Marketing Front Cover July-Aug

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Today's content creators who toil away in the studios are 'seize-the-moment' experts,
disruption technicians, super-speed writers and creative directors rolled into one.
From concept to execution, deejays and presenters have their work cut out as they
race to entertain and grow their audiences in a way which will put any viral campaign
to shame. Here's a lineup of some of the best...
Krill
SINAR fm
Khairil Rashid aka
Krill, is a selfconfessed football
fanatic who plays
the role of mediator
between Salih Yaccob
and Kak Engku in
entertaining fans
with their cheeky
comedic humour
every weekday
morning on the
Sinar Pagi Show –
Malaysia’s 2nd most
popular Breakfast
Show.
Salih Yaacob
SINAR fm
Salih, a popular
entertainer in
Malaysia who
is versatile and
creative! Salih
or famously
known as SY is
highly recognized
for his various
characters while
on air such as
‘Mak Neng’,
‘Mat Salih’ and
‘Abang Jem’.
20 marketingjuly-august
Charlene
MIX fm
Charlene is
a multitalented
English
literature
major. She
has also
been a
fashion and
beauty writer,
MC and TV
talent.
Ean Nasrun
hitz fm
Ean a.k.a. Burger
Nut a.k.a. Burger
King, is back on
the all new hitz
fm Morning crew.
Skilled in the art
of impersonation,
Ean is nothing
short of a barrel
full of outrages
dudes (and
sometimes gals)
waiting to burst
out!
Gan Mei Yan
MY FM
Mei Yan has been a
MY FM announcer
since 2004.
Besides that, her
TV hosting has
garnered her a
huge fanbase.
An ardent
shopaholic, she
shares plenty of
fashion tips and
ideas on Facebook,
which makes her a
popular role model
for youngsters.
Jack Lim
MY FM
Jack is MY FM’s
very own Ipoh-mali
announcer who has
been with MY FM
since 2002. He is also
a popular actor, a
singer with 5 albums
under his belt, is an
accomplished host,
has acted and directed
in several chinese
blockbuster movies
and owns the Ah Beng
franchise.
Max Ku
Head of
Commercial
Digital
Max leads the Digital
Commercial team
at Astro Radio.
He is THE digital
ideas and insights
guru. His extensive
experience in this
space, guarantees
he has solutions for
every clients need.
Norfuziana
Ahamed
General
Manager, Sales
Managing creators,
innovators, rebels,
Fuzi has the knack
of getting the
best out of people.
Her track record
in sales, speaks
volumes.
cover story
Jeyapuvan
Somasundram
Group GM, Sales
Jeya is passionate
about radio and
innovation. He’s
a pioneer in the
industry, a real
people’s person
and constantly
pushes the
boundaries to
find new ways to
super-serve his
clients.
Ray
ERA fm
Ray one of
the pillars (in
every sense)
of JoHaRa
Pagi ERA.
His incredibly
quirky ways,
always
gets him
remembered
by listeners.
Haniff
ERA fm
Haniff is part of the
trio who form Johara
Pagi ERA – Malaysia’s
No 1 Breakfast Show.
Their mission - to
be the funniest show
on the planet! He
is highly skilled at
entertaining audiences
with his spontaneous
humor, while holding
on to a serious facial
expression! He can
regularly be seen on TV
hosting Astro Warna’s
Super Spontan show.
Jentzen Lim
Melody fm
Jentzen is
a writer.
commercial
talent, TV
presenter
and radio
announcer.
He joined
MELODY FM in
2013 and is a
familiar face
on Astro TV.
Steve
Lite fm
Steve D’angelo was
born and raised
in KL and has a
passion for music
and entertainment.
He spent the last
13 years in the
radio industry.
A doting father
and husband, he
is gastronomically
adventurous and a
die-hard MU fan.
Shaz
Lite fm
Shazmin
Shamsuddin
a modern day
mum is no
stranger to the
radio industry.
She has 17
years of on-air
experience and
10 years on The
Mix Breakfast
show. She loves
books and
is a perfect
Bibliophile!
Anantha
THR Raaga
Anatha is a
former rock
star who
plays many
instruments
and is a
great singer.
He is also
involved in
film acting.
