Helped win the "Virgin Wars"
One of the speakers, Barrett Whiteford, First National Bank (FNB) head of marketing (card division), recounted how radio helped his company win what he called the "Virgin Wars" from June 2006.
At the time, Virgin boss Richard Branson declared war on South Africa's financial services' 'rip-off', targeting the credit card division. Feeling threatened and at the mercy of Virgin's smart strategy, FNB launched an aggressive ground offensive to counter Virgin's 'insurgency'.
"Our radio advertising campaign helped us to fight a guerrilla war," Whiteford told delegates, adding that radio gave his company a voice when no one else would. "Radio gave us the flexibility to adapt quickly to the changing environment, and helped us to win back some of the popular vote."
The response from the people (LSM 7-10) was amazing in the aftermath of the R2 million campaign, with hundreds of customers rushing to apply online for credit cards, he claimed.
"We benefited a lot from that campaign, and radio gave us a platform to pro-qualify customers," Whiteford bragged. "Radio allowed us to use the power of an identifiable voice (sonic trigger), allowed us to act like a bank, to tell our side of the story, and gave us strength to take the fight to our 'enemy'."
The 2010 Radioworks was organised by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), in association with the Advertising Media Forum (AMF) and the Creative Circle. The organisers said Radioworks' primary goal was to provide a forum for interaction and exchange of ideas between advertisers, media planners, creative people, content providers, public relations and trade media. Close to 350 delegates attended the one-day gathering.
Furthermore, England-born Lynn Joffe, Creatix director, showcased another case study to contextualise the power of radio and its capacity to operate social miracles in communities. Joffe spoke about the Legend of Mama Koo, a 'successful' radio campaign run mainly through SABC radio stations to advertise a range of Koo products.
Joffe said radio advertising and programming creates brand awareness in a unique way and provides product functionality, while providing space for story-telling and the theatre of the mind.
Instant Grass co-founder Ian Calvert said: "Radio has the speed and flexibility, and its digital life is far better than anything else. Radio is a medium that allows us to collaborate in real times. He added that brands can no longer dictate nor operate in monologues, but rather all markets must collaborate.
A new and 'effective' research project entitled Radio Gauge was also launched at the conference.
The speaker lineup included UK's Jason Brownlee; Sonovision's John Culverwell; Ginny Cawdron; Vizeum's Richard Procter; Draftfcb Johannesburg's Prakash Patel, Lara De Angelli and Brett Morris; and Exactmobile's Gillian Ezra.
The Durban leg of the conference takes place on Wednesday 26 May (Cape Town took place last week Thursday 13 May). For more, go to www.rab.co.za.
*Nielsen figures show adspend was R24.4 billion in 2009, with the biggest chunk going to TV and print. March 2010's adspend was R2.2 billion, and again TV got 44% and print 34%, while radio settled for less than 20%.
