Austereo gets ready for Pink Radio
Austereo has revealed the next step in its plans for digital radio – a station that will be on air for three months dedicated to pop singer Pink’s Australian tour.
Pink Radio will go on air from May 4 to coincide with the Funhouse Tour.
Featuring the music of Pink and what Austereo describes as “her favourite artists “, the station will also play her interviews with Today Network’s Kyle and Jackie O and Hamish and Andy. A spokesman for Austereo told Mumbrella that it was not yet known if Pink will present some shows on the temporary station.
The station is sponsored by Optus, which is also sponsoring the Pink tour. The deal was put together by media agency MPG. As well as streaming Pink Radio via the Today network websites and on digital radio as the rollout gets under way, it will be on the Optus Recharge Live Large website too.
Aimee Buchanan, MPG’s client service director, said: “We saw this brief as the perfect opportunity to trial new platforms and extend the Pink sponsorship beyond traditional channels. It offered us the chance to trial digital radio for the youth segment with a compelling message and product.”
The Pink Radio announcement is Austereo’s second major one in the digital space, with Radar Radio – dedicated to unsigned Australian acts – already launched.
Jeremy Macvean, Austereo’s head of digital strategy, said : “Digital radio allows us the flexibility to create unique formats to meet the desires of our audiences and our clients. For three months it’ll be Pink Radio – then it could be something like U2 radio, as we did with Triple M.” In 2006, the station changed its name to U2FM for a day to mark the band’s Vertigo tour.
“Having Optus sign up as the sponsor of the station shows what we’re able to achieve on digital and how quickly we’re able to set it up and have it on air.”
Austereo’s websites already see more than one million unique browsers each month.
The only other network to so far reveal its plans is DMG, which is launching dance station Novanation and lounge station Koffee.
Digital radio will start rolling out in Australia over the coming weeks with a formal launch in August.
….Is it April Fools Day again?
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This is a really interesting & innovative idea. Why shouldn’t a digital radio station have a finite lifespan? I genuinely hope that Austereo, Optus and MPG are able to integrate all the different channels into something that really changes the game for radio. I can easily see the opportunities for exclusive tour content, social media interaction, iphone apps, tickets, giveaways, promotions, etc…If executed well, and delivers great results watch out for this one to be an MFA Award winner.
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I must admit, I’m blown away. It’s an original, and by the looks of it, profitable, way of making use of the digital opportunity. Very exciting because you can suddenly see all the possibilities this opens up for other brand collaborations in the future.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I fail to see how this will help foster brand loyalty with listeners if stations pop up and then disappear every three months…. and aligning yourself with one particular artist isn’t exposing your brand to a wider audience, it’s actually alienating the masses.
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Hi Me,
You’re right that this isn’t going to be about brand loyalty to the station. But the special event station model is one that occurs in other markets, albeit not with such overt brand involvement.
I look back with particular fondness on my month-long morning stint presenting BreakfastTim…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I must admit I had high hopes that the digital radio revolution would be an opportunity for fringe genres to get more widely exposed and covered. Alas, it seems that we’re only going to get even more of the already over exposed artists out there… ho hum…
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Dear How Sad
You should check out the first commercial digital radio station offering at http://www.radarradio.com.au.
It’s all about new music discovery and plays artists that get very little airplay elsewhere. Bands can even upload songs onto the site to be added to the playlist and listebners can rate the songs and tell us what they prefer.
Cheers
Radar
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What’s nice about this is that Pink is a brand, like any other. The radio station offers an opportunity for fans (customers) can have a deeper and more dimensional relationship with their favourite artist (brand). Lots of possibility for clever brands at the right place and time to do the same. Billabong radio over summer. Holden or Ford radio during the V8 Supercars season. Yellowglen station over Spring Racing Carnival. It’d have to be the right content, but if they got it right they could have tens of thousands of people choosing to interact with them, rather than be interrupted while their minds were elsewhere.
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