Uthaya
THR Raaga
A karate
instructor
who became
a host of
Kalakkal
Kaalai. He
loves books,
movies,
paranormal
phenomena,
acting and
singing.
july-augustmarketing 21
cover story
CONTENT RULES
IN JAKE'S
PLAYGroUND
“We have moved from
being just radio operators
to content providers and
aggregators, delivering
content-rich experiences
wherever and whenever
our audience wants it.”
“We are very confident
about the future growth
prospects of radio in this
country both from an
audience and revenue
perspective and Astro
Radio will continue to
substantially invest in
its people, content,
technology and research to
ensure we provide the best
possible entertainment
for all Malaysians across
multiple platforms”
22 marketingjuly-august
And the hits
just keep
on coming!
Astro Radio’s Sales
Leadership team cuts to
the chase on how and
why they are leaders of
the pack…
Traditional radio consumption
has been spun on its head
with mobile and digital
trends. How is Astro Radio
managing this convergence?
experiences wherever and
whenever our audience
wants it.
Our key focus in this
convergent age is to remain
agile and forward thinking
in our approach to ensure
we stay ahead of the
game. Everything we do
from content, technology,
marketing and advertising
perspective is focused on
being social, local and mobile.
Astro Radio’s first foray into
digital started 12 years ago
when all stations launched
dedicated websites as an
extension of its content
offerings. This provided the
advantage to our advertisers
to buy into a 360 integrated
campaign which combined
the power of radio with online
and onground.
This is a result of continuous
research invested in our
listeners to truly understand
what they want, when, where
and how they want it. We no
longer view ourselves simply
as radio station operators.
The mindset has changed
to being content creators,
producers and aggregators,
delivering content-rich
In 2009, we moved into the
mobile phone space with the
launch of Malaysia’s first
iPhone application which
won ‘Best Mobile Application’
at the Innovation Malaysia
Awards. Subsequently,
we rolled out mobile
apps for Blackberry and
Android phones, to provide
consumers an interactive,
july-augustmarketing 23
STEPPING UP!
Leading the pack means staying ahead of the curve,
no matter how challenging.
Max Ku, Head of
Commercial Digital
24 marketingjuly-august
Norfuziana Ahamed,
General Manager, Sales
Jeyapuvan Somasundram
Group General Manager,
Sales
cover story
2014
content-rich social media
integration, enabling
valuable demographic and
psychographic feedback.
With digitalization in place,
what this means for our
advertisers is that we are
able to define who and what
we communicate to our
target audiences through
streaming audio networks,
identifying and targeting
individual listeners based on
gender, age, location or even
published music preferences!
Through these options and
permutations, advertisers
are able to customize specific
messages and styles that
appeal and connect to specific
audiences.
To aid our advertisers in
learning more about the
advantages of the new digital
ad offerings from Astro
Radio, we formed a dedicated
Digital Sales team focused
purely on selling digital
media properties led by
Max Ku, who has 8 years in
radio and digital advertising
with experiences in media
bundling, digital production
services as well as mobile
advertising.
With the marriage of the
Astro brand to embrace radio
(previously AMP), what sort
of synergies and value to
marketers has this alignment
brought?
By harnessing and synergizing
our radio brands and all
other assets across the Astro
Group, we are able to provide
advertisers with a truly
integrated cross-platform
branded content solution.
Some examples of successful
campaigns launched as a
group initiative….
• Arena Radio – launched
in early June, this is the
group’s first sports digital
radio station and an
...As
testament
to the success
of Astro
Radio’s East
Malaysian
initiatives,
Nielsen Radio
Listenership
Survey 2013
reports show
Astro Radio
has a 71%
audience
reach with
a total of
559,200
listeners
tuning into
its stations
every week...
extension of the Arena
brand in the digital space
to offer a continuous
stream of local sports
news, sports talent and
content.
• Anugerah Meletop
ERA showcases the
collaboration between two
important mediums ie; TV
(via Astro RIA channel)
and radio (via ERA fm)
where the award ceremony
was broadcast live on both
TV and Radio platforms.
Award nominees were also
invited as guests on radio
segments for interviews,
strengthening the synergy
between TV and Radio.
• HLive entertainment
belt celebrates our latest
infotainment belt across
the Watch, Listen and
Read platforms. The HLive
segment adopts a 360
approach where its content
is available on air, online,
radio, onground, digital
publications, social and
mobile.
• MY Astro Music
Awards is a joint
partnership between MY
FM, the country’s top
Chinese language radio
station, Astro AEC and
Astro Quan Jia HD to
recognize music from local
and international Chinese
artistes. This collaboration
enables the best of both
worlds, TV and Radio.
