Twitter has become a mainstream real time news and information service in UAE, so we honed in on the currency of a tweet, asking listeners to tweet in their song requests using #songsuno. Song requests were sequentially queued to a virtual ‘juke box’ using our specially designed application, and then played via the radio station when it hit the top of the queue. Listeners were able to see the progress of their track as well as invite other friends to tweet the same song and push it further up the queue. This made Suno FM a truly social radio experience. Not only did this innovation encourage real time interaction, it also returned control to listeners in a more traditional setting (than conventional online streaming). We supported our execution via owned media channels – on-air, Facebook and Twitter – creating a unique radio hybrid of old and new media.
Suno Jukebox via Tweets
#SongSuno on Demand
Imagine a radio station that plays the music you want, on demand. It’s here and now. Suno FM’s came up with an innovative Twitter radio concept. We wanted to turn passive radio listening into an active experience and craft a fully interactive, audience-led radio station that played music on demand. We wanted to stand out from the competition (six pre-existing Hindi stations) and create a new, commercial service that could derive profit from advertising revenue. We targeted existing Suno FM listeners and fans that enjoyed Bollywood music, predominately within an age bracket of 15-34. Based on the realisation that analogue radio was a one-directional service, coupled with the rise of online streaming services and the ubiquitous availability of music online, we chose to give audiences greater control over music selection.
How we did it
We integrated with the Radio Station’s entire workflow. The program, developed in .NET, was embedded in scheduling production PCs which were run by OnAir’s Music Master, a standard in the Radio Industry. This made sure that, while the tweets and song requests were being queried and updated live, the ad breaks and promos were kept as they were queued up. It was a fully automated system that went on-air seamlessly.
Outcome once #Songsuno was live
Within the first four months, Suno FM received 27,000+ tweets using #songsuno; an average of 1,600+ tweets per week / 240+ tweets per day. We actively involved 11,000 Twitter users as regular listeners during this time. * Sizable numbers, especially when you consider the listenership of the UAE: an estimated 100,000 in total. The development of this radio service broadened our audience reach allowing us to partner with new advertisers, including Huawei, while creating an incremental source of station revenue. ** We unified what was previously a passive activity and provided the perfect components to make radio a newly SOCIAL experience.
Awards
Festival of Media 2015 | Silver