TVC Communications: The making of a mega brand
In its very famous marketing treatise, Think Like a Winner, Yehuda Shinar, a graphologist, life coach, and owner/CEO of the Shinar Institute established in Israel in 1976 had this to say about the “winning model”.
“If you want to increase the frequency of your successes and decrease the frequency of your failures, you need not only to meet the “basic needs”, but also to identify the attributes that characterize a winner. This is so that you can work on developing them yourself and become a top performer”.
In propagating this model, Yehuda Shinas gave the corporate world the winning behavioural pyramid hinged on – warrior, thinker and skill refiner. The model is a pyramid that begins with the noble warrior spirit at its base, followed by thinking and finally skill (this goes against the common held belief that skill would be the base of winning.
Anyone who is familiar with Yehuda Shinar’s famous winning model would not agree less on the 360degree turn-around work that has taken place at TVC Communications. The media organization which was established in 2007 with its headquarters in Lagos Nigeria has become a symbol of a good-to-great company.
The TVC Communications, which encompasses TVC News, TVC Entertainment, Max FM and Adaba FM, has finally succeeded in redefining broadcast journalism by reshaping the social and public perception of Africans on news, entertainment and broadcasting across the nation.
When initially TVC Communications launched into the ever competitive and fragmented Nigerian media market, not quite a few gave it the benefits of doubts as to the brand’s unique selling points and the difference it would make considering the motley of players in the sector. It is on record that the early stage of market penetration was a bit challenging for the media brand, a situation which is concomitant with new entrants especially in the sector where “me- too” products are in large numbers. Realizing the dynamics of the market it has elected to play, the proprietors of TVC Communications went into the drawing board to recalibrate their operational engine with a view to creating a niche for itself as well as challenging the established players in all aspects and ramifications.
As if taking a cue from Robert Allen Iger, an American businessman and chairman of The Walt Disney coy who said, “the heart and soul of a company is creativity and innovation”, the management of TVC Communications rijigged the brand through creativity and innovation that today sets it apart from the packs. Having made an entrance into the market, it quickly realized the need to change the status – quo so as to get its bearing right. This perhaps was at the heart of the rejig and restructuring that took place at the organization almost two years ago.
The rejig, which took industry by surprise was like a hurricane that consumed old tendencies that won’t take it to the winning edge. While the restructuring touched on the raw nerve of some people, the decision has significantly paid off today for the company which has actually double the size of the employees in its employ and that which will still be engaged by this iconic media mega brand.
As stated by Jim Collins, the author of the notable book “The Good-to-Great! “the good–to–great companies do not focus principally on what to Do to become great; they focused equally on what NOT to do and what to STOP doing”. This philosophy appears to be the defining principle that inspired the reform at TVC Communications a few years ago. Today, the outcome is there for all to see.
Indeed, the rise to broadcast stardom and outstanding result achievements by TVC Communications can best be attributed to the dynamic duo of Andrew Hanlon, the Chief Executive Officer and his able lieutenant, Ronan Redmond, the Commercial Director. The two expatriates with remarkable career pedigrees are like the dynamo driving and charting the course for unprecedented heights for the media group.
The organization’s management has brought vibrancy and vitality to the management and marketing process like never before such that an uninitiated would mistake them for street salesmen. This effort has not only paid off handsomely on the bottom-line, it has also helped significantly to lift up the media brand’s equity in the market.
Today, the TVC brand records top of the mind awareness by primary target audience while it also resonates and connects well with the teeming Nigerian television viewing population. Some cases surface in the top management’s sales adventure. Sometimes ago, Hanlon it was, who first led the management staff of the company on a visit to the Inspector General of Police at the Force Headquarters in Abuja. Like a typical salesman, Hanlon used the opportunity of the visit to emphasize TVC’s commitment to professionalism and the use of cutting-edge technology in broadcasting.
Not done, he led another voyage to the Nigerian Air Force Headquarters also in Abuja, again to showcase the organization’s competitive edge. Ever since then, it has been an aggressive marketing drive to attain the leadership of the market where you could hardly see a chief executive abandoning the cossy ambience of their luxurious and posh offices for the streets. The Andrew Hanlon business acumen and enterprising sagacity has equally rubbed off positively on his co-traveler, Mr. Ronan Redmond who has taken the TVC brands to the door steps of brand owners and major stakeholders in the competitive Nigerian marketing and advertising landscape.