You've had very exciting
forays with your launches
in East Malaysia….
Astro Radio was the first
private broadcaster to have
a local presence in East
Malaysia with the launch of
its market leading stations hitz fm, ERA fm and MY fm in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching
in 2010. This expansion
was a strategic one to reach
a largely untapped market
across many demographic
segments and answering calls
for localisation by providing
programmes catered for the
local listeners.
As testament to the success of
Astro Radio’s East Malaysian
initiatives, Nielsen Radio
Listenership Survey 2013
shows Astro Radio has a 71%
audience reach with a total of
559,200 listeners tuning into
its stations every week. Astro
Radio’s ERA fm, hitz fm and
MY FM are the number one
radio stations in the Malay,
English and Chinese language
respectively in Kuching and
Kota Kinabalu. hitz fm has a
listenership of 258,700, ERA
a reach of 241,000 while MY
FM has 137,700 listeners
tuning in.
key facts about
astro radio
•
No.1 Radio Network in
Malaysia with a weekly
listener base of 12.645
million!
•
recorded its highest
share of listenership in
9 years (16 consecutive
surveys) with a 55%
share of audience
•
top 3 radio stations
in Malaysia belong to
Astro Radio.
5.2 million listeners
2.2 million listeners
1.2 million listeners
1.8 million listeners
1.6 million listeners
* Source Nielsen Radio Audience
Measurement (RAM), Sweep 1, 2014
july-augustmarketing 25
air personalities to drive
listener participation and
engagement.
In phase One of the campaign,
our personalities shared their
personal experiences of using
the Nippon Memento paint
range, via their renovation
stories. These stories were
conveyed on air and online as
customized video content.
...Content is
the bridge
that links
advertisers
and listeners.
We have to
customize
content for
our different
audiences
to ensure
appeal and
resonance...
Can you share some examples
of your best branded content
that you have run and how
it’s been integrated across all
platforms?
Nippon Paint home makeover
The brief from Nippon
was to raise awareness for
the Momento range via
competetion on air and
online. The client wanted
to demonstrate how easy
the paint range was to use
and create engagement with
our listeners to generate
talkability.
Our Integration team
conceptualised a unique
content marketing campaign
for Nippon with 360º client
integration that ran across
radio, online, social media
and onground events.
The second phase of the
campaign encouraged
listeners to go to our station
website and register for the
opportunity to win a
RM 10,000 makeover.
To add impact, all those who
entered the competition had
to nominate their favorite
announcers help renovate
their home.
Watch the full case study
video on astroradio.com.my
The New Ford Fiesta Presents
The hitz Birthday Invasion
Our brief from the agency
was to grow awareness,
brand affinity, sales and
market share of the new Ford
Fiesta as the key partner of
the hitz birthday invasion.
This partnership gave Ford
unparalleled access to our
premium content space. All
our on air promotions of
the forthcoming birthday
invasion carried client
branding while the campaign
was also leveraged on all
our social media platforms
to actively engage with our
listeners creating hashtags
with strong client branding
including #fordfiesta.
The campaign culminated
with the hitz birthday
invasion concert where Ford
had extensive branding and
site presence all around the
Taylors Lakes campus. Ford
Banners were hung on the
Full of desire
for The latest
New Ford
Fiesta version
The campaign was further
amplified by using key on
Astro Radio, is the first local radio station to
use Waze to bridge traditional media with social
networks and crowd-sourced content to augment
radio traffic reporting. With millions of Malaysians
battling peak hour traffic including congestion
during school holidays and ‘balik kampung’
periods, Astro Radio with Waze have launched
daily traffic updates across all their nine stations.
Waze is the most popular navigation app in
Malaysia, with more than 2 million active users,
while Malaysia ranks among the Top 5 Waze
communities out of the nearly 200 countries
and 50 millions users it serves worldwide.
26 marketingjuly-august
surrounding buildings. The
concert provided a unique
opportunity to showcase the
new Fiesta range in front of a
captive audience in excess of
12,000 people.
cover story
From Left : Ray (ERA fm), Shah (THR Gegar) ,
Jym Chong (MY FM), Jake Abdullah (CEO Astro
Radio), Arnold (hitz fm), Ram (THR Raaga),
Uthaya (THR Raaga) Astro Radio All Stars team
gets ready to kick off!
ultimately drives innovation.
