besser als alle anderen Marken zur Emotionalisierung seines Brands. Die Verknüpfung von Musikemotion und Marke ist Coca-Cola am besten gelungen. Dies geht aus der aktuellen Studie ‚Musik & Marken‘ der Musikberatungsfirma Brand Support aus Schwaig bei Nürnberg hervor. „Es ist ganz klar zu erkennen, dass Coca Cola eine klare Markenstrategie verfolgt: Die Verbindung von Musik, emotionalen Erlebnissen und der Marke Coca-Cola“, so Brand Support-Geschäftsführer Christoph Pöschl (43).

Musikspots haben bei Coca-Cola eine lange Tradition. Jeder erinnert sich an Robin Beck, die für einen Coca-Cola Spot den 80er Welthit ‚First Time‘ sang. Oder an den Weihnachtssong ‚Wonderful Dream‘ von Melanie Thornton, der seit 2001 nach Last Christmas von Wham der meistgespielte, ‚besttestende‘ Song im Radio ist.

Mit dem Weihnachtssong 2010 ‚Shake up the Happiness‘ von Train, der Band, die mit ‚Hey Soul Sister‘ auch einen der Megahits 2010 produziert haben, knüpft Coca-Cola an seine musikalische Marken-Tradition an. Die Fußball-Hymne zur WM 2010 in Südafrika war ‚Wavin‘ Flag‘ von K‘Naan – übrigens ebenfalls ein Coca-Cola Song.

Coca-Cola ist die einzige Marke in der Studie, die sich über das Thema Musik erfolgreich bei den Konsumenten positioniert. 33 Prozent aller Befragten, die eine Marke nennen können, die mit Musik verbunden ist, nennen spontan Coca-Cola.

Den zweiten Rang nimmt Vodafone (11%) ein. Bacardi liegt auf Rang 3 (7 Prozent), die Telekom auf Rang 4 (5%). Es folgen Sony mit 4 Prozent sowie Langnese und VW mit jeweils 3 Prozent.

„So eindrücklich das Ergebnis für Coca-Cola in dieser Studie ausfällt, so erstaunlich ist aber auch, dass Musik von Marketingexperten anscheinend immer noch als emotionales Positionierungsinstrument unterschätzt wird“, urteilt Brand Support-Chef Pöschl.

„Denn 80 Prozent der 500 Befragten im Alter zwischen 14 und 59 Jahren konnten spontan gar keine Marke nennen, die mit dem Thema Musik assoziiert wird“. „Daraus ergeben sich offensichtlich enorme Positionierungspotenziale“, meint Christoph Pöschl.

Dieser Eindruck verstärkt sich nach Meinung von Pöschl noch, wenn man als weiteres Ergebnis der Studie feststellt, dass die Deutschen ein Volk von Musikbegeisterten sind: 90 Prozent der Befragten geben an, dass Musik in ihrem Leben eine wichtige bzw. sehr wichtige Rolle spielt. Am wichtigsten ist Musik für junge Frauen im Alter von 14-29 Jahren – und zwar für 97%.

Der Sound der 80er könnte dem Digitalradio Flügel verleihen

2011-03-15T12:21:00.002+01:00

Am 1. August fällt der Startschuss für Digitalradio in Deutschland. Die beteiligten Sendergruppen beschäftigen sich derzeit intensiv mit den zukünftigen Programmkonzepten. Ob das Digitalradio ein Fluch oder ein Segen für die deutsche Radiolandschaft wird, bleibt allerdings abzuwarten.

Eines ist jedoch sicher: Digitalradio wird die Angebotsvielfalt für den Hörer steigern. Die Frage ist nur, ob die ausgedachten Inhalte auch tragen.
Welche Konzepte versprechen genügend Erfolg? Mit gängigen AC und CHR Formaten wird man den Hörer nicht hinter dem Ofen vor holen.

Um dieser wichtigen Frage nachzugehen, hat Brand Support - Media Research & Consulting in einer Eigenstudie bei über 1.000 Hörern verschiedene Konzepte jenseits des Mainstream AC und CHR überprüft.

Die ‚80er‘ dominieren die Brand Support Digitalradio Formatstudie

Ein überragendes Feedback gibt es auf die ‚Musik der 80er‘. Diese Kategorie ist nicht nur im AC eine wichtige Größe geworden. Die 80er könnten das Genre sein, das Digitalradio die nötige ‚Passion‘ gibt, um bei einer kritischen Masse an Hörern den Durchbruch zu schaffen. Ähnliches ist derzeit bei unseren Nachbarn in England zu beobachten: dort erreicht das Spartenformat ‚Absolute 80s‘ laut den zuletzt veröffentlichen RAJAR Zahlen bis zu 665.000 Hörer pro Woche.

Keine Talk-Tradition in Deutschland

Einen digitalen Talksender wünscht sich hingegen momentan kaum jemand in Deutschland. Für einen (schnellen) Erfolg eines Talksenders fehlt im deutschen Radiomarkt die Tradition – ganz im Gegensatz zu Großbritannien, wo TalkSport über 3 Millionen Hörer pro Woche erreicht. Anscheinend können sich deutsche Hörer kein ‚fesselndes‘ Talkformat vorstellen.

Rock rules! But Rock isn’t Rock

Sehr positiv ist dagegen die Resonanz auf die Kategorie ‚Rock‘. Ein Fünftel der Männer könnte sich einen Rocksender als digitales Lieblingsprogramm vorstellen. Die Rock-Zielgruppe ist jedoch sehr segmentiert, so dass man wohl verschiedene Rockprogramme bräuchte, um die Musikgeschmäcker gut zu befriedigen.

Schlager nur noch im Digitalradio überlebensfähig

Von einem Schlagerkonzept fühlt sich nur eine kleine Minderheit der Befragten angesprochen. Doch bei entsprechender Kostenstruktur und einem hinreichend großen Verbreitungsgebiet könnte auch ein Schlagerformat mit prozentual geringem Hörerpotential wirtschaftlich tragfähig sein (wenn auch aufgrund seiner Altersstruktur eher schwer vermarktbar). Die Erfahrungen in anderen Ländern belegen, dass auch spitze Formate überleben können, solange sie z. B. national empfangbar sind.

