RadioApp officially launches with rhyming consumer campaign
The radio industry’s new, unified streaming app for smartphones, RadioApp, has launched officially with a poetic campaign designed to encourage listeners to download it.
The new app, which aggregates 250 commercial and ABC and SBS radio stations, allows users to ‘favourite’ stations and swipe left and right to access the next station.
The national marketing campaign will be covered through radio and online advertising, social media and interior bus panels.
There are two versions of rhyming radio adverts, one involving a female voice saying “if you downloaded the RadioApp, you’d never miss a beat”, and a male voice opening with “if you downloaded RadioApp you could listen anywhere”.
The male version:
The female version:
The new app was announced last month at the National Radio Conference in Melbourne, combining the commercial stations with the ABC and SBS as the industry tries to catch up and make it easier for people listening on-the-go.
Joan Warner, CRA chief executive offer, said: “RadioApp is the best way to stream radio on your smartphone because it puts commercial AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio stations as well as ABC and SBS stations all in one place.”
Grant Blackley, CRA board member and CEO at Southern Cross Austereo, said: “What’s in the marketplace at the moment is a very scattered view, with different technology and different apps across different platforms. This brings it all together and makes it easy for the listener, and that’s going to benefit the industry.”
The free app will allow consumers to live stream 250 Australian radio stations covering music, sports, talk and news, as well as digital-only stations.
Features will allow listeners to search for stations, view recently played and purchased songs, and see what is playing on air at any time, with the option to swipe and skip.
“It’s all about setting commercial rivalries aside and putting the consumer experience first, so listeners can simply swipe and listen to their favourite stations wherever they are,” Warner said.
The application will see more developments in the future, including podcast subscription.
The app opens in a market where Australians are spending approximately six hours, on average, listening to Australian radio via mobile phone or tablet each week, according to GfK figures.
The app can be downloaded through the App Store and Google Play.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Any insight on if/how this will be monetised? Will it be an audio pre-roll before the station begins playing on the app? Who will look after sales and which programmatic platform will this be partnered with?
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There may be some radio industry bubble naval gazing going on here. I’ve had access to Australian radio stations on the TuneIn Radio app for some time. Plus I have access to any more overseas stations, that seems a much better customer proposition?
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Pleasantly surprised, been using this App for a few weeks now and it works well and very user friendly, I like the swiping action when selecting stations, only minor gripe is the album art is a bit small but that’s it.
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C in CRA standing for commercial is the whole reason this was developed… that said, I wonder who and what volume of people they’ve canvassed throughout Australia to confirm whether this is something anyone wants (clients or joe public). In either case, I’ll bet less than 10 people external to the radio landscape. A sensible move would’ve been collaborating with iHeart or partnering with TuneIn commercialising Australian traffic and taking a cut, plus they could use the TuneIn brand to anchor the CRA stations and vice versa without having spent the thousands on dev I bet they have. Oh, and I’m happy with TuneIn (no ads other except for those featured in the usual station’s broadcast, plus it’s not being commercialised in Australia) and KCRW out of the US.
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