We understand you have
more digital product
offerings ...
Rev-kan Your Padang
Rev-kan Your Padang was a
campaign initiative conceived
by Astro Radio CEO Dr Jake
Abdullah in response to a
brief from Permanis to create
an event that had never been
done before. We needed to
create a connection with
Malaysian foot fans in the
lead up to the 2014 World
Cup and heighten consumer
affinity for the Pepsi and
Revive brands. Jake’s idea
was to revive the spirit of
the field, the original home
of football with the Rev-kan
Your Padang, a campaign
that would see us create
three onground events across
peninsular Malaysia.
The Rev-kan Your Padang
campaign ran across Era FM,
My Fm , hitz FM and THR
Raaga and Gegar.
Listeners were invited to
register themselves and their
HOME Padang for the chance
to be picked as a player to
play against our All Star Team
at the Padang of their choice
The All Star Team comprised
of former state players and
the most talented footballers
from our stations.
The campaign was a huge
success, in terms of brand
engagement both on air and
onground for the Revive
and Pepsi brands during this
ad clutter period building
towards the FIFA World Cup
2014.
What will be Astro Radio’s
strategy on content, moving
forward?
Content is the bridge that
links advertisers and listeners.
We have to customize content
for our different audiences to
ensure appeal and resonance.
We also have to ensure our
advertisers have access to key
insights into our audiences’
wants, needs and preferences
to ensure their campaign
is well received and their
investment optimized.
From a digital perspective,
our focus now is on driving
social engagement, building
and nurturing local content
and ensuring the same
great experience translates
to our digital properties
so our listeners can access
our brands anytime on any
platform.
Being a market leader for 14
years has its challenges; how
is Astro Radio maintaining
its market leadership with
competitors biting at its
heels?
Disruption is critical. We need
to embrace it to ensure we
break through the numerous
offerings available to our
audience. Competition today
is no longer limited by
geographical boundaries;
it’s in addressing the new
world and understanding
that we must adapt to remain
relevant. This allows for big
picture thinking to break
the barriers of norm and
Yes, we are building products
around four primary
consumption verticals:
Watch, Listen, Read and Play.
With these, many will see
huge improvements to our
current products and new
products that fall within these
verticals.
We are also happy to
announce brand new mobile
applications that support
Instream Advertising, Display
advertising products and
much more. It’s a one stop
shop for our brands as the
application allows users to
stream our radio stations
in high quality and explore
our podcasts, articles plus
Photo’s and Videos as well.
Our web properties have
registered over 2,000,000
visitors with over 6 million
page views. Social media
engagement by listeners
stands at a robust 10%,
currently the industry
benchmark. With over 4.5
million fans on Facebook
and over 50 million post
reach, Astro Radio is right
in the centre of the digital
audience.
Your 5 minutes of fame for
award wins over the past 2
years...
2013
• hitz fm received Official
Honoree in the 17th
Annual Webby Awards in
Radio & Podcasts
• MY FM wins Bronze
awards in the media
category at Putra Brand
Awards
We just concluded a
campaign with Citibank
called the hitz Wingman,
this campaign featured four
episodes of Jinnyboy teaching
Ean on how to pick up girls
– with a Citibank card of
course. The best thing about
this campaign is while the
content is really funny, it
integrates the client messages
appropriately.
• Astro Radio’s Sketsa
Johara, a popular segment
in JoHaRa Pagi ERA wins
award for Segmen Komedi
Paling Popular at the
Anugerah Lawak Warna
We take pride in having a
robust digital platform with
over 3.5 million mobile
downloads and more than
3.0 million unique listeners
monthly. Astro Radio is
set to dominate the digital
entertainment space. With
an impressive average of 18
million streaming sessions
monthly, an average listener
retention of 22 minutes
for mobile and 37 minutes
for web session, there is no
doubt we maximize audience
exposure rates.
• Astro Radio’s No.1
Morning Show radio
program, JoHaRa Pagi
ERA was awarded Program
Radio MeleTOP in
Anugerah MeleTOP ERA
• Astro Radio’s No.1
Morning Show radio
program, JoHaRa Pagi
ERA wins Favourite Radio
Show at the Shout! Awards
2014
• hitz fm wins Bronze award
in the media category at
the Putra Brand Awards
july-augustmarketing 27