Talk to us, please
The message didn't take hold, though, and Tok FM is now trying to refocus its image. This time around, it's using a straightforward ad campaign on billboards throughout Warsaw that feature talking heads saying they like to listen to the station.
"Our new campaign is very straightforward and friendly for a change," said Anna Sobik, head of advertising at Tok FM. "Unlike our first campaigns, it's simply to inform people that we exist."
As simple as that message may be, it's important for Tok FM and increasingly for any new radio operation. With giants such as Radio Zet heightening their dominance of the market, newcomers are finding brand-building a difficult exercise.
"No radio can count on immediate success like Radio Zet (which started shortly after Poland's economic transformation began) since the market is no longer a desert with practically no competition," said Pawel Pawicki, director of advertising with Radio Plus, which launched in September 1998.
Both TokFm and Radio Plus are confident that talk radio is a niche that will eventually prove successful. But in a country dominated by music stations, their initial forays into the market aren't producing dramatic listenershare gains.
In April, Tok FM had a 4.8% listenershare in Warsaw, according to research firm Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP). (Listenershare is based on a ratio of time spent by survey respondents listening to a specific station and total time spent listening to the radio.) By comparison, Radio Zet, the country's second largest commercial radio station, attracted 22.5% listenershare in Warsaw during the same month.
Radio Plus, whose program is broadcast on a national level and by local radio stations, which is also a commercial, Catholic station, hasn't seen better results than Tok FM. According to OBOP, the station's weekly listenershare in Warsaw was about 1.2% in April. Its weekly nationwide reach was about 7%, but the station feels it can top 10%.
Despite the troubles it has had attracting a broad listenerbase, TokFm and its owners are confident it has hit on what will be a lucrative niche. The key is getting the formula right.
"Although it's unlike most of Agora's music radio stations, which from the start get 10% of the market, it's harder for us; there is a worldwide comeback to news and talk radio stations," said Agnieszka Rudzinska, head of promotion at Tok FM.
Agora, which has stakes in 11 Polish radio stations and went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in April, took a 29.2% stake in Tok FM in January 1998. GWR, a British media holding, has a 33% stake and the remaining 38% is shared by Polityka, the Batory Foundation, which has strong ties to Agora, and Infor Publishing House.
Marek Michalski, head of Agora's radio department, is also optimistic despite the slow start.
"It's the only radio of its kind in Poland, and from the very beginning it was an experiment for us," he said. "It's too early to call the venture a failure."
Still, it has had to reinvent itself and the outcome of that experiment is not yet clear.
When the station first launched, it tried to attract an upscale market.
"In the beginning, we targeted listeners over 30, well off and dynamic, which resulted in too-sophisticated programming," said Tok FM's Sobik.
That approach, the station admits, was a mistake.
So the Tok FM team decided on a radical change of strategy - to go downmarket. The station switched to a format aimed at ordinary people and discussions of day-to-day problems.
The name of the station was changed to its current brand and new on-air personalities were brought in. These presenters are on air for three hours a day, commenting on topics ranging from domestic politics to dog training. The presenters always stick to their views and don't even try to be objective. The idea is to generate strong reactions from listeners. Every 15 minutes the talk is interrupted by news prepared by the BBC.
The station now believes it hit on the right format six months ago. "I am positive that the current shape of the radio is finally what we need," Sobik said.
However, advertisers weren't convinced, and the radio station knew it needed to do more.
"We are not satisfied with our ad revenue," Sobik said, declining to detail revenue for the period since the switchover.
However, in April Tok FM grossed about zl. 233,000, according to Expert Media's radio advertising monitoring section. This revenue was not even double the amount generated in January. At the same time, Radio Plus, which only started taking advertising in September 1998, grossed about zl. 105,000, according to Expert Media.
Clearly, the station's optimism was not shared by its customers.
