Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL), talks to Priyanka Mehra on 10 years of 92.7 Big FM, younger audiences enjoying retro, how Mumbai and Delhi have distinctly different tastes in music, and the network’s consumer-centric strategy
Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL), believes that one can never create a winning product with marginal differentiation. “We are clear that we don’t want to play the marginal difference game, because as per my experience, we attained leadership only when we adopted a unique position in the market,” he explains, referring to 92.7 Big FM from RBNL, which completed a decade of existence on September 24, 2016 and saw revenue growth of 30% in 15-16 over 14-15 and EBIDTA growth of 37% in 15-16.
Katial believes that consumer-centricity needs to be at the core of everything. “You could worry that you are at the corner of the street and alone, but maybe it is better to be alone than to be with the crowd,” he says. “Our mission for the year is to increase the level of consumer-centricity in the organization, and we have created many touch-points of understanding the consumers better. This is going to give us a stronger competitive edge and help us keep sharpening the line of products and consumer insights.”
EXPANDING THE NETWORK : Big FM made a marked investment in the Phase III auctions held a few months ago by increasing its coverage footprint and adding 14 new frequencies to the earlier 45, in addition to sales tie-ups in Ahmedabad and Siliguri, taking the total number of frequencies to 61 cities in all. Currently, Big FM gets 30-35% of its revenue from small towns and mini metros, and aims to increase this to 45% with the launch of the proposed stations. Mini metros clearly play a pivotal role in the radio network’s growth strategy. New additions include Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Patna, Varanasi and Kolhapur, among others. The overall network now covers all four ‘A+’ category towns, seven out of nine ‘A’ category towns and 12 out of 17 ‘B’ category towns.
THE RETRO GAMBLE: Changing its format to retro has undeniably been a game-changer for the radio network. The channel adopted the retro format in Delhi in 2011 and later in Mumbai in 2013. This resulted in steady leadership for the past three years in Mumbai with one of its flagship shows ‘Suhaana Safar’ hosted by Annu Kapoor being one of the most listened to shows.
The risk of going retro paid off, giving a boost to the business and a jump in ad rates. Talking about the strategy for the new bouquet of channels, Katial says that Big FM will make it a point to do only things in line with consumer expectations.
“The strength of radio is in its local understanding -- local consumers and local network. There will always be shows which are high impact shows like ‘Suhaana Safar’ which will find their way into all our radio stations, but largely the formats get decided on the basis of local consumer insights and needs. We don’t want to impose a format on to a city just because it is successful in another. We believe consumers differ in every city and we are not going to make that mistake,” he adds.
Here are edited excerpts from the freewheeling conversation with Tarun Katial:
Q] Given the kind of music you play, are you going away from the younger population?
I think the younger audience loves retro and our target audience is 25-44.
Q] What about the 15-25 audience?
They are not our core target. Domains like Banking and Finance, FMCG, Real Estate, will advertise more with us. You have to win some to lose some. Everybody does something which suits their core target audience and I think that there is a great advertiser and audience match that we offer.
Q] Why haven’t you got second radio stations in the same city, like your competitors?
We are already at the maximum cap of 45. So when we were making the choice, we were already missing mini metros and key metros, so we had to get that footprint right. Within that available list, we didn’t have anything left. But given a choice, we would, and if there were new frequencies opening up, we would look at Mumbai and Delhi as an opportunity.
Q] Is that a disadvantage from a sales perspective?
You can sell in two ways: one, where I’m selling for that geography locally to retail, I can get some advantage by having two radio stations. But 70-80% of our revenue is national and corporate where people are not looking at having two stations in one city, but they are looking to buy network coverage across the country. We have the largest footprint in the country and that sets us apart from others.
Q] What is the differentiated offering that you give advertisers?
We maintain our edge through local insights and one of our key gains is a differentiated format; so wherever we play, our approach has been to play a unique format in every city which is driven by local consumer insights. Moreover, we don’t duplicate formats – other people may duplicate our formats, but we don’t, and that is our clear strategy in every market. If something is working well for somebody in any market, then it is working for them, but if we are going to do the same thing, it is highly unlikely that it is going to work for us too, because the consumer is already getting what he wants from them. We will only be able to do marginally better than them. So, unless we have a very radical idea of how we can do it differently, we won’t do it.
Q] How has Big FM evolved over the last 10 years?
We have used a lot of technology to upgrade our productivity, both on the product side and the sales side. On the sales side, we have the new productivity tool called CRM Next, which measures and allows us to measure client relationships, inputs, etc. Even on the content, programming and research front, we are making use of the latest technology. We have created a back office in Surat, which deals with all our traffic and scheduling, and we have also created a knowledge hub there. In the last 10 years, we have done a lot of things to make the organization more nimble and forward-looking. We have changed the game on branded content from creating content to creating insights-driven content.
Q] What is your digital strategy?
For us, video is a big game in Digital. Increasingly, we are taking the radio station live like celebrity interviews, etc. We use Facebook Live and we also record and stream it so we are using video format in a big way for our digital reach. We are different from others as our formats are very unique. For example, for Bollywood storytelling like ‘Suhaana Safar’, we are going to do pictorial stories. Moreover, Digital is being used as a tool for engagement at one level. On the other level, it is being used as a content tool and it is a platform to broadcast content. We are increasingly using social platforms to put content out there for consumers to engage and come back to us, communicate to us and relate to us and within that, the brand message and the core message is embedded. We also do live digital engagements during our breakfast show and it involves topical subjects.
Q] What are the interesting insights from your ongoing research?
In Mumbai, one of the key things people like about retro is that instead of representing the bustle that they are in, it is an antidote or an antithesis of what they would want life to be, which is calm and peaceful. On the other hand, in Delhi, people want more upbeat kind of music. Such interesting insights are sharpening our music play-out. Our work around music is becoming more curated and we have hired a lot of music experts who are just working on music and making our playlists.
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