Es wird eine der spannendsten Fragen bei der Einführung des Digitalradios in Deutschland, ob in diesem Rahmen die ‚Kleinstaaterei‘ im deutschen Radio aufgeweicht wird zugunsten größerer Verbreitungsgebiete und somit auch größerer Formatvielfalt. Brand Support wird auf jeden Fall die Entwicklung weiter mit Studien begleiten.

Interesting Video: "We Are The Future"

2011-03-11T13:14:00.007+01:00

We found this video in the blog of our friend Nik Goodman and would like to share it with you. From what we've heard, the video got mixed reactions and is considered to be controversial, but why not share something thought-provoking?!

‘Za náš tím’ - the Rádio Expres Hockey Supporter Song

2011-02-21T09:34:00.006+01:00

Ice Hockey is presumably the most popular sport in Slovakia. Rádio Expres has now created their own supporter song for the national team.

For this song Rádio Expres teamed up with AMO, two talented, young Slovak rappers. The chorus is based upon ‘Drzim ti miesto’ by Slovak Rock band Team, a very popular shout-along in Slovakia. Click here to hear the song with AMO and the Rádio Expres crew. And there are more actions to come with this song.

We think this is another great program idea from Rádio Expres.

Morning Show EKG - Research Tool zur Optimierung der Morgensendung

2011-02-07T11:08:00.007+01:00

‚Zu viel Gequatsche‘, ‚interessante Info‘, ‚toller Song‘, ‚zu viel Eigenwerbung‘, ‚tolle Programmidee‘ – das sind typische Gedanken von Hörern, während sie eine Morgensendung verfolgen.

Im normalen Leben ist es Programmmachern nicht vergönnt, live mitzuerleben wie die Hörer die eigene Morning Show hören und was sie im Augenblick des Hörens darüber denken.

Morning Show EKG

Das Research Tool ‚Morning Show EKG‘ zeigt sekundengenau auf, welche Programmelemente die Hörer begeistern und welche zum Umschalten provozieren. Mit dem ‚Morning Show EKG‘ erhalten Programmchefs konkrete Antworten auf taktische Programmfragen, die in strategischen Studien meist unbeantwortet bleiben.

Wann ist es für den Hörer ‚zu viel mit der Eigenwerbung‘? Wann ist der ‚Information Overload‘ erreicht? Welche Programmelemente stören am meisten? Gibt es Elemente, die neben den Stammhörern auch das Potenzialpublikum überzeugen? Welche Meldungen sind relevanter als andere?

Brand Support - Media Research & Consulting macht mit seinem Tool Gedankengänge sichtbar und bringt die Hörer quasi vom Frühstückstisch ins Sendestudio.

Bei einer Morning Show EKG Studie beurteilen bis zu 40 Hörer gleichzeitig den Mitschnitt einer von den Programmmachern ausgewählten Programmstrecke.
So können Programmverantwortliche innerhalb kürzester Zeit die Stärken und Schwächen ihrer wichtigsten Sendeschiene identifizieren.

Die Berater von Brand Support helfen den Programmverantwortlichen bei der Interpretation der Ergebnisse und unterstützen sie mit Umsetzungsvorschlägen.

"Wir sind dafür bekannt, dass wir unseren Kunden nicht nur intelligente Research Tools bieten, sondern eben auch sehr umsetzungsorientierte Beratung, damit man aus den Analysen konkrete programmliche und kommunikative Maßnahmen ableiten zu kann. Das ist auch bei unserem ‚Morning Show EKG‘ der Fall", so Geschäftsführer Christoph Pöschl.

Congratulations, Antena Zagreb and Narodni Radio!

2011-01-31T15:40:00.007+01:00

Our clients Antena Zagreb and Narodni Radio have been honored with the Superbrand Award 2010 in Croatia. This international award is given by an independent jury of brand experts every year to the outstanding brands in their business sector.

Narodni Radio, the #1 radio station in Croatia, has received the award already several times before. For Antena Zagreb, launched 2008 on the basis of a Brand Support Mapping survey and today the #1 station in Zagreb with an outstanding 26% Core listener share, it was the first Superbrand award.

Well done, Antena Zagreb and Narodni Radio teams!

Pictured is Antena Zagreb PD Katarina Sučić with the Superbrand Award.

Why MTV's New Music Meter Matters

2010-12-17T10:06:00.003+01:00

Here's a new article by our friend Jeff Pollack from Pollack Media for Huffington Post:

"It's time for music discovery platforms to catch up with their users. There are plenty of services out there that will collect lists of new artists or provide the user a group of artists that sound similar to one the user has entered. While these sites are useful and were amazing when they first launched, the increased ease accessibility of all things, especially media, on the Internet, is rapidly dating these sites. Today, the average music fan has come to expect a product that is nearly infinite in catalog and provides them with a unique experience which, at the same time, is clean, organized, and intuitive. As MTV prepares to launch its new Music Meter, they seem to have this modern fan in mind and have developed a platform that makes discovering new music and artists a much more active and user-controlled experience.

Before the Internet, on-demand services, and iPods gave all of us musical ADD, MTV was where music fans would go to watch their favorite clips and discover new ones (full disclosure, they are a long time client). With the new Music Meter, which MTV describes as "a quick and easy way to discover new music - a daily list of lesser known artists that music fans are listening to, talking about and sharing across the internet and the real world ", it seems that the network has once again tapped in to how the next generation wants to experience their favorite music and be exposed to what's new and what's next.

The Music Meter has a two-fold appeal: it ranks the 100 most buzzed about new artists (on and offline) and provides a music recommendation service. (...)

This is on-demand music discovery. It's interactive, user-controlled, and can last a few minutes or hours. Pretty cool. (...)"