It is to the credit of Redmond, a well-grounded marketing and advertising practitioner that the TVC brand has regained its rhythm before the media agencies and reputable advertising agencies as well as major multinationals. While he has taken the bull by the horns in propagating the TVC’s brand essence and promise before relevant stakeholders, he has continued to lead his team through creative insights that hit the bulls eyes.
The expansion and avalanche of innovative product offerings in the organization’s products portfolio bear eloquent testimony to this assertion. Yet, the organization is unrelenting as it continued to innovate. The TVC Communications brand parades a galaxy of skilled, competent and passionate professionals who are themselves in a class of their own compared to competitors.
These fanciful array of professionals have greatly impacted on the total product quality on offer by the organization. Details and profiles of these outstanding and resourceful personnel as well as the TVC Communications offerings are comprehensively packaged in this two in one special edition publication.
Happy reading!
TURNAROUND AT TVC COMMUNICATIONS
Ronan Redmond is the Commercial Director TVC Communications. He hails from Dublin City in Ireland with a background that has always been in international advertising and marketing. He has worked for a number of broadcastersholding commercial portfolios with his role having always been about helping media companies to maximize their commercial revenues through: selling advertising, sponsorships, promotions, content partnerships and all other revenue opportunities. He also worked for Global advertising agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, among others.He came to Lagos just last year to join the newly appointed CEO of the broadcast media organization, Andrew Hanlon to turn the organization around for good. In this exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE, he discusses the efforts which the new management team has made and the attendant astonishing progress which the organization has made within a short span of time.
Commercial Director, joins up with Mr. Andrew Hanlon, International Media Expert, who was appointed CEO of TVC in 2017
I came to Lagos in 2017 (about 15 months ago) simply because TVC had appointed a new CEO MrAndrew Hanlon, an Irish man, and International media expertwho has workedin media, and in particular, news media for the last 30 years in Ireland. Andrew Hanlon has built TV entertainment channels and TV news channels and TV news network as well as successful National and International radio networks because that is his expertise.
When he (Hanlon) was appointed as the CEO to TVC last March, it waswith anaim to turn TVC into a properly functioning media and entertainment business.This was because before then TVC in Nigeria had always been known as primarily a news channel, (that is where the focus had been – the focus had been on TVC News Nigeria and TVC News Africa; there had been less focus on TVC Entertainment and Radio Continental). It was a broad media organization in its own right but the culture was very much focused on news.
The irony of all that was that the marketers, the CMO’s, the media agencies and the advertisers all focused on TVC Entertainment because TVC Entertainment is the number two channel in Lagos and it has a share of about 36%. It has an audience of about three and half million daily viewers and that is the channel that all the advertisers want to be on; yet, it was a channel that wasn’t getting the focus.
So, the aim of the CEO was to come in and to make TVC into a more robust media entertainment business that would allow us attract more audienceand with more audience, it will attract more advertisers.And if we increase revenue from advertisers, it gets the company into a more solid business position.
That was his aim and when he looked at the business and realized that we were not placing much focus on marketers, we were not placing much focus on advertisers as we have done and he needed to change that; and it was because of that that he appointed me as the commercial director; somebody who had experience of advertisers, and also had experience of marketers, he therefore asked me to come and take on the commercial director role.
GETTING THE TURNAROUND STARTED
The first big decision that the CEO made was, to focus on those TVC channels where we are strong and change those that were underp[erforming. The big decision then was to close down TVC News Africa and that was not a decision that was taken lightly because so much investment had gone into it.But then, even the research said that after a period of time very few viewers were watching the channel, the advertisers were not making any engagement so the CEO along with the Board made the decision to close it down and to instead 100% focus on TVC News Nigeria, TVC Entertainment and Radio.
TVC ENTERTAINMENT
Our primarily focusfrom the outset in 2017 was on TVC Entertainment and my observation in this market; coming from Europe was that Nigerian media market is a robust market with a lot of players in it.Not unlikein Europe; the advertising markethas gone through recession and I am used to working in media marketsduring recession and the main thing about media markets during recession is that CMO’sand Marketers are under a lot of pressure when consumer spending is down and because CMO’s are under pressure, they put their agencies under a lot of pressure to deliver more innovation and more value.
At TVC we felt there is an opportunity to offer advertisers more innovative marketing solutions and as part of the pressure a lot of media agencies are under; they are having to go back to their advertisers to find more innovative ways of reaching the audience and it is no longer the option of just putting up a 30 seconds commercial.So, we wanted to create the opportunities where advertisers, and marketers can sponsor programmes;where they could have a lot more product placement in shows; where their brand ambassadorscan come in on the show and talks about their products. We wanted to offer advertisers and agencies a much more encompassing communication solution and, to that end with TVC Entertainment, the first big change we made to the schedule was we launched ‘Wake Up Nigeria’.
