Radio is an amazing medium and when used properly can create the right mood and, in the case of AirServ stations, can stimulate and influence consumers buying decisions at the point of purchase. This sort of super-targeting is something traditional radio cannot do.
Personalising something traditionally thought of as bland and sometimes referred to as ‘musak’ is what we have done. We create ‘bespoke’ radio stations for shopping centres, retail chains and high footfall locations.
Following extensive briefings from our partner clients we undertake the development of the radio station to suit the clientele that our client attracts. We take age-profiles, male/female ratios, social demographics and dwell-time information into account and we also importantly take the staff of each centre into consideration when creating the perfect radio station for each location.
We create clocks, imaging, liners, promo pieces etc everything you’d associate with a traditional fm radio station and make it sound great. We provides a self contained turn-key audio streaming system that is designed specifically to ‘audiobrand’ locations. Following successful on-site tests we then stream our service in to each location via the internet and connect to the centres existing pa systems.
I recently spoke to one of the ladies on the courtesy desk in The Square Tallaght where we operate the Square Tallaght Radio and she said to me that since we launched the station in December last, and referring to a liner we run which says, “Welcome to The Square Tallaght Radio – a great place to shop’ really makes her feel good in work and creates a really positive feel not only for the centre but for the staff too. It’s great to hear both positive and negative feedback so that we can learn, build and create from it.
I’ve worked in radio for over 20 years and I’m still as addicted to it today as I was 20 years ago and this adaptation of radio is a really exciting space to be in at the moment and I believe that it will grow to be as successful as radio has been and as more and more partner-clients and advertisers come on-board the greater this form of radio is going to get!
Enda Murphy is Managing Director of AirServ and wrote this special article for RadioToday.