This is just an excerpt. Please find the whole article here.

Photo courtesy of MTV Networks

Apple kills the Radio App – folgt Facebook?

2010-11-25T17:26:00.003+01:00

Das App-Verbot von Apple kann im wahrsten Sinne zur Killer-Application von Radio werden. Zumindest verdeutlicht es zwei Punkte:

1) Das Image von Radio in der New Media Welt ist nicht besonders gut.
Wenn Apple Radioprogramme als ‚Spam‘ bezeichnet, ist das ein Imageschaden von unbeschreiblichem Ausmaß.

2) Bleibt Apple bei seiner Entscheidung, verliert Radio darüber hinaus seinen wichtigsten Touch Point zu den Meinungsführern an den iPhones.

Es geht primär um das Image einer ganzen Branche, die nicht verstehen will, dass sich mit einem schlechten Gattungsimage in Zukunft unter Umständen weniger Geld verdienen lässt als mit einem noch nicht ganz klaren Geschäftsmodell.

Umso wichtiger ist es deshalb, dass Radiosender beim Thema Social Media kurzfristig mehr Gas geben.

Facebook zum Beispiel bietet Radiosendern die einmalige Chance, die Kundenkommunikation zu verbessern und Glaubwürdigkeit bei Hörern und Werbern aufzubauen.

Ein Radiosender, der Facebook nicht als Verkaufskanal versteht, sondern als Quelle für Co-Creation mit den Hörern sowie als Touch Point mit Meinungsführern, schlägt drei Fliegen mit einer Klappe:

1) Hörergetriebener Content (überraschend, kreativ, glaubwürdig, hörernah, günstig)

2) Innovatives Branding

3) Marktforschung mit Fans (Feedback vom Hörer zum Programm)

Keep Going!!!

Happy Birthday, Totalni FM!

2010-11-22T11:29:00.005+01:00

In this case we really mean "birthday" because last Wednesday morning, a new nationwide radio station network in Croatia started going on air.

Its name is Totalni FM.

Here’s a video the team made to capture the starting moments. Enjoy watching and listening!

Großer Frequenzenwechsel in Berlin steht bevor

2010-11-12T11:57:00.006+01:00

4 Sender tauschen in Berlin ab 1. Dezember 2010 ihre Frequenzen.

Außerdem kommt wohl oldiestar auf der bisherigen Frequenz von Radio Paradiso neu hinzu im Berliner Radiomarkt, wozu jedoch eine endgültige gerichtliche Entscheidung noch aussteht.

Hier die Übersicht der alten und neuen Frequenzen in der Hauptstadt:

Quelle: radioWOCHE

Interview mit Stephan Schmitter

2010-11-09T13:51:00.004+01:00

promedia - Das medienpolitische Magazin führte kürzlich ein Interview mit Radio Center Berlin Geschäftsführer Stephan Schmitter. Die wichtigsten Aussagen werden so zusammengefasst:

"Das analoge Radio funktioniert auf der einen Seite nach wie vor sehr gut, weil jeder problemlos seinen regionalen Lieblingssender und seine gewohnte Marke hören kann. Auf der anderen Seite sind wir längst in der Zukunft angekommen und bespielen alle digitalen Verbreitungswege, die aus unserer Sicht sinnvoll und bezahlbar sind", so der Geschäftsführer der beiden Berliner Radiosender 104.6 RTL und 105'5 Spreeradio. Diese Meinung verdeutlicht die Position der meisten privaten Radiosender. Während Regiocast weiter für eine nationale DAB-Verbreitung eintritt und sich auch für eine Frequenz beworben hat, lehnt die RTL-Radiogruppe DAB als Alternative zu UKW ab. "DAB oder DABplus ist für einen privaten Radioanbieter in der jetzigen Form nicht finanzierbar", so Schmitter.

Zugleich betont der RTL-Radiomann, dass die Nutzung der Radioangebote Online und über Apps deutlich zunimmt: "Unsere Apps werden momentan 10.000-fach heruntergeladen und landen regelmäßig in den Top Ten-Listen des App-Stores." Inzwischen seien mit den Apps auch Erlöse zu generieren. „Es ist ein Geschäftsmodell, das von Monat zu Monat, von Jahr zu Jahr besser wird. Das ist aus unserer Sicht vielversprechender als DAB."

New UK webradio player will include public & private stations

2010-10-21T14:03:00.013+02:00

A new online player for both public (BBC) and private radio stations from the United Kingdom was presented in England yesterday.

This is what British newspaper The Guardian writes about the project:

'iPlayer for radio' set for December launch
Radio streaming application containing content from BBC and commercial stations unveiled at Radio Festival in Salford

A BBC-backed radio streaming application with the potential to allow users access to audio content from more than 400 stations nationwide is to launch in December.

The first working version of the UK Radioplayer project – dubbed 'the iPlayer for radio' – was unveiled at the annual Radio Festival in Salford yesterday.

Content from about 50 radio stations, both BBC and commercial, will be available when the site goes live in December, with 150 more on board at the time of full commercial launch in February 2011.

Click here to read the whole article.

No, new music doesn't suck

2010-10-05T13:08:00.004+02:00

Please enjoy this excellent article written for the Huffington Post by our partner Jeff Pollack in Los Angeles:

"I have been struck by the number of comments to some of my recent blogs about the continued deterioration of the traditional music business, that the main culprit (other than the greed of the labels) is the low quality of new music today. But it's simply not the case. This tired argument has been used by each succeeding generation after they pass through their primary music discovery years. Somehow, the music from the era they grew up in represented a special window of innovation and quality that will never be duplicated.

In the past 50 years, it's certainly true that there have been a handful of bands and artists whose originality, lyrics, and musicianship have provided us with timeless music that resonates with a wide range of ages. And among those artists, there are a small number of remarkable gems - what I like to call "100-Year Artists"- who like Gershwin, will be listened to forever. But these are few and far between, historical aberrations that emanated from the real world of contemporary music and transcended any era. We talk about Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd still today because they were Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, not because they existed in the past.

