Radio roadies
RMF FM's theme song should be "On the Road Again."
For 71 days this summer, in 62 cities around Poland, that's exactly where the country's most popular radio station will be. Its Power Invasion (Inwazja Mocy) tour, featuring stars such as Budka Suflera, Dlem and Lady Pank, is expected to reach a total audience of more than 2 million.
And the station hopes that by going to this audience, these music lovers in turn will come to them.
"Nothing turns people on more than direct contact," said Krzysztof Nepelski, RMF's marketing director. "What we believe in is making ourselves known to people by meeting them face to face as opposed to pumping money into traditional advertising media."
This approach has turned the four-year-old, multi-city tour into a mammoth brand-building campaign. The Power Invasion tour is the largest ad campaign in Poland that does not use traditional media outlets. Its $5 million budget is far more than many companies spend on full-service ad accounts.
The radio station moves the tour from town to town in a distinctive, yellow caravan of more than 80 trucks and cars that carry portable, high-tech stage scenery, catering supplies and satellite-linked reporting equipment. The tour even has its own helicopter.
Kicked off June 20 in Katowice, the tour will finish Aug. 30 with a grand finale in Krakow.
Although the tour is a financial and logistical burden, RMF has found that the personal approach pays handsome dividends when it comes to wooing and keeping listeners.
The tour's name, Inwazja Mocy, has earned an impressive brand recognition of 70% among people 20-29 years of age, according to research firm Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP). This in turn has helped keep RMF as the strongest radio station in Poland with a 51.4% weekly reach for its target market, listeners between 15-45 years of age.
"It's our way to get to our listeners," Nepelski said of the tour.
When it comes to logistics, RMF FM is confident that its Inwazja Mocy tour is the largest and perhaps most complex event in the country.
The station must get the tour from city to city, deal with the 12 bands that will play during the tour and see to it that the needs of the fans are met. And it also must coordinate the tour with government officials in 62 different municipalities.
The latter has possibly been the most time-consuming part. The Inwazja tour managed to devour the attention of more than 10,000 state employees who have dealt with approximately 3,000 requests for permits and licenses connected with the event, according to Scena FM, an RMF subsidiary responsible for production issues related to the tour. Coordinating the tour with these officials has required more than 200,000 telephone conversations, consumed 1,000 rolls of fax paper and forced station employees to fill out more than 300,000 sheets of paper.
And that's just what RMF gives the government. For listeners, the station expects to give away more than zl. 1.1 million ($314,000) in cash plus prizes including 4,000 kilograms of candy, 102,000 condoms and balloons and 84,000 T-shirts, baseball caps, and headbands.
Keeping track of all this giving is no easy task and in the past RMF found it was easy to lose control of the tour. Until recently, the station said it was not able to track every zloty spent on the event.
To get a better handle on the tour, RMF this year set up four subsidiary companies to deal with the myriad details associated with Inwazja, Nepelski said. Flota FM deals with logistics, ART FM designs and monitors promotional activities, Scena FM is responsible for production and Konto FM keeps track of cash flow.
"Thanks to this move we think we will be able to finally assess the cost of the thing," said Nepelski, who is also head of ART FM.
Zloty watch
And as the tour gets bigger and more costly, the station is finding it crucial to effectively manage the financial side. This is especially important as RMF looks to sponsors to pick up a bigger part of the tab.
Although RMF is the second largest radio station in terms of ad sales - it had sales of zl. 38.4 million ($11 million) during the first five months of this year according to Amer Nielsen Research - it finds it difficult to carry Inwazja alone.
"Ideally we would like to make it work on our own, but right now it's much easier to work with partners," Nepelski said. "What we ultimately want is to see two, three sponsors taking care of 50% of the budget."
So far, the station hasn't had too much of a problem finding partners for the tour, which is recognized as an excellent promotional opportunity.
"It's one of the best, if not the best way to get to consumers with a new product," said Iwona Poznarowicz, advertising director of Top 2000. The paper supply company used last summer's Inwazja, and the 1.7 million people it managed to attract, to promote its then brand-new gel-pen.
"It's money well spent, whatever the money is," Poznarowicz said.
Sponsorship is not cheap. This year RMF sold three sponsor spots for $750,000 each. These spots accounted for nearly 50% of the tour's budget.
