phone interview with Digita

 

 

Beyonde the music

Radio has so much more potential than just the music and talk channels. Radio is irreplaceable communication tool when it comes to rescue operations and tracking missions. Whether you were on ground, at sea, in air or even in space the radio may be your only link to connenct to other people and call help.

People are looking and searching for each others through the radio. And when they find each other they usually think that they are lucky and that there is something much more bigger behind the truth. The truth is that the radio can save lives.

Think about the movies and TV series we are watching today. There is almost always some kind of accident or natural disaster which is causing troubles and problems into people's lives. For example: The walking dead, Lost, Gravity, The perfect storm, Titanic, Jurassic Park etc. What is the ultimate tool they are using or trying to find and use in these movies to survive? --> The radio.

Life-saving radio:

http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2013/11/18/life-saving-radio/

Brainstorming in our group about the future of radio.

Ellen, Mathilda, Mikael, Maria, Victor

Questions about Digita

On monday we gathered to think about questions concerning Digita. There are a couple of things we were wondering about and hopefully we will get answers during our Skype conference tomorrow, Wednesday.

Ellen, Mathilda, Mikael, Maria, Victor

Maria's Presentation and answers to the questions!

Maria's Presentation


Hi! I'm Maria 20 years old student from Turku University of Applied Sciences and my degree is in Beauty Care Management. I wanted to get in this project, because I want to use my language skills and improve them at the same time. I also like meeting new people and this was a great opportunity to do so. Before applying to study in Turku I went to highschool in Salo and originally I'm from Kemiönsaari.

What do you know about the theme of your project?

I know that we work for Digita and we are suppose to concentrate on radio during our innovation. Our theme is Radio- music always and everywhere, but we are also supposed to keep in mind interactivity.

What do you know about your company?

Digita broadcasts radio/tv channels to all over the country. It has many radio stations under it.

What do you know about the company's customers?

I think that customers are just everyone in Finland, but also the radio/tv channels that Digita broadcasts to everyone.

What do you know about the industry of the company?

Digita broadcasts radio and tv and network channels and its' main purpose is to reach all over the country and get as many customers as possible.

What do you know about the competitors of the company?

I think that it doesn't have many big competitors, since Digita is the biggest broadcaster in Finland. Main competitors in Radio business might be the popular radio stations like Nrj, which aren't under Digita's name. Also Spotify and Youtube will be a huge thread to radio in general. 

Ellen's presentation, answers to the 5 questions and tools

Presentation

 

My name is Ellen and i am French, i study business administration in Troyes it is a city at 2hours in Paris. Originally i come from near to Versailles it is a city with a big castle at 1 hour in Paris.

I have chosen to come to Finland because the school is very different than France and the people are very friendly and polite with them other. I chose specifically Turku because it is a beautiful city near to the sea with a lot of archipelago.

I stay in Novia University of Applied Sciences School for 1 semester (until December). I am very happy be came here, i like very much this country!!!

I also like to travel, to discover new people and new culture. I went to Russia and Tallinn and i have really love discover these countries!!!!!

I am happy participating in this project because I like working in a group with other people, especially from different countries and cultures.

Ellen

 

Five questions

 

1.                 Que savez-vous sur le thème de votre projet?

The theme of our project is "radio, always and everywhere" for the company Digital. I think the idea is to help the company to get more listeners in innovative new ways.

2.                 Que savez-vous à propos de votre entreprise?

I'm French so I did not know this company. After a search with this link: http://www.digita.fi/in_english I learned that the company Digita was a pioneer in the creation and transmission of national networks and broadcasting for radio stations and television throughout Finland.

Digita takes care of the technical implementation and maintenance of the network.

 

3.                 Que savez-vous sur les clients de l'entreprise?

Digita offers its services to media and information technology companies.

So the customers of the company are also radio listeners and television viewers. So the target of this company is all Finns.

4.                 Que savez-vous sur l'industrie de l'entreprise?

I do not know the industry this company. But Digital is responsible for multiple communications channels and has a distribution network covering the entire country with 36 major stations, 101 sub-stations and dozens of stations transmission link.

5.                 Que savez-vous sur les concurrents de l'entreprise?

 

I think that these competitors are companies that broadcast radio and television programs. There are too programs where you can listen to music and news, for example iTunes.

 

TOOLS

 

User Personas:

Allows you to search information from many people, and then get information about similar people to create a single character representing the group. People are created as a set to show the different types and needs. We use the word "Archetype" is a representative of an individual and not stereotypes general model.

This helps to segment users in a group. Personas can be done with different means (photos, illustrations users).

This allows to differentiate a product and not to produce mass. Consumers want to differentiate themselves, manufacturers of mini have understood since they offer their customer customizes their car (exterior color, interior, picture, pictures ...).