"Tok FM is a difficult radio station and we don't use it," said Jowita Dlus-Korocinska, head of the radio department at Optimum Media, a media house affiliated with Corporate Profiles DDB advertising agency. "Its position on the market is weak. It's a niche station that couldn't run a leading advertising campaign."
"And I've always said that changing names (from Inforadio to Tok FM) is not necessarily enough to reach a wider audience," she said.
Although she's currently down on the station, Dlus-Korocinska said there was hope for Tok FM if it can build its brand.
So far, though, it has failed in attempts to do so. The station's first two ad campaigns were seen as being inaccessible and enigmatic. Not the stuff that draws a mass-market audience.
"Their first campaigns weren't at all associated with their brand," said Leszek Zaborowski, head of the media department at Ammirati Puris Lintas.
Sobik agreed that the station's previous winter campaign was too difficult for potential listeners to grasp. And given its format, listeners must be compelled to tune in for the station to succeed.
"You can't listen to us by chance," Sobik said. "Our perfect listener is faithful and believes in us."
Finding a faithful audience is no easy task for a secular station. But Tok FM hopes that if it can build awareness through its current ad campaign, loyalty will follow.
Some observers say the jury is out on whether that will happen.
Tok FM "was one of the most ambitious radio projects on the market at the time it started," said Andrzej Zarebski, a former member of the Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV) and now an independent media adviser. "But, so far, it's been only the Catholic conservative Radio Maryja which has achieved the goal of developing a family of faithful listeners. It's questionable whether it's possible to do the same on a secular market."
Commercial, but Catholic
When it comes to faith, religion may be the key, as followers of Radio Maryja know. But Radio Plus thinks it can tap into a similar market while at the same time being a commercial venture.
Like TokFm, Radio Plus is trying to fill an untapped niche. It is offering a mix of news, talk and music targeted at a middle-of-the-road Catholic audience.
The station was formed in 1998 when 15 local radio stations signed an agreement to establish a network that would use products created by Radio Plus company, whose primary owner is the Polish Episcopate. Today, 26 radio stations use about eight hours of programming daily produced by Radio Plus. Most of these stations are local, private ventures that like having access to high-quality news programs and interviews with political and artistic subjects. There is also Radio Plus Warszawa, which broadcasts in the capital.
While Radio Plus is owned by the Polish Episcopate, its profile is commercial with an evangelical bent. Last September, the station/network started an advertising department to bring in more revenue.
"We want to make money, like all other commercial stations," said Pawel Pawicki, director of advertising at Radio Plus. "Our goal is to reach a 10% level of nationwide listenershare, which could be then easily translated into financial results."
According to Ireneusz Sokalski, a Catholic priest and Radio Plus's president, the station's cash flow is expected to be negative until the end of this year. "But next year, we should suffer no losses," he added.
The station targets listeners 25-50 years of age who are professionals. "People who need more than music," Pawicki said.
But like TokFm, the format isn't the only key to success.
First Pawicki's team has to change the conventional notion of a Catholic broadcaster held by ad people in Poland. Such stations are typically identified with Radio Maryja, which is known for its conservative profile and an older audience.
"We need to break that conceptual barrier," Pawicki said. "It is much more open radio than one would expect. Everybody can listen to it, not only Catholics."
"Such a model of a commercial radio station with a Catholic profile has been proved in Szczecin," Sokalski said. "Our listeners tell us we are normal radio, and media insiders are discovering Catholic broadcasting can also mean professional."
Again, though, the station has to build its brand image if it is to prove itself a commercial success.
"A lot has to be done and the reach of the radio is a crucial goal," Pawicki said. "Nevertheless, I think that people have already discovered our station."
To further build its brand, the station plans to take a page out of TokFm's book.
"We want to place 1,000 billboards throughout Poland during the Pope's visit promoting the two: the pilgrimage and our radio," Pawicki said.
But the station also has its own approach designed to show that it's a different kind of Catholic radio. To show that the station is open to interesting people, it has recruited action movie star Boguslaw Linda to read the lives of the saints on air and Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, president of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), to take about the power of praying with the rosary.