But being so reliant on sponsors has its risks as RMF discovered this spring. Wizja TV, the digital television platform being launched by @Entertainment, is the tour's major sponsor this year, having bought two of the sponsorship packages.
But in April, @Entertainment put the launch of Wizja on hold because it began negotiations with Canal+ on a combined digital platform. Under the letter of intent signed by the two companies, Wizja was banned from any talks or actions with third parties that would lead to the launch of its own platform (WBJ, June 22-28, 1998).
This led to a two-month delay in paying RMF for the sponsorship packages, said Przemyslaw Szmyt, deputy president of @Entertainment.
And while Wizja was at the negotiating table with Canal+, RMF FM was "completely unaware of what was going on," with a contract worth $1.5 million hanging in the air, said Marek Dworak, the station's chief financial officer.
However, in June the negotiations between Wizja and Canal+ fell apart and Wizja kicked off its platform. This meant it was able to pay RMF, removing financial doubts from the tour.
The third sponsorship package was bought by Polkomtel, the operator of the Plus GSM network, to push its new pre-paid calling card, SimPlus.
"It's a perfect opportunity to reach a wide spectrum of potential clients," said Leszek Kaminski, a spokesman for the company. The tour's wide reach makes it particularly effective with products aimed at mass audiences, he added.
Both Wizja and Polkomtel see the tour, though, as a brand-building opportunity rather than an immediate sales booster.
"These are not the type of promotional activities that bring immediate results in sales figures," Kaminski said. "But what we count on is brand recognition, which in the case of new products is crucial."
And sponsorship difficulties didn't end there for RMF. Because Wizja TV was a sponsor, RMF felt it wouldn't be able to strike a deal with a television station to have the concerts broadcast. And Wizja, which is still being launched, did not have the facilities to broadcast the concerts.
Last year, Inwazja arranged "an exchange of services," with Polsat to broadcast the concerts, said Malgorzata Dobrowolska, promotions director at Polsat. But this year, RMF didn't even try to work something out, she added.
"It was a major blow we took this year when we realized that we will not have the television coverage we had last year," Nepelski said.
This is an especially large problem because Inwazja's competitor, the "Lato z Radiem" tour, is being broadcast on Telewizja Polska (TVP). Run by Polskie Radio's Channel 1, the Lato tour will visit 50 cities over 60 days.
The two tours are different - Inwazja features rock bands and is aimed at a younger audience while Lato has a variety of acts and is geared for all age groups. But there is a definite competition between them.
"It's a huge and healthy challenge to see them doing the same, or similar thing we do," Roman Czejarek, head of Lato said. "But we're winning."
"I'm full of admiration for Polish Radio that it decided to have such a tour taking into account its marginal financial assets," countered Nepelski. "But with all due respect, we think we do it better."
While that's a matter of opinion, it is clear that RMF's tour is bigger in budget terms. Czejarek would not disclose Lato's budget, but said it was not as large as RMF's. For sponsors, Lato has Poland's largest refinery, Petrochemia Plock and Daewoo.
More importantly, though, Lato has TVP, which broadcasts a two-hour live concert every Saturday.
Tagging along
Still, the lack of a television partner hasn't dampened the crowds enthusiasm for the Inwazja tour. And well-heeled companies looking to build a brand image aren't the only ones who find Inwazja a good business opportunity. Some entrepreneurs are climbing on board as well.
Halina Swiatkiewicz joined the yellow caravan in Bielsko-Biala, the third city on the Inwazja tour. The owner of a 17-year-old Dacia, she decided to take her car-sized business on the road with the tour.
"I thought I would either love it or hate it, so far I love it," the 42-year-old said in Poznan, after spending two-and-a-half weeks with the tour.
Swiatkiewicz sells Indian-style necklaces, which go for zl. 10- zl. 20. Since her primary customers are teenage girls, Inwazja is a perfect selling venue, she said.
"I sell up to 10 times more than I do back in Zabrze," she said.
And with average daily turnover of zl. 600-zl. 700 during the tour, Swiatkiewicz is happy to pay RMF daily rent of zl. 100.
"If I gross zl. 2,000, I actually get zl. 700 after tax, but still, the money I make here over a week is the same I make in Zabrze over a month," she said.
Swiatkiewicz said business is so good that she plans to stay with Inwazja "as long as the car can handle it."