It's easy to forget that the majority of music of every era and every genre was disposable. We forget that The Beatles flourished at the same time as Freddie and the Dreamers and Herman Hermits. Joplin and The Doors were released around the time of the Monkees and Tommy James. So many of the guilty pleasures of the 80's, like the Buggles and Flock of Seagulls, had little to do with real quality but were of a time, place, and mood. In each era, a few bands are truly great, but mostly the old disposable music is replaced by equally forgettable songs... no different than what is being produced by Idol today."

To read the whole article, please click here.

Is the U.S. Music Download Boom over?

2010-09-28T11:43:00.004+02:00

The latest report of Nielsen Music reveals that music downloads in the USA are at a turning point.

While music downloads in Germany are still going up - by 19% in the first half of the year, the numbers in the U.S. haven’t grown in the same period. It seems that the U.S. market for music downloads is saturated.

As the United States market is regarded as a predicting market for Europe, losing dynamics there is already making the music industry here in Europe nervous.

Nielsen General Manager Jean Littolff is looking for explanations: “As soon as the traditional music buyers have completed to transfer their CDs to MP3 the download potential for ‘old music’ will go down rapidly.”

There might also be other reasons to consider, says music consultant Christoph Pöschl (CEO Brand Support):
“After people have downloaded all the songs from their lives' soundtracks, it is really hard for them to find new songs and 'new old songs' that sound like the favorites they used to love in the past. Therefore recommendation management connected with people’s personal sound preference will become more important in the future in order to motivate people to listen to and buy new
'old music' and new music that sounds familiar.”

New Study: 6 Types of Social Media Users

2010-09-27T17:38:00.003+02:00

Social Media is THE hot topic in all media discussions at the moment. We at Brand Support know this from discussing the possibilities social media platforms offer with our clients. Now a new global study called “MePublic” and presented by MTV Networks and car manufacturer Volkswagen gives you an idea who uses social media and to what extent. For the study, young people (14-29-year-olds) in 10 countries (Mexico, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) were asked how they use social networks.

The study identifies 6 different types of users:

The “Mediacs” are the largest group with 23%. They are very much committed to social networks and spend more than 160 minutes there every day. More than a quarter of Mediacs (28%) access the communities via mobile phones.

The “Tagtics” (22%) tend to use the platforms to get specific pieces of information. They are not as committed as the Mediacs.

The third largest group (17%) can already be referred to as skeptics: “Skipits” keep their distance from social networks. They have a hard time recognizing the point of such communities. It must be added that they also use other media less.

“Funatics” are mainly looking for entertainment in social networks and prefer to observe what the others are doing instead of becoming active themselves. Two thirds of Funatics are female.

“Crewsers” (13%) see social networks mainly as a place for exchange with friends.

Almost as big as the Crewsers group is the group of those who do not want to use social networks or tried it once and then quit: the “Nobuddies” (12%). As their reasons for quitting they named having no time, being afraid of becoming addicted or being harassed by others. A quarter of "Nobuddies" does not want to join the networks because of data protection concerns.

It should be noted that social networks are only used daily by a little more than half of all 14-29-year-olds (58%). In the study, television is in first place with 69% daily use.

As radio people we certainly have to add that in reality our “good old radio” is in the lead, which is still used by approx. 80% of the total population and by more than 70% of 14-29-year-olds every day.

Sources: wuv (German), Volkswagen press release (English)

Broadcast Symposium 2010

2010-09-15T10:09:00.007+02:00

The continuation of a tradition: bci & Foster Kent Broadcast Symposium on November 13 in Nürnberg!

bci and Foster Kent, the music production company from Salzburg (Austria) are starting the ‚autumn sound campaign‘ on the radio: Meeting point for an intense, creative and future-oriented exchange at the „Broadcast Symposium“ is November 13 in Nürnberg (Germany). With this event the bci Group and Foster Kent are continuing an established tradition.

The focus will be on new trends from the areas of ‘Acoustic CI’, ‘On Air Marketing’ and ‘New Media’. The Broadcast Symposium is specially tailored for the medium radio and the choice of all topics is based on the daily business at a radio station.

The event is addressed at all station managers, program directors and managers as well as heads of design.

The one-day symposium will create the right atmosphere for an intense exchange and discussions with speakers and colleagues. This event gives you the opportunity to get to know methods, techniques and tips and tricks of other ‘radio people’.

Don’t miss Jochen Lukas’ workshop “Data meets Creativity – Defining your perfect (music) positioning with research”. We hope to see you there!

Interesting Article on Local Radio

2010-08-12T11:54:00.004+02:00

We found this in our friend Nik Goodman's blog and would like to share it with you.

You can find more radio related articles in his blog at http://nikgoodman.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

The Real Reason for the Repetition Problem in Radio

2010-04-28T11:16:00.006+02:00

Check that out!

Axis Of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles)

New Radio Expres Campaign

2010-03-18T11:15:00.004+01:00

Radio Expres is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year - congratulations!

The slogan of their new campaign "Už 10 rokov vo svojom živle" means "Already for 10 years in your mood".

Along with the campaign comes a cute little video game where you can feed the fish.

RadioAsia 2010 in New Delhi – a unique experience!

2010-03-03T15:03:00.014+01:00

by Jochen Lukas

After having been held in Singapore for several years, RadioAsia, the main radio convention in the Asian region, moved to New Delhi (India) this year. As in previous years the broadcast partner (Brand Support & bci) were co-sponsor of the event and also participated in the convention with a workshop (’10 Great Elements of Great FM Radio’) and a speech (‘How we became Top of the Market’).

What makes this conference so fascinating is that completely different worlds meet in one place. Radio professionals from highly developed radio markets like Malaysia (currently preparing to go digital) or Japan meet with ‘radio freaks’ from countries that are still in their very early stages of development – such as Pakistan or Indonesia.

