Dubai: The Arabian Radio Network (ARN) officially announced the rebranding of its Arabic entertainment radio station Al Arabiya 99, with the tagline ‘Music First.'
"We decided to rebrand the station based on a lot of research that we did," said Mahmoud Al Rasheed, General Manager of ARN. "We spent a lot of time doing music research to find out the listeners wanted," he said.
Steve Smith, Chief Operating Officer at ARN, said the research was conducted to make sure that they "stay ahead, fresh and relevant."
"Being in radio, there's no finishing line so it's always evolving," Smith said.
The network is hoping that the rebranding will draw more ears to the station and increase their share of advertising.
Only two to three per cent of advertising spent in the UAE goes into radio, which is very low, Smith said. "To be fair, it [radio advertising] is too cheap. It's a cost effective medium that can show return on your investment."
He said that the time is perfect for the radio market since it's transportable and is now gaining access on multiple platforms. "You've got traffic where people are travelling on average two hours in their car. You've got so many different cultures that you can target," Smith said.
ARN's research findings have shown that people are a lot busier that they used to be. "People are much busier so their attention span is tighter," Smith said. "Sitting in a focused group we found out that they want to be entertained and music is definitely driving it."
The radio industry is evolving so much that it's no longer just limited to radio, but it's actually extended to other platforms such as mobile phones and social networks, Smith said. "We're not in radio anymore. We're in content. We're online. We're on multiple platforms."
"It's making our lives more interesting because we now know that our message is going out on all those different platforms. It's allowing us to be even more immediate because it's in your pocket, in your car, online, on your computer," he said.