For 71 days this summer, in 62 cities around Poland, that's exactly where the country's most popular radio station will be. Its Power Invasion (Inwazja Mocy) tour, featuring stars such as Budka Suflera, Dlem and Lady Pank, is expected to reach a total audience of more than 2 million.
And the station hopes that by going to this audience, these music lovers in turn will come to them.
"Nothing turns people on more than direct contact," said Krzysztof Nepelski, RMF's marketing director. "What we believe in is making ourselves known to people by meeting them face to face as opposed to pumping money into traditional advertising media."
This approach has turned the four-year-old, multi-city tour into a mammoth brand-building campaign. The Power Invasion tour is the largest ad campaign in Poland that does not use traditional media outlets. Its $5 million budget is far more than many companies spend on full-service ad accounts.
The radio station moves the tour from town to town in a distinctive, yellow caravan of more than 80 trucks and cars that carry portable, high-tech stage scenery, catering supplies and satellite-linked reporting equipment. The tour even has its own helicopter.
Kicked off June 20 in Katowice, the tour will finish Aug. 30 with a grand finale in Krakow.
Although the tour is a financial and logistical burden, RMF has found that the personal approach pays handsome dividends when it comes to wooing and keeping listeners.
The tour's name, Inwazja Mocy, has earned an impressive brand recognition of 70% among people 20-29 years of age, according to research firm Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP). This in turn has helped keep RMF as the strongest radio station in Poland with a 51.4% weekly reach for its target market, listeners between 15-45 years of age.
"It's our way to get to our listeners," Nepelski said of the tour.
When it comes to logistics, RMF FM is confident that its Inwazja Mocy tour is the largest and perhaps most complex event in the country.
The station must get the tour from city to city, deal with the 12 bands that will play during the tour and see to it that the needs of the fans are met. And it also must coordinate the tour with government officials in 62 different municipalities.
The latter has possibly been the most time-consuming part. The Inwazja tour managed to devour the attention of more than 10,000 state employees who have dealt with approximately 3,000 requests for permits and licenses connected with the event, according to Scena FM, an RMF subsidiary responsible for production issues related to the tour. Coordinating the tour with these officials has required more than 200,000 telephone conversations, consumed 1,000 rolls of fax paper and forced station employees to fill out more than 300,000 sheets of paper.
And that's just what RMF gives the government. For listeners, the station expects to give away more than zl. 1.1 million ($314,000) in cash plus prizes including 4,000 kilograms of candy, 102,000 condoms and balloons and 84,000 T-shirts, baseball caps, and headbands.
Keeping track of all this giving is no easy task and in the past RMF found it was easy to lose control of the tour. Until recently, the station said it was not able to track every zloty spent on the event.
To get a better handle on the tour, RMF this year set up four subsidiary companies to deal with the myriad details associated with Inwazja, Nepelski said. Flota FM deals with logistics, ART FM designs and monitors promotional activities, Scena FM is responsible for production and Konto FM keeps track of cash flow.
"Thanks to this move we think we will be able to finally assess the cost of the thing," said Nepelski, who is also head of ART FM.
Zloty watch
And as the tour gets bigger and more costly, the station is finding it crucial to effectively manage the financial side. This is especially important as RMF looks to sponsors to pick up a bigger part of the tab.
Although RMF is the second largest radio station in terms of ad sales - it had sales of zl. 38.4 million ($11 million) during the first five months of this year according to Amer Nielsen Research - it finds it difficult to carry Inwazja alone.
"Ideally we would like to make it work on our own, but right now it's much easier to work with partners," Nepelski said. "What we ultimately want is to see two, three sponsors taking care of 50% of the budget."
So far, the station hasn't had too much of a problem finding partners for the tour, which is recognized as an excellent promotional opportunity.
"It's one of the best, if not the best way to get to consumers with a new product," said Iwona Poznarowicz, advertising director of Top 2000. The paper supply company used last summer's Inwazja, and the 1.7 million people it managed to attract, to promote its then brand-new gel-pen.
"It's money well spent, whatever the money is," Poznarowicz said.
Sponsorship is not cheap. This year RMF sold three sponsor spots for $750,000 each. These spots accounted for nearly 50% of the tour's budget.