A special focus this year was on radio in India. It is a fascinating market, serving one of the largest nations in the world – with currently around 270 stations all over India. At the moment India is preparing for the so-called ‘phase III roll-out’. This should result in the ‘birth’ of another 800 (!) radio stations and the digitalization in 2012 (although 2015 seems to be more realistic). Looking at the way they lay their cables, anything else will be an improvement!
The strongest station network is still the ‘public’ All India Radio (AIR) (with its many different channels), which is also the only station network allowed to broadcast news and services. Until now private radio stations in India must focus on ‘music and entertainment only’. But this is currently under discussion and very likely to change in the upcoming years. At the moment it seems that in a first step private radios will be allowed to broadcast news and information provided by AIR.

Private radio stations are rapidly growing – with Radio Mirchi, a station network, being the strongest private radio brand. Most private stations play very similar formats, primarily based on the highly popular Bollywood music and only very few ‘international hits’. A number of other formats do exist, e.g. Meow FM, a station ‘just for women’, but their market success is limited (similar to ‘niche formats’ in Europe). (Pictured: Wolfram Tech of bci & Nitin Gupta of Meow FM)

Besides the conference, Delhi itself with its estimated 20 million inhabitants is an amazing experience. Loud, smoggy and crazy, with great food and tuk-tuk drivers that always take you to the same ‘buy a carpet or a Pashmina shawl’ people, no matter which address you give them :-) If you don’t drive a hard bargain from the beginning, they will always rip you off. And forget about ‘western sales seminars’ – you’ll never learn more than from the experience of an Indian carpet salesman bargaining with you for more than an hour over the price of a carpet, telling you the most entertaining and incredible stories while doing so.

India, we will definitely come back and long to see more of your madness!

Radio FM1 increases market share by 25%

2010-01-22T14:39:00.000+01:00

According to the latest official ratings in Switzerland, our client Radio FM1 from the St. Gallen area was able to increase its market share by 25% in the second half of 2009 compared to the first semester.

The number of daily listeners rose slightly again to 180,000, while the daily TSL went up to the excellent figure of 55 minutes. That resulted in the above-mentioned increase in market share both in German-speaking Switzerland and in the Radio FM1 coverage area.

Radio FM1 was launched in May 2008 as a merger of Radio Aktuell from St. Gallen and Radio Ri from Buchs. The teams of Brand Support and bci helped FM1 before, during and after the merging process with image and music research studies and programme consulting.

Radio 2030 - kultig oder trendy?

2009-11-30T10:12:00.001+01:00

Um zum Vortrag von Christoph Pöschl bei den Frankfurter Hörfunkgesprächen 2009 zu gelangen, klicken Sie bitte hier.

Sie haben dort die Möglichkeit, die PDF-Datei anzusehen sowie herunterzuladen oder auszudrucken.

Antena Zagreb - another ratings record - and more

2009-11-12T14:22:00.001+01:00

- by Jochen Lukas, Partner & Consultant at Brand Support

30% core share, 27% daily reach and 47% weekly reach in Zagreb - Antena Zagreb continues its amazing success story with another ratings record! Only 1 1/2 years after its launch, Antena Zagreb dominates the Zagreb radio market and is now with 10.3% core share less than 1% behind the number one in share in the total country of Croatia - as a 'wider Zagreb only' city station. Congratulations to the Antena Zagreb team! You are doing a great job!

So far the facts. But the big question always is: why are some stations so successful? As a consultant you have the great privilege to experience many stations from the inside. The interesting thing is that often you can immediately 'feel' the success factor when you go in. You hear people laughing and discussing, you see open doors, see guitars, toys and lots of pictues on the walls. You come in and someone immediately wants you to listen to something they did. Maybe completely 'out of format', but let's listen. You realize that there is a bunch of people who LIVE their station and create a spirit of creativity and motivation. And I am 100% sure that the listeners outside catch that spirit.

Now getting back to Antena Zagreb, let me give you one example. Goran, the 'creative animal' of Antena Zagreb, wrote the following to me:

"So we have a problem here because journalists/newspapers/portals often say RADIO ANTENA. Which isn't true because we are ANTENA ZAGREB, right?

Now we are sending them a video with our hip-hop-like song with lyrics:
Dear journalists, always same fuck up.

It's not Radio Antena, but Antena Zagreb!

(In Croatian it rhymes.)"

Watch the clip. Feel the spirit. Just 10 seconds, even 'not in format' - but I am convinced that these 10 seconds tell a long story. And I believe you understand what I meant above by saying some people LIVE their station.

Radiodays Europe

2009-11-02T17:34:00.000+01:00

Next year, a new radio industry event will take place for the first time: RADIODAYS EUROPE on March 18 and 19 in Copenhagen (Denmark). The people behind it say they would like it to be a different kind of radio conference.

A website for the event has been set up already. Information on the programme, the speakers as well as tickets and registration will follow in December.

We are curious to find out more and are looking forward to the event.

New Jingles for Radio Ena

2009-10-23T12:04:00.000+02:00

Under the guidance of Markus Kahn (bci - the broadcast partner) Slovenia's most popular radio station Radio Ena produced its new jingles inhouse.

Hear and see the results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2iLaGmifX4

Music Challenge

2009-10-22T17:31:00.000+02:00

Improve your music knowledge with this funny Facebook game.
Find out if the hooks are cut right or not...

For PDs and MDs

http://apps.facebook.com/music-challenge/?rf=wall_upi&ref=mf

Radio 24 - New Ratings Record

2009-07-21T15:54:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of the year Radio 24 optimized its programme and music based on the results from a strategic Mapping study.

According to the new ratings from Switzerland the new strategy is already paying off: Already at #1, the Zurich based Radio 24 improved its daily reach from 250,000 to 286,000 listeners. The station's daily reach (Monday to Friday) even went up to more than 300,000 listeners.

This year Radio 24 is also celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The Swiss station has never had better ratings in its entire history than today.

Congratulations and happy birthday!

