Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) unveiled its branding and digital radio awareness campaign, which will be launched in Q1 next year with a national stunt event broadcast simultaneously across commercial and public networks.
The campaign, developed by CRA and independent agency Smart, uses an animated logo - a white stylised plus sign on blue background, along with the words ‘It’s radio as you know it, plus.’
This message will be the key message of the digital radio drive, including the launch campaign to be rolled out in three phases, commencing in the first quarter of 2009 with a ‘tease tactic’, followed by a second phase explaining capabilities and the benefits of digital radio. The third phase of the communication will drive usage. While the details of the event are yet to be determined, Joan Warner, chief executive of CRA, said it would be national and would involve both commercial and public broadcasters. Warner said the CRA has worked closely with the radio industry to develop the logo and collateral that will work with third party applications. The logo’s audio component, which has been compared with the Intel mnemonic, will also be applied as a tag on retail advertising and used in store. Earlier in the week the CRA confirmed that the switch on date for digital radio had been pushed out by another five months to May 1, following timeline infrastructure issues relating to the rollout of transmission equipment. Warner said the timeline issues had arisen as a result of intensive and collaborative work being done on a second draft of the Digital Radio Channel Plans (DRCPs) developed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority . These will now not be finalised until December 2008. “ After close collaboration between ACMA and the industry, we are looking forward to a set of specifications which will allow much improved coverage to that offered by the earlier DRCPs released late in 2007.The infrastructure build of an entirely new broadcast technology is a complex one. We are committed to ensuring that we get it right from day one. Transmission networks last a very long time,” Warner said.