But being so reliant on sponsors has its risks as RMF discovered this spring. Wizja TV, the digital television platform being launched by @Entertainment, is the tour's major sponsor this year, having bought two of the sponsorship packages.
But in April, @Entertainment put the launch of Wizja on hold because it began negotiations with Canal+ on a combined digital platform. Under the letter of intent signed by the two companies, Wizja was banned from any talks or actions with third parties that would lead to the launch of its own platform (WBJ, June 22-28, 1998).
This led to a two-month delay in paying RMF for the sponsorship packages, said Przemyslaw Szmyt, deputy president of @Entertainment.
And while Wizja was at the negotiating table with Canal+, RMF FM was "completely unaware of what was going on," with a contract worth $1.5 million hanging in the air, said Marek Dworak, the station's chief financial officer.
However, in June the negotiations between Wizja and Canal+ fell apart and Wizja kicked off its platform. This meant it was able to pay RMF, removing financial doubts from the tour.
The third sponsorship package was bought by Polkomtel, the operator of the Plus GSM network, to push its new pre-paid calling card, SimPlus.
"It's a perfect opportunity to reach a wide spectrum of potential clients," said Leszek Kaminski, a spokesman for the company. The tour's wide reach makes it particularly effective with products aimed at mass audiences, he added.
Both Wizja and Polkomtel see the tour, though, as a brand-building opportunity rather than an immediate sales booster.
"These are not the type of promotional activities that bring immediate results in sales figures," Kaminski said. "But what we count on is brand recognition, which in the case of new products is crucial."
And sponsorship difficulties didn't end there for RMF. Because Wizja TV was a sponsor, RMF felt it wouldn't be able to strike a deal with a television station to have the concerts broadcast. And Wizja, which is still being launched, did not have the facilities to broadcast the concerts.
Last year, Inwazja arranged "an exchange of services," with Polsat to broadcast the concerts, said Malgorzata Dobrowolska, promotions director at Polsat. But this year, RMF didn't even try to work something out, she added.
"It was a major blow we took this year when we realized that we will not have the television coverage we had last year," Nepelski said.
This is an especially large problem because Inwazja's competitor, the "Lato z Radiem" tour, is being broadcast on Telewizja Polska (TVP). Run by Polskie Radio's Channel 1, the Lato tour will visit 50 cities over 60 days.
The two tours are different - Inwazja features rock bands and is aimed at a younger audience while Lato has a variety of acts and is geared for all age groups. But there is a definite competition between them.
"It's a huge and healthy challenge to see them doing the same, or similar thing we do," Roman Czejarek, head of Lato said. "But we're winning."
"I'm full of admiration for Polish Radio that it decided to have such a tour taking into account its marginal financial assets," countered Nepelski. "But with all due respect, we think we do it better."
While that's a matter of opinion, it is clear that RMF's tour is bigger in budget terms. Czejarek would not disclose Lato's budget, but said it was not as large as RMF's. For sponsors, Lato has Poland's largest refinery, Petrochemia Plock and Daewoo.
More importantly, though, Lato has TVP, which broadcasts a two-hour live concert every Saturday.
Tagging along
Still, the lack of a television partner hasn't dampened the crowds enthusiasm for the Inwazja tour. And well-heeled companies looking to build a brand image aren't the only ones who find Inwazja a good business opportunity. Some entrepreneurs are climbing on board as well.
Halina Swiatkiewicz joined the yellow caravan in Bielsko-Biala, the third city on the Inwazja tour. The owner of a 17-year-old Dacia, she decided to take her car-sized business on the road with the tour.
"I thought I would either love it or hate it, so far I love it," the 42-year-old said in Poznan, after spending two-and-a-half weeks with the tour.
Swiatkiewicz sells Indian-style necklaces, which go for zl. 10- zl. 20. Since her primary customers are teenage girls, Inwazja is a perfect selling venue, she said.
"I sell up to 10 times more than I do back in Zabrze," she said.
And with average daily turnover of zl. 600-zl. 700 during the tour, Swiatkiewicz is happy to pay RMF daily rent of zl. 100.
"If I gross zl. 2,000, I actually get zl. 700 after tax, but still, the money I make here over a week is the same I make in Zabrze over a month," she said.
Swiatkiewicz said business is so good that she plans to stay with Inwazja "as long as the car can handle it."