User Shadowing:

It is a method to understand how people act in the world around them. This helps to identify and understand their needs. Must target a person or group and / observe a given time (hours, days, months ...).

It really helps to identify barriers and opportunities in the life of a person. She has the opportunity to travel in a city, why she did not go there...

Understanding between what it "says" and "fact”. This method is carried out with a written report with photos, drawings ... made ​​throughout the observation. It is a method which is carried out for the forth from design.

User diaries:

It is a method for quality more personal information about consumers / people. This allows them to describe their own lives, what they do have a specific time of day. For example: 13 November I woke up and listen to the radio. It is like a diary.

This research must first collect standard information (name, age, hobbies ...), then give over a period of time can be a day, week, month ... depending on project needs. Finally add any responses participants. Then this basic information may be supplemented with questions. They can use pictures, video and a written description to document their responses.

The first key to success for this method is to identify the right people to participate in general a relatively small group is sufficient. This allows for more information on the needs, knowledge and understanding users' lives.

Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/fred.zimny/design-methods-services

4 interesting video clips

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR6bje5o_hU

How to get started

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uag1Rkvqyc&noredirect=1

Does it work?

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZiAvlHV2Kw

Expand

4.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KnJAjVsvNM

Innovate 

3 interesting books

1. http://www.radioadvertisingbook.com/
A good read to get in to the topic.

2. http://www.FutureRadioProgrammingStrategies.com
What needs to be done and what do we want...

3. http://www.HowardStern:ABiography.com
The perfect innovative read for radio.

Five Keys to Radio Advertising Success

1. Frequency of Ads

A commercial that airs multiple times in a day has a better chance of reaching the listener than a commercial that only airs a few times in a week.

2. Target Audience

Make a list of the radio stations in your market. After listening to them try to identify which ones work with your product and don’t conflict with the message you want to present.

3. Producing Your Commercial

Unlike television commercials, production is more simple for a radio commercial. You need a script and voice talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPFvLUWkzs

However, that doesn't mean you should just slap something together. Your copy isn't relying on any visuals so it's vital you capture the listener's attention from the start.

4. Rates

Take advantage of the low ad rates for radio.

5. Timing Your Spending

Ad rates are generally less expensive in the first and third quarters. Radio commercials in these time frames are easier to negotiate and cheaper for you to advertise.

Mikael Presentation 

Hi my name is Mikael and I come from and live in Helsinki. I am studying at Åbo Akademi on my master’s degree in International Marketing. I got my bachelors degree at Arcada in International logistics. In between schools I worked for some years. And lived in Verbier, Switzerland and Begur, Spain.

Mikael Portfolio

What do you know about the theme of your project?

The company is Digita and our theme is “radio always and everywhere”. The thought is to create new and innovative ideas for them with radio as the main focus.

What do you know about your company?

Digita is a broadcasting company in Finland working with radio and TV networks and stations.

What do you know about the company's customers?

Since Digita can reach pretty much everywhere in Finland via radio and TV it make them the most lucrative partner for all customers.

What do you know about the industry of the company?

Broadcasting Radio and TV, networks, transmitions, channels, services…

What do you know about the competitors of the company?

Digita is the main player in its field. The only local competitors in TV are DNA and Anvia but also foreign radio and TV networks can compete via internet.

Action plan

How to make a phenomenon of our product and how to spread it?

1. What knowledge do we still need and where can we find it?
2. What skills do we need?
3. What actions do we need to make?
4. What media should we know how to operate?
5. Who are the key persons needed to make it happen?
6. What kind of message is needed to make it sticks in the minds of target groups?

Action plan by Victor, Ellen, Maria & Joni

Digita and Interactivity

Digita and interactivity

Theme: always, everywhere and interactivity

Digita is a radio and TV broadcasting company with a network covering almost the whole of Finland. Its customers are media companies, household consumers and mobile and broadband operators.It´s the biggest company in Finland so it hasn´t got many competitors; they are not rivals because it is so big.

During the group meetings, readings and while gathering information I have come to realise that radio is more important than what I thought. We listen to radio every day and everywhere even without noticing.

The traditional view of radio is disappearing towards a tendency to interactivity. This means that instead of listening to the radio when the programmes are available, we listen to it when we want to, and that is when we have free time. Now we can use our computer, phone or tablet to choose exactly the programmes we want to listen to and when we want to listen to them. The user is able to decide and choose, something that he was not able to do before. There is also a tendency to make it each time more interactive, as people like giving feedback and taking part in it. This can be done through the use of multimedia, social media, computer clouds and a variety of ways. The audience is no longer passive but active. They get bored if they can´t take part in the programmes.

