* On-ground 3-week campaign starts Friday, 9th December

* 160+ outdoor locations across 11 markets

* 10-day on-ground activation to support OOH

MUMBAI: Red FM is taking its award wining property, Red Mike, across 11 key markets nationwide with a programming initiative and campaign titled – aptly for a station for expression – Red Mike Par Khul Ke Batao, Sab Ko Sunao  The network, which is taking Red Mike to Ahmedabad, Baroda, Kanpur, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Pune and Nagpur, will kick off a massive on-ground campaign for 3 weeks across 160-plus locations across the 11 cities on Friday, the 10th of December. It will be supported by  a 10-day on-ground activation.

The on-air campaign for the initiative began on the 6th of December, and will be on air for three weeks. It is being spearheaded by the local RJs  hosting Red FM's breakfast show Morning No.1 in these 11 cities. These RJs are guiding the Red Mike campaign and encouraging  people to call up on the studio lines and have their opinions heard. The best bytes from each day will be played on the station the next day.

The idea behind Red Mike, obviously, is to take interactivity and the Red FM experience right into the backyards and homes of new and current listeners, who will find the Red Mike on the airwaves and at their doorsteps encouraging and coaxing them to speak up.

Commenting on this campaign, Nisha Narayanan, Sr VP Projects and Programming, RED FM, said, The Red Mike boosts listener interactivity and capitalizes on the strength of radio as a medium. The programming changes we had introduced in the 11 markets following the field research conducted by Nielsen have been received positively across markets. Already, the IRS Round 3 results makes Red FM the fastest growing radio network in the country....

Through the Red Mike, Red FM empowers listeners to decide on-air content every day. Listeners get to participate actively and express what is important to them, as citizens and as individuals. The 11 cities had been a part of an extensive field survey that Nielsen had conducted for Red FM. The research provided a lot of interesting insights into the mind of the average radio listener in these markets. Red Mike was designed keeping in mind the findings of the survey.

Narayanan said, One interesting observation that emerged from the Nielsen survey across markets was that the expectations audiences have from media have changed over the years. Audiences don't want to be passive recipients anymore. They want to contribute, be heard and feel empowered. Red Mike taps into this need of the audiences by providing them with a platform. That's why Red Mike is the voice of the people, but it isn't necessarily a tool for socio-political activism. Simply put, Red Mike is something that anybody and everybody can wield and tell it like it is about things concerning them, with both the positives and the negatives coming out of it....

The creatives for the outdoor campaign have been designed keeping in mind the local flavour of each market. Regional languages and local scenarios have been depicted on the creative in an attempt to build an immediate connect with the citizens.

The outdoor campaign targets across all SECs and covering each city. In Indore, besides hoardings, unipoles and bus shelters, a full body bus wrap of an AC Bus has been undertaken to support the on-ir campaign. Pioneer Publicity Corporation Pvt. Ltd. has planned the outdoor campaign.

The outdoor campaign is also supported by a ten-day on-ground activation, which is being managed by Vibgyor Brand Solutions across all 11 markets. The Red Mike consists of a branded canter  mounted with a symbolic large size fabricated Red Mike, doing the rounds of the city for 10 days. The Red mike will visit shopping areas, housing societies, schools and colleges, and the Red Mike jockey on board will interact with bystanders, get them to interact and also record their messages for everyone. The on-ground activity will obviously be synchronized with on-air.

Red FM is known to be away from the clich?©d  and has always been visible through its out-of-the-box on-ground activities,... said Ankur Kalra, CEO Vibgyor Brand Services Ltd. We are proud to be associated with this creative project for the second time. We have taken learnings from the past and further refined them before implementing them in 11 markets this time round....