Digital radio push focuses on Mother’s Day

A new series of radio and online advertisements promoting digital radio as the perfect gift for Mother’s Day begin this week, across 42 commercial radio stations in the five digital radio metropolitan markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The six new radio ads form the next phase of Commercial Radio Australia’s (CRA) digital radio awareness campaign and begin on Monday 19 April running on high rotation for three weeks in the lead up to Mother’s Day on Sunday, 9 May.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer, Joan Warner said recently released digital radio research** commission by CRA showed 63% of Australians were aware digital radio had launched in Australia and 69% would buy a digital radio for all the new features.

“The aim of these new ads is to target the 40% of people that in our research said they would buy a digital radio in the next 12 months by highlighting three of the digital radio features; new DAB+ only programming, sound quality and the pause and rewind feature available on some digital radios,” said Ms Warner.

The ads were written by the award winning radio specialist agency, Eardrum. Creative director Ralph van Dijk said: “Radio is a great medium for demonstrating a product’s relevance to a specific audience. We made sure we focused on the benefits of digital radio, not the functions.”

In addition to the ad campaign a DVD showcasing the new DAB+ only stations and point of sale signage featuring logos of the new services will be sent to all retail stores stocking digital radios.

Retailers stocking digital radios include; Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, Clive Peeters, The Good Guys, Myer, David Jones, Big W, JB Hi Fi, Target, Retravision, Radio Rentals, Rick Hart and specialist audio retailers.

There are more than 50 DAB+ digital radio models available for sale at around 600 stores throughout Australia. An entry level digital radio costs around $80 with the average unit price at around $154.

All the commercial radio stations in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne are simulcasting in analogue and digital. In addition, when you buy a new digital radio you get new DAB+ only stations in each market – playing everything from dance music, comedy and unsigned artists – to chill out, country and choose your own music. Plus there are special event or pop up stations for sport, festivals and concerts, that run for a short period of time and then transform into another concept – like the recent Radio GaGa.

New commercial DAB+ only stations include; Zoo Super Digi, Gorilla Super Digi, NovaNation, Koffee, Choose the Hits, Radar, Classic Hits Plus, Classic Hits Live, The EDGE , MY Perth Digital, Hot Country Perth Digital, The Buckle, Sky Sports Radio 2 and The Crack.