________________________________________________________________

Sources

http://www.digita.fi/
Radio becoming r@dio: Convergence, interactivity and broadcasting trends in perspective - Paula Cordeiro

 

Modern Radio-interactivity

Modern Radio

The new media environment challenges traditional radio broadcasters who are online to improve their traditional broadcasting towards multimedia content and distribution.

Internet is available worldwide, which has led broadcasters to approach the Internet in two ways: using it as a process (creating intranets for content production and management, and as a working tool, as a  source of information and news gathering); and as a distribution platform.

Multimedia takes radio out of its traditional business and broadcasting model, giving the listener a broad set of capabilities.

Interactivity

Interaction is the communication between user and system.

The purpose of an interactive system is to aid a user in accomplishing goals from some application domain.

An interactive communication is characterised by three factors: it is multi-way (it involves two or more actors), it is immediate, as responses occur within seconds; and it is contingent in that the responses of one actor follow directly and logically from the action of another.

By using digital devices and computer interfaces, interactive systems and frameworks applied to radio establish different types of interaction, changing its effectiveness, which depends mostly on two different factors: the design of the interface that allows the user to express himself; and the computer literacy of the radio listener.

In media, the goal is to be able to give feedback, introduce ideas, comment or simply take part in the communication process, participating in media content and conversations.

Nowadays listeners’ participation in radio is also an online participation. It is characterised by written posts, such as emails, blog comments, or online social network posts; images video and audio.

Cloud computing aims to allow access to large amounts of data in a virtualised manner, by aggregating resources and offering a single system view.

Radios today create a media that broadcasts real-time audio. Audio that can be accompanied by texts and images, even if these aren’t necessary to understand the message being broadcasted.

Radio broadcasting has evolved into something more than just an audio media with new features (web-only music channels, web-only video channels, blogs, polls and online comments).

Radio stations are developing multimedia content, storing and sharing online (videos, audio archives and pictures), incorporating webblogs, photoblogs, podcasts, videocasts, wikis (as examples of social media) into their websites with associated sharing platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter buttons.

_______________________________________________________

Sources

Radio becoming r@dio: Convergence, interactivity and broadcasting trends in perspective - Paula Cordeiro

Interactive radio

http://www.mediauk.com/article/34367/the-top-5-best-examples-of-interactive-radio

Interactive radio

·         People should have better channels to influence that what happens in radio. Not just by phone but also by Internet.

·         Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, SMS and blogs - They all should somehow be connected to radio world.

·         People want to be heard the easiest way there is so that they don’t have to pay much or make huge efforts to get their voices “on-air”.

·         Radio with website is dynamic and ever-changing. Its homepage shows what the station is doing right now: Now-playing merges with favored tweets from the audience, links to interviews, photos from the studio and elsewhere, links to features and more information, and sometimes live videos.

·         This homepage widget is like a golden standard for music radio station websites. It reinforces the benefit of talent and ‘shared experience’ that you get with radio.

The most interactive radio stations and programs:

http://www.mediauk.com/article/34367/the-top-5-best-examples-of-interactive-radio

User journey map

Here we have Milla and Kalle. Since our company is a radio and TV broadcaster, we decided to combine Join and Use because it did not make sense to have them separately. Above you can see how these persons become aware and use the service. Notice that in some cases the phases overlap.

If this is too confusing for you, do not hesitate to ask! :)

Mathilda, Victor, Joni, Maria

Applying the tools for Digita: User shadowing

User shadowing

Jarmo Korhonen is a 35 year old man who lives in Espoo with his wife and 2 young kids. He commutes to Helsinki every day for his job as an office worker. At 7:30 am he drives his kids to kindergarden before going to work. During this journey he starts listening to the news because as he is very busy he has not had time to read the newspaper or watch the news on TV.  This channel goes on for 10 minutes until his daughter gets tired of it and asks for it to be changed to some music. The dad cannot refuse to this and they listen to Radio Ylex for the rest of the way (another 10 minutes).

He arrives at the cafe for breakfast where they are playing Radio Nova, but as he needs to be quick he does not seem to pay attention to it.

He goes for lunch at the office cafe with his colleagues where they are playing Radio Nova but he is busy chatting with his mates so they do not pay attention to it.

After work he decides to go grocery shopping as his wife had previously asked him to. During this he does not pay attention to it until he suddenly realizes they are playing a song he likes. He stops for a while to listen to it and then he carries on with his shopping.

After this he drives back home and as he is alone now he is able to listen to the news properly. When he finishes he channel surfs until he finds some music he likes.

In the evening they all watch CSI together on TV after dinner. He then checks his facebook account and searches for some cars on German websites whilst he has the internet Radio Classic FM on.

 

Personas

Name:    Tomi

Age:         25

Occupation:    Economy student

Address:    Turku

Family:     Parents and brother

Interests:   Sports, reading, clubbing, travelling, sustainable development.

Needs:  News, disco music.