Radio Ramasuri becomes Local Station #1 in Bavaria

2009-07-13T12:17:00.000+02:00

Radio Ramasuri general manager Thomas Conrad is always looking for new opportunities. Now he has made his station the #1 local station in Bavaria.

According to the new TNS ratings Radio Ramasuri increases its daily reach 14+ from 24.5% to 30%. Radio Ramasuri is now the most listened to local radio station in Bavaria.

Based on a Brand Support Mapping study we set up an action plan for Radio Ramasuri to improve their music and programming. With music tests and music call-out we have found the right songs for the new music strategy. More concentration on music, more emotions, more focus on relevant regional information helped the station to become stronger than before.

Thomas Conrad: "There is still potential".

Congratulations!

Hitradio Ö3: New Image Campaign

2009-07-02T12:19:00.000+02:00

Have fun with the new image campaign of Hitradio Ö3.

It can be seen in movie theaters all over Austria.

You can win if you count the number of balloons correctly.

Click here: >>zum offiziellen Ö3 Sommervideo<<

Hit Radio FFH Relaunch

2009-07-02T11:40:00.000+02:00

Hit Radio FFH has relaunched its programme on the 1st of July.

A lot of things are new:

1) The whole performance (brand design, logo, sound design) is much fresher and more adult oriented.
The sound design was produced by Groove Addicts in L.A. which guarantees a certain pop rock approach.

2) A new morning show with more entertaining benchmarks that fit the lifestyle of the target group. More interactive elements. But a more adult, clearer and less commercial approach.

3) The music plays a bigger role. It is more mix-driven with more 'Kult Hits' and 'Rock Hits' from the 80s and 90s.

4) In the afternoon there is a new show concept with the former morning host Johannes Scherer: more fun, more music -> the definite opposite of boring.

Hit Radio FFH now gives the listeners even more opportunities to be recalled during the rating periode in autumn.

Listen now and have fun: http://www.ffh.de/webradio

Neue Kampagne. Mehr Musik. Capital FM dreht auf.

2009-04-22T09:32:00.000+02:00

„Die grössten Klassiker, die aktuellsten Hits“. Die neue Werbekampagne von Capital FM unterstreicht bildhaft und irritierend kunstvoll das Programm-Konzept des Hauptstadtradios. Zur Profilstärkung des Berner Leaders in Sachen Hördauer tragen sowohl die grossen Klassiker der Kunstgeschichte als auch aktuelle Musikstars bei. Mit der Lancierung der Kampagne baut Capital FM das Musikprogramm weiter aus.

Das Hauptstadtradio Capital FM ergänzt sein Musikprogramm mit noch mehr Klassikern aus den 60ern, 70er und 80ern und setzt dieses bewährte Programm-Konzept in Form der neuen Werbekampagne bildhaft in Szene.

Realisiert wurden Plakate, Inserate, Internet-, Tram-, Bus- und Rikschawerbung, sowie TV- und Kino-Spots. Mit dem neuen Slogan „Die grössten Klassiker, die aktuellsten Hits“ unterstreicht Capital FM sein unverwechselbares Musikprofil, welches bereits zur längsten Hördauer unter den Berner Lokalradios geführt hat. Durchschnittlich 60.5 Minuten pro Tag geniessen erwachsene Bernerinnen und Berner ihr Hauptstadtradio und schätzen das vielseitige Programm mit seiner hohen Informationskompetenz.

In der neuen Werbekampagne sind aktuelle Musikstars in Klassikern der Kunstgeschichte zu erkennen. Eine überraschende und äusserst freche Umsetzung als Spiegel des Hauptstadtradios Capital FM.

Die TV-Spots wurden im Kunstmuseum Bern aufgenommen und sind bei YouTube hier und hier zu finden.

Head or gut – or how much market research does music on the radio need?

2009-03-16T13:32:00.000+01:00

By Justus Fischer, On Air Digital

Music and mathematics are more closely connected than most people may think. As early as several hundred years B.C. Pythagoras experimented on a simple guitar and noticed that the basic musical intervals can be described by simple numerical ratios. In this way the first scale in history was created with the help of maths. And today brain research studies confirm that musicians have better spatial imagination and are more capable in the field of mathematics. Numbers and music have always belonged together, even if some people may find the connection between emotional music and dry numbers very strange.

Market researchers promise the nearly transparent listener and optimal market exploitation. But when it comes to radio stations that are confronted with research data for the first time, their reservations against this system often seem insurmountable. Music directors and editors worry that they will lose their creativity. They fear for their influence and dread letting music planning be influenced by a method they do not yet fully comprehend. They prefer relying on their experience and their gut feeling. Here, market researchers and consultants are sometimes challenged even psychologically in order to alleviate the program makers’ distrust. In addition to that, their best analytical abilities are required because the raw results which are presented in seemingly boring Excel tables have to be read and interpreted correctly.

Call-outs or results of an online test where listeners rate each track, Mapping studies which take a detailed look at a market, listening habits and musical preferences of listeners or continuous tracking with which the development in the market is monitored permanently – all of those methods cough up a vast quantity of numbers in the end.

But what amount and which kind of music research does a radio station need? On the one hand, this certainly depends on the necessary cash, but also on the market and the target group on the other hand. In a young and fast-paced segment it is advisable to look at numbers in the form of call-outs on a weekly basis. The results tell you exactly which tracks are particularly popular with the listeners at the moment and which current songs are already past their zenith and are no longer justifiable in heavy rotation. After all, such formats appeal to a dynamic audience that is constantly looking for new musical inspiration.

In an Oldies format, however, the popularity of individual songs normally will only change marginally over the years. Therefore a singular test of the back catalogue is sufficient to begin with. But a detailed Mapping study should be conducted to find out which music styles are relevant at all for the listenership targeted.

In a highly competitive radio market where many stations want a piece of the cake that’s as big as possible, figures gained from tracking are particularly valuable. They reflect the current market situation and provide precise information on the popularity of the music mix, the presenters, the news, the comedy or the current competition.

