Background
 Spectrum Medya is the largest radio broadcaster in Turkey but up until recently had very little digital presence. They stepped into the digital space by rolling all their offerings into one brand: Karnaval.com, turning Spectrum into a multi-platform media company whose portfolio now includes FM radio (5 terrestrial stations, including Virgin Radio Türkiye, with 65% of the Turkish audience), digital (17 digital radio stations), events (concert sponsorship and an integration with Ticketmaster), social presence (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) and KarnavalTV.com with exclusive short-form video content. Karnaval provides a ‘rich-radio’ experience designed to augment the listening experience by delivering music, news, talk, sports and other content to diverse audiences across multiple platforms, including: broadcast stations, online via Karnaval.com, satellite, smartphones, tablets and via live events.
Karnaval impacted the terrestrial radios’ listening very positively. 20-year old national radio brands, Süper FM and Metro FM were rejuvenated under the umbrella of Karnaval, gaining new listeners (up 365% and 318% respectively) through digital listening. Karnaval is now ranked as the 7th largest digital audio platform worldwide and Wired Magazine in the UK selected Karnaval as one of the 100 Hottest Start-ups in Europe and the #1 Hottest Start-up in Istanbul.
The concept
 Spectrum Medya believes that digital audio has a significant advantage over terrestrial audio because of its accountability, its targetability and the immersive ad experience of digital, such as rich media or audio synchronised banners. This transformation also helps to increase ROI - research shows that internet radio (audio together with other formats) is significantly more effective than static internet banner advertising alone. A further benefit is that digital audio is therefore measurable allowing advertisers to pay on a cost per contact basis which is difficult, if not impossible, to do on a terrestrial radio station.
How does it work?
An example of Karnaval’s multi-platform approach is its recent campaign with a Korean OTT messaging application, Tic Toc. The client came to Spectrum looking to differentiate itself from a large pool of competitors (whatsapp, viber, etc.), in a fast growing market. Spectrum and Tic Toc together identified three key strategic goals for achieving rapid consumer adoption and usage of the Tic Toc OTT Messenger in Turkey: user acquisition, user engagement and establishing the brand identity. Spectrum adopted a terrestrial and digital approach to achieving these goals including a share function on Karnaval.com, Tic Toc hashtag games, a Tic Toc chat room with well known presenters, celebrity endorsements for Tic Toc, display audio ads and spot placement.
Why does it matter to egta members?
The success of Karnaval.com demonstrates the ability of radio to exploit the digital space to its advantage. Radio does not have to be defined by the FM frequency and the audio delivered over that frequency and can instead include social media, YouTube, events and online content. Taken together terrestrial and digital radio can complement one another to form a more effective and compelling brand. By bringing together terrestrial and digital Spectrum Medya is present on two different markets resulting in new categories of clients like app developers and start-ups on top of the traditional ones.
|