"We try to be attractive but within certain limits, "Sokalski said. "Good taste is our arbiter."
"Our new campaign is very straightforward and friendly for a change," said Anna Sobik, head of advertising at Tok FM. "Unlike our first campaigns, it's simply to inform people that we exist."
As simple as that message may be, it's important for Tok FM and increasingly for any new radio operation. With giants such as Radio Zet heightening their dominance of the market, newcomers are finding brand-building a difficult exercise.
"No radio can count on immediate success like Radio Zet (which started shortly after Poland's economic transformation began) since the market is no longer a desert with practically no competition," said Pawel Pawicki, director of advertising with Radio Plus, which launched in September 1998.
Both TokFm and Radio Plus are confident that talk radio is a niche that will eventually prove successful. But in a country dominated by music stations, their initial forays into the market aren't producing dramatic listenershare gains.
In April, Tok FM had a 4.8% listenershare in Warsaw, according to research firm Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP). (Listenershare is based on a ratio of time spent by survey respondents listening to a specific station and total time spent listening to the radio.) By comparison, Radio Zet, the country's second largest commercial radio station, attracted 22.5% listenershare in Warsaw during the same month.
Radio Plus, whose program is broadcast on a national level and by local radio stations, which is also a commercial, Catholic station, hasn't seen better results than Tok FM. According to OBOP, the station's weekly listenershare in Warsaw was about 1.2% in April. Its weekly nationwide reach was about 7%, but the station feels it can top 10%.
Despite the troubles it has had attracting a broad listenerbase, TokFm and its owners are confident it has hit on what will be a lucrative niche. The key is getting the formula right.
"Although it's unlike most of Agora's music radio stations, which from the start get 10% of the market, it's harder for us; there is a worldwide comeback to news and talk radio stations," said Agnieszka Rudzinska, head of promotion at Tok FM.
Agora, which has stakes in 11 Polish radio stations and went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in April, took a 29.2% stake in Tok FM in January 1998. GWR, a British media holding, has a 33% stake and the remaining 38% is shared by Polityka, the Batory Foundation, which has strong ties to Agora, and Infor Publishing House.
Marek Michalski, head of Agora's radio department, is also optimistic despite the slow start.
"It's the only radio of its kind in Poland, and from the very beginning it was an experiment for us," he said. "It's too early to call the venture a failure."
Still, it has had to reinvent itself and the outcome of that experiment is not yet clear.
When the station first launched, it tried to attract an upscale market.
"In the beginning, we targeted listeners over 30, well off and dynamic, which resulted in too-sophisticated programming," said Tok FM's Sobik.
That approach, the station admits, was a mistake.
So the Tok FM team decided on a radical change of strategy - to go downmarket. The station switched to a format aimed at ordinary people and discussions of day-to-day problems.
The name of the station was changed to its current brand and new on-air personalities were brought in. These presenters are on air for three hours a day, commenting on topics ranging from domestic politics to dog training. The presenters always stick to their views and don't even try to be objective. The idea is to generate strong reactions from listeners. Every 15 minutes the talk is interrupted by news prepared by the BBC.
The station now believes it hit on the right format six months ago. "I am positive that the current shape of the radio is finally what we need," Sobik said.
However, advertisers weren't convinced, and the radio station knew it needed to do more.
"We are not satisfied with our ad revenue," Sobik said, declining to detail revenue for the period since the switchover.
However, in April Tok FM grossed about zl. 233,000, according to Expert Media's radio advertising monitoring section. This revenue was not even double the amount generated in January. At the same time, Radio Plus, which only started taking advertising in September 1998, grossed about zl. 105,000, according to Expert Media.
Clearly, the station's optimism was not shared by its customers.
"Tok FM is a difficult radio station and we don't use it," said Jowita Dlus-Korocinska, head of the radio department at Optimum Media, a media house affiliated with Corporate Profiles DDB advertising agency. "Its position on the market is weak. It's a niche station that couldn't run a leading advertising campaign."
