radio at home or at work. For many it means logging on to a web radio station and leav-
ing it to play as you work. In fact, once you log on to a station it accompanies you
wherever you go on the net – so you can carry on listening wherever you go online. And
if you like a particular track or broadcast feature you can order it there and then. A vari-
ant of web radio is that provided by music downloading services such as iTunes and
Napster. Here, listeners can define their own sequence of tracks to listen to, or listen to
prepared selections of tracks – currently without presenters, so there are limited opportu-
nities for advertising between tracks.
According to the World DAB Forum (www.worlddab.org), the trade association pro-
moting DAB, the benefits of DAB for the consumer are:Aside from distortion-free reception digital sound quality, DAB offers further advantages
as it has been designed for the multimedia age. DAB can carry not only audio, but also
text, pictures, data and even videos – all on your radio at home and on the move!
One of the limitations of DAB is that a ‘return path’ isn’t available, so a direct
response has to be achieved through other e-tools such as a web site or SMS.
Web radio can be used successfully for integrated campaigns. Listeners may first see
an ad in the newspaper or on TV, register it, but not respond. When they then hear
about it online, response is more seamless – they just type in the company or campaign
code into their browser. For example, for Christmas 2004 eBay UK ran a treasure hunt to
showcase the range of products on sale through clues on the home page which
prompted a search. It was advertised both in print and on streaming radio stations.CHAPTER 3· THE INTERNET MACRO-ENVIRONMENT
In 2004 Virgin Radio was the most popular commercial radio station in the UK. Its web site receives over
1,000,000 unique visitors per month. The Comet campaign is a typical cross-media campaign that uses
on-air and web site messaging and interaction.Campaign objectives
Support awareness of Comet’s Price Promise that they provide low prices all year round.
Communicate that Comet has great Christmas gifts for all the family.
Drive traffic to Comet’s gift finder at comet.co.uk.
Create competitive standout through engaging activity.Implementation
Listeners were invited to play ‘The Price is Right’ with Comet in a weeklong Drivetime Show promotion.
Each day, a prize package demonstrating Comet’s wide product range was up for grabs with a higher
than normal starting price.
Two listeners then guessed ever-decreasing prices to guess the package’s true low Comet price.
The first listener to get the price right won, or the first to get the price too low lost (and the other won
by default).
On-air mentions directed listeners to Comet’s Gift Finder which was built into a co-branded micro-site
on virginradio.co.uk.
Banner ads and a competitions area on the web site were used to direct visitors to Gift Finder.
Source: Virgin Radio (www.virginradio.co.uk)Mini Case Study 3.3
Comet uses Virgin Radio for positioning and
response