The only form of market research where numbers hardly play a role are focus groups in which a psychologist explores the emotional ties of the listeners to the station.

As a general rule you can say that the more intense the competitive environment is, the more advisable it is to conduct reliable research. Results from market research provide the coordinates for the right calculation of the route towards the target. All wrong tracks can be ruled out from the outset.

But as with the bible there is more than one way of interpreting research data. In an air check session or a strategic meeting adult people can argue for hours about one single number because even a decision based on plain figures likes to be made emotionally. Here it can be seen that music research is perfectly complemented by the often quoted ‘gut feeling’.

Music research is indispensible in the daily work of a music department. Nobody can afford to do without such figures. They provide the basis for decisions that make sense. But the interpretation of the results requires sensitivity and intuition. What’s more, market research does not provide information on one crucial aspect. Which impulse might be pivotal for the future of the station is still to be decided by the management on a gut level. A mathematical formula for success unfortunately does not exist yet.

New Radio Expres TV Spot - Enjoy!

2009-02-09T17:29:00.000+01:00

Enjoy the very latest Radio Expres TV campaign spot. And for those who haven’t recently practised their Slovak: The slogan “Bavi nas - bavit vas” can be translated as “We enjoy entertaining you” or “We love to entertain you”.

New Ratings in Switzerland - Congratulations FM1!!!

2009-01-21T11:13:00.000+01:00

10 months after relaunch FM1 is the winner of the Swiss ratings that have just been released today by Publica Data.

In the audience measurement figures for the second semester of 2008 the development for the German-speaking part of Switzerland looks like this: The stations of public broadcaster DRS reign supreme because of their national coverage. Despite slight losses they continue to score the highest market shares.

In the group of commercial stations Radio 24 can defend its peak position and keep its net reach of 250,000. Clearly behind it in second place is Energy Zürich (200,000) which is able to gain market share thanks to a higher average TSL. Zürisee and Pilatus remain at the same level as in the first semester of 2008, while Argovia and Radio Top lose net reach.

For those stations that were launched in 2008 the situation is different: Radio FM1 can clearly gain both reach (164,000) and market share while Roger Schawinski’s Radio 1 loses more than 30% of its net reach compared to the first semester of 2008 (from 107,000 to 74,700).

Congratulations to FM1 for their excellent performance!

Test our MusicMind 2.0 update

2009-01-16T15:47:00.000+01:00

Faster, better design, more comfortable are the magic words for the changes from MusicMind 1.0 to MusicMind 2.0.

Test the new version of www.musicmind2.eu
The login will be sent to you by sending an email to: sonja.schuhknecht@brandsupport.de

At the end of January MusicMind webinars will be available for you to learn how to use it best.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-08T11:54:00.000+01:00

Dear Friends, Partners, Clients,

an exciting and challenging new year 2009 is waiting for us.

Although the financial crisis effects budgets for good quality programming and station marketing in a negative way, a crisis is always a chance to change things into a positive direction.

Two effects are already visible:

1) Strategic thinking and great ideas found through qualitative research will get more important this year.

2) Furthermore the management will be able to chance irrelevant rules and structures faster than under normal conditions to save costs and gain space for more creativity at the same time.

Brand Support wishes all of you a successful new year.

Radio 1 Xmas Greetings from Slowenia's #1 Station

2008-12-22T13:39:00.000+01:00

Xmas Vidoes are quite popular among radio stations.

After Antena Zagreb und Ö3 we now receided the third one.

Have fun!

You're just one click from Xmas

http://www.radio1.si/?p=video&id=27273

The 10 Essential Elements of Great Radio

2008-12-19T15:08:00.000+01:00

1. Great On-Air Talent

Employ the best morning show talent you can afford
Develop the real characters within your talent and some fun comedy characters
Make sure you have talent on your station that shapes public opinion

2. Imaginative Music Programming

Keep the music fresh and the listeners interested with special ‘themed weekends’
Sprinkle the output with fun and engaging daily music features
Highlight and reinforce your stations core sound / core artists with exclusive previews and premieres

3. Creative Promotions

Run promotions that listeners want to get involved with and are interested in listening to… even if they don’t take part!
Create promotions that your listeners want to tell their friends and family about
Extend the promotion into other media and find suitable partners to maximise your impact

4. Listener Focused

Closely define your target audience and be absolutely focused on delivering radio for them
Get to know as much as possible about your target listeners. By truly understanding them, you can create the radio they want
Care passionately about your listeners. Be your listener’s best friend!

5. Be Local

Make your station an essential part of everyday life in your area. Deliver great local news and information. Being really local is immensely powerful
Champion the area you broadcast to! Your station should be the Number 1 cheerleader for all the places it broadcasts to. Your station loves living there!
Reflect local issues and concerns and even take on local causes being the focal point of any campaigning

6. Outstanding Benchmarks

Create benchmarks that listeners want to come back to you for time and time again. Make unmissable radio!
Develop some specific ‘listener appointments’ at key times across different dayparts
Become famous for a specific benchmark, so that listeners say “I love that station, because they do… insert your own brilliant benchmark here!”

7. Be Consistent

We live in a complicated and unpredictable world. Give listeners what they want and expect from your radio station, and they’ll trust and rely on you
Resist the temptation to change things for the sake of change
Brand building takes time. Be patient!

8. Be Surprising

Consistency doesn’t have to be boring! Don’t give listeners the chance to get bored with your station or allow them to feel you are mundane
Regularly do something different or give familiar content a little ‘spike’ or twist
Occasionally, you should do something that makes your listeners turn up the radio to make sure they heard it correctly!