"And I've always said that changing names (from Inforadio to Tok FM) is not necessarily enough to reach a wider audience," she said.
Although she's currently down on the station, Dlus-Korocinska said there was hope for Tok FM if it can build its brand.
So far, though, it has failed in attempts to do so. The station's first two ad campaigns were seen as being inaccessible and enigmatic. Not the stuff that draws a mass-market audience.
"Their first campaigns weren't at all associated with their brand," said Leszek Zaborowski, head of the media department at Ammirati Puris Lintas.
Sobik agreed that the station's previous winter campaign was too difficult for potential listeners to grasp. And given its format, listeners must be compelled to tune in for the station to succeed.
"You can't listen to us by chance," Sobik said. "Our perfect listener is faithful and believes in us."
Finding a faithful audience is no easy task for a secular station. But Tok FM hopes that if it can build awareness through its current ad campaign, loyalty will follow.
Some observers say the jury is out on whether that will happen.
Tok FM "was one of the most ambitious radio projects on the market at the time it started," said Andrzej Zarebski, a former member of the Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV) and now an independent media adviser. "But, so far, it's been only the Catholic conservative Radio Maryja which has achieved the goal of developing a family of faithful listeners. It's questionable whether it's possible to do the same on a secular market."
Commercial, but Catholic
When it comes to faith, religion may be the key, as followers of Radio Maryja know. But Radio Plus thinks it can tap into a similar market while at the same time being a commercial venture.
Like TokFm, Radio Plus is trying to fill an untapped niche. It is offering a mix of news, talk and music targeted at a middle-of-the-road Catholic audience.
The station was formed in 1998 when 15 local radio stations signed an agreement to establish a network that would use products created by Radio Plus company, whose primary owner is the Polish Episcopate. Today, 26 radio stations use about eight hours of programming daily produced by Radio Plus. Most of these stations are local, private ventures that like having access to high-quality news programs and interviews with political and artistic subjects. There is also Radio Plus Warszawa, which broadcasts in the capital.
While Radio Plus is owned by the Polish Episcopate, its profile is commercial with an evangelical bent. Last September, the station/network started an advertising department to bring in more revenue.
"We want to make money, like all other commercial stations," said Pawel Pawicki, director of advertising at Radio Plus. "Our goal is to reach a 10% level of nationwide listenershare, which could be then easily translated into financial results."
According to Ireneusz Sokalski, a Catholic priest and Radio Plus's president, the station's cash flow is expected to be negative until the end of this year. "But next year, we should suffer no losses," he added.
The station targets listeners 25-50 years of age who are professionals. "People who need more than music," Pawicki said.
But like TokFm, the format isn't the only key to success.
First Pawicki's team has to change the conventional notion of a Catholic broadcaster held by ad people in Poland. Such stations are typically identified with Radio Maryja, which is known for its conservative profile and an older audience.
"We need to break that conceptual barrier," Pawicki said. "It is much more open radio than one would expect. Everybody can listen to it, not only Catholics."
"Such a model of a commercial radio station with a Catholic profile has been proved in Szczecin," Sokalski said. "Our listeners tell us we are normal radio, and media insiders are discovering Catholic broadcasting can also mean professional."
Again, though, the station has to build its brand image if it is to prove itself a commercial success.
"A lot has to be done and the reach of the radio is a crucial goal," Pawicki said. "Nevertheless, I think that people have already discovered our station."
To further build its brand, the station plans to take a page out of TokFm's book.
"We want to place 1,000 billboards throughout Poland during the Pope's visit promoting the two: the pilgrimage and our radio," Pawicki said.
But the station also has its own approach designed to show that it's a different kind of Catholic radio. To show that the station is open to interesting people, it has recruited action movie star Boguslaw Linda to read the lives of the saints on air and Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, president of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), to take about the power of praying with the rosary.
"We try to be attractive but within certain limits, "Sokalski said. "Good taste is our arbiter."