Lifestyle:  Lives alone in a shared apartment with other students. He is busy with his studies so he likes to spend his free time hanging out with friends. As he does not have a TV, he during his study breaks likes to relax listening to online radio.

Future: he hopes to able to make a difference in the way we live so we do not waste so much  resources and have a better environmental quality

 

Name:        Mathias

Age:   54

Occupation:    Pre-retired (due to health problems)

Address:  Vaasa

Family:  Two daughters and 3 grandchildren.

Interests:  Likes writing, Travelling, Health

Needs:    Classical music, Retro  music

Lifestyle: He lives alone in a cottage by the sea where he likes to have long walks to get his inspiration for writing. As he has had a heart attack he now is very keen on having a healthy and relaxed lifestyle. He often visits his daughters in Pori. While driving he listens to Groove FM, Radio Vega and Classic FM.

Name: Johanna Soikkanen

Age: 16

Address: Rauma.

Occupation: high school student, first year.

Interests: Dancing and ice skating.

Family: two younger brothers and a 5-year old dog.

Needs: Latest hits

Lifestyle: Outgoing, active teen girl. In the mornings she listens to radio NRJ, which plays commercial music. On her way to school she listens to Spotify on her Iphone. After school she spends time with friends and goes to her dancing classes and ice skate rehearsals. After her ice skate rehearsal she usually has a hot cocoa by the ice skate rink with her friends and the cafeteria plays Radio Voice.

 

Name: Ulla Jokinen  

Age: 68

Address: Oulu

Occupation: Retired

Interests: Knitting, baking

Family: Two daughters with kids

Needs: News, classic music, religious discussions

Lifestyle: Calm, widowed cat lady. Ulla Jokinen is retired and spends a lot of time by herself home alone. Her daughters visit now and then, but they live in another city in Finland far away from Oulu. During day time she listens to Radio Dei, their religious talks shows and music. She listens to the news on Radio Yle twice a day, and listens to Classic Fm when she is knitting.  In the evenings she watches sitcoms and news.

 

Mathilda, Victor, Joni, Maria

Brainstorming!

Brainstorming;
Group discussion about radio… Always, everywhere.

We were discussing when and where most people listen to radio. The most common places are while driving, in the grocery store, at cafes, at work, at the gym, barbershop and in big malls. Usually people might listen to it without knowing, and realizing it when their favorite song is playing. We realized that there is no diversity with radio channels in Finland. We do not have many of them, and the ones we have play the same music all the time. We have different channels for rock, classic, commercial and groovy music, but they keep on playing the same songs every day. They also have a lot of advertisement which is really annoying to most of the people. This is why most people prefer to stream and buy music from Spotify or iTunes instead.

We were thinking that there should be more good radio channels and a lot more genres. Instead of only playing Rock music, one channel could play 80’s rock, one the latest rock songs, and same thing with other genres. For example one channel for dance music, one for techno, one for funk and one for rap. This way people would have more channels to choose from and would not get bored with the same songs and could find new artist as well. We were also thinking about having a radio channel for children, playing their favorite music from movies and TV-shows, storytelling hours and different games.

Mathilda, Victor, Joni, Maria

Mathilda's presentation and answers to the 5 questions

Hi,

my name is Mathilda and I am doing my Masters degree in International Marketing at Åbo Akademi University. I am originally from Helsinki, and moved to Turku in September. I like it here, but still spend most of my time in Helsinki, because of work or other activities. I attended this course because I like to work in groups with other people, especially from different countries and cultures. The company Digita is totally unfamiliar to me but I think this will be a very interesting project!

What do you know about the theme of your project?

Our company is called Digita. Digita broadcasts radio and TV programs to all of Finland. The title is “radio always – everywhere” so I assume that we will plan how they could get more customers and listeners for the radio stations.

What do you know about your company?

I had never heard about Digita before, but after I have written the company overview I know a lot more. Digita is responsible for national transmission and broadcasting networks as well as for the radio and television stations. The broadcasting network covering the whole country comprises 36 major stations, 101 sub-stations and dozens of transmission link stations.

What do you know about the company's customers?

The company’s customers are radio channels and different TV-networks, such as Radio Nova, MTV 3 network with all its channels and so on.  

What do you know about the industry of the company?

I do not know a lot about this industry, the industry is very technical. Digita is responsible for national transmission and broadcasting networks as well as for the radio and television stations 24 hours a day. They handle the technical part and also their marketing and customer service with only 250 employees.

What do you know about the competitors of the company?

Digita is the biggest company in this field in Finland, and I read about them having monopoly in Finland. Yle buys services for 30 million euros and MTV3 for 21 million euros every year. Companies such as DNA and Anvia have also provided same services as Digita for television stations. Another interesting competitor is Spotify, which is a Swedish commercial music streaming service.