9. Be Unique

The world is full of ‘sound-a-like’ radio stations. Make yours stand out from the crowd
Encourage unique presenters that having something to say. Your talent should differentiate you every time
Create radio that hasn’t been heard before in your market with new shows, features and promotions

10. Power of Emotion

Radio is brilliant at conveying the full range of human emotions. Encourage your presenters to explore this on air. Don’t let them be boring!
Allow listeners to show sadness or anger as well as happiness and joy
‘Contrast’ provides a far more interesting dynamic to your station. Use it and your station will stand out from the crowd

Thanks to Nik Goodman for gathering the essetials of Great Radio

X-mas Greetings from Hitradio Ö3

2008-12-18T15:45:00.000+01:00

Austria's Hitradio #1 sends X-mas greatings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9d6vWUztI

Radio’s Newest Strategy: Play a Hit, Again and Again

2008-12-09T16:03:00.000+01:00

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30 — For the millions of Americans who listened to Top 40 radio last week, it was almost impossible to miss “Apologize,” the string-tinged elegy performed by the modern rock band OneRepublic and remixed by the eclectic producer Timbaland ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/arts/music/01one.html?_r=3

Thanks to Thijs Bakker - Head of Music Strategy radio NRW

Welcome to the new Brand Support Blog

2008-12-05T13:45:00.000+01:00

Brand Support has started its new ‘blog’! This blog is a service for national and international Brand Support clients, partners and friends who want to be updated on activities of Brand Support and associated radio stations on a regular basis.

Brand Support will continuously give you insights into:

- Great ideas
- Exchange and networking
- Radio business in different countries
- New services
- Votes on current business topics
- Station of the month

In the long run we expect this blog to be an exchange platform for our clients and friends.
Therefore we invite you to send us stories, ideas, videos, pictures from your stations and to write comments to the existing posts.

Enjoy it!

Christoph Pöschl

Antena Zagreb Xmas Video

2008-11-26T12:18:00.000+01:00

Antena Zagreb turns out to be one of the most creative radio station in Europe.

Antena Zagreb's station staff from Djs to management produced a video based on the legendary Allstar Xmas Hit 'Do they know it's Xmas Time'. Have a look at the latest campagne.

Congratulations Radio Expres!

2008-11-26T10:24:00.001+01:00

According to the latest MML Media Analysis 3-2008 in Slovakia, Radio Expres can not only sustain its amazing Daily Reach of 22.8% of all Slovakians (14-79 years), but was able to even gain market share, going from 25.8% to 27.1%.

The Daily Reach is the highest number Radio Expres has ever had in its history.

These results come despite growing competition in the Slovakian radio market and are yet another great success for this award winning station!

Radio.de is frustrating

2008-11-16T14:45:00.000+01:00

Radio business is under pressure. In almost every conversation between radio broadcasters you can hear and feel the danger that comes from new media: Ipod, webcasts, lastfm, google are the key words for this decease that can make broadcasters jobless.

On the other hand radio could do much better in avoiding to loose influence on its audience.
One example:
Just try to setup a blog. There are a lot of so called 'widgets' means features you can put on your blog to make it more entertaining: video bars from youtube, music news from MTV, weather forecasts from CNN.

But if you simply try to find a radio widget you are lost. First option is lastfm. But like most other listeners you might just want to listen to your favorite radio station. So you try to find it. Finally in a secondary layer there is the option to choose 'radio.de'. It is a new service for listening to FM radio stations online.

You post it to your widget list. Looks as if it works. You are now searching for your station. It takes veeeerrrryyyy long to select stations. In the end your favorite station is not on the list. So you choose an alternative station. You finally start the blog again. Unfortunately the station could not be saved - you give up.

This is not the way radio should be represented on the Web 2.0.

If radio wants to stay attractive it should be available as easy as any other widgets.

(You can try it your on: radio.de is posted on the right side)

Antena Zagreb nearly doubled ratings

2008-11-14T17:59:00.000+01:00

New ratings are out in Zagreb.

Antena Zagreb almost doubled ratings since the station launch in May.
Ratings heavily increased in weekly, daily reach and favourite station at the overall audience in the capital city of Zagreb.

Weekly Reach
Grad Zagreb

June 2008 27,8%
July 2008 25,6%
Aug 2008 29,8%
Sep 2008 36,1%
Oct 2008 39,0%

Congratulations Antena!!!

2008-11-14T17:32:00.001+01:00

‚Die Musikimages bei Männern 20-39 Jahren brechen ein’ ruft der Programmchef in den Musikredaktion, ‚Was können wir dagegen unternehmen?’
„Nein. Nicht schon wieder“ denkt sich der Musikchef. „Wir hatten doch erst vor ein paar Wochen eine ähnliche Geschichte. Jetzt muss ich mir wieder alle Research-Ergebnisse zusammensuchen. Ich habe zwar alle Daten in der Musikplanungssoftware aber doch nur für die Gesamtzielgruppe, nicht aber für die Spezialzielgruppe Männer 20-39 Jahre“
Wer über eine Music Mind Datenbank von Brand Support verfügt, bekommt bei dieser Aufgabenstellung keinen Schweißausbruch. Alle Music Research Ergebnisse unabhängig ob aus Call-outs oder Electronic Music Tests liegen in allen möglichen Auswertungsvarianten bereit. Man muss sich die Werte nicht langwierig zusammensuchen oder irgendwo Dateien herunterladen. Einfach Online gehen, einloggen und schon geht es los.
In kurzer Zeit kann notfalls die gesamte Musikrotation komplett überarbeitet werden.
„Zunächst suchen wir mal die besten Pop Rock Songs aus den 80ern. Da haben wir laut Trackings den größten Nachholbedarf.“ sagt der Programmchef „Wir geben 1980-1989 ein. Sortieren die Songs nach Beliebtheit. Das sieht Klasse aus. Die nehmen wir alle. Das wird unseren männlichen Hörern 20-39 Jahren gefallen. Wenn Du die Songs markierst, kannst Du Sie gleich in mit dem Kategorielabel ‚81 - Power 80er’ markieren. Wir machen gleich noch ein ‚Kult 80er’ Label dran, dann haben wir die Songs für das Promo auch gleich. Das passt. Morgen gehen wir damit On-Air. Effektiver geht’s nicht“