The CEO and myself had worked on breakfast television formats in other markets we knew that audiences must be engaged with advertisers before such goods can be patronized.And that is why we thought that Wake Up Nigeria is a perfect mix for this market. Wake Up Nigeriaisan opportunity for us to give something very different to our audiences but in particular to the advertisers; it was an opportunity for sponsorship, for product placement, for brand ambassadors, and great on air creativity and viewer interaction.
WAKE UP NIGERIA, YOUR VIEW AND ENTERTAINMENT SPLASH
While corroborating with Ronan, Morayo Afolabi-Brown, Head TVC Entertainment, said, “In addition to what Ronan has said, the objective on Wake Up Nigeria was to give our audience new content that have never beenseenin the Nigerian market.We have never had a breakfast show where you have live cooking, and other live activities that we provide for Nigerians. It was important to give a potpourri of these programmes to our viewers. Most shows in Nigeria have chatting, talking, interviews, and so on; but Wake Up Nigeria, on the other hand, has various activities such as the Entertainment, the Wake Up Nigeria garden, DIY which means do it yourself, in studio live musicals and performances; and this is because the objective was to have a show where our audiences are engaged with events that connect with their everyday lives.And that also gives an opportunity to the advertisers to participate and the agencies too. That is just a brief summary of what Wake Up Nigeria entails.
Continuing, the Commercial Director submits, “Twelve months down the line, Wake Up Nigeria has been a phenomenal success for us. It has delivered an audience for us and that makes it the number one breakfast show of its type in the market; and not only that, it has been embraced by most advertisers and FCMG’s. A huge supporter of the showand someone who is always looking for innovative solutions and value for his clients isMrYinka Adebayo, Director, Buying Services, MediaReachOMD, Kellogg’s who were launching a breakfast cerealinto the Nigerian market sponsored the wake Up Nigeria programmein a brilliant media deal brokered by MrYinka Adebayo. It uses Wake Up Nigeria now as a platform and through sponsorship to get that message about Kellogg’s as a breakfast cereal that people should eat just after waking up in the morning.
The next biggest show on TVC Entertaibnment is Morayo’s‘Your View’ that runs 9AM – 10AM every Monday to Friday and enjoys a repeat broadcast in the evening. It has become a huge platform for sponsorship by Hypo and others; and againit is a show that has been popular, it has been around for a number of years.
We are always very reluctant to stand still;as such,we are now making a big investment in Your View, a programme that has been so successful, to take it up to the next level.One of those things that we have done recently is that we started Your View on a Wednesday with a live audience; so we have a big auditorium and a studio where we can have 300 guests come in, they see the show live and that allows us the room to have activation with advertisers and brands on the Showand after the show.
Expatiating this further, Afolabi-Brown said, “Your View’ is the morning chat show; it is different from the morning breakfast show which Wake Up Nigeria is – a general entertainment programme – while Your View is a chat show”, adding, “ We will be re-launching Your View in the next few weeks. We are changing the direction of it because we have realized that we have done a lot of political issues, issues of government and we almost felt that in doing all that, we are doing it at the detriment of the women folks.
So; we want Your Viewto be the real voice of the women out there; the issue was that we found out that more men watch the show because we talk a lot about politics and governance.Now, we want to redirect our focus to women and use the programme for women empowerment. This, however, does not mean that we will drop politics totally; but it will be a softer angle and hopefully with that, we will get a bigger and wider audienceof women and also attract FMCGs that have products that aretargeted at women”.
Worthy of note, according to Ronanis the fact that “with Wake Up Nigeriataking place between 7amand 9am and Your Viewholding between 9am and 10am, it means that for three whole hours in the morning every morning we are producing our own content from our mainstream studio, Studio 1.You can imagine the investment that we are putting into doing that every single day of the week in terms of sets, and in terms of people”.
“Between 12noon and 2pm, we have a fantasticentertainment program calledEntertainment Splash which is also produced in-house.According to the Head of TVC Entertainment (Afolabi-Brown), the company’s Entertainment Splash is a potpourri of so many things, like games shows, chat shows, quiz shows, in addition to doing interviews which are targeted at young people.
To her, “The essence is that we want to engage young people intellectually. Entertainment Splash has a mix of everything; every Friday we have the quiz segment and games shows. So; our target audience for Entertainment Splash are young people and we are going to be engaging more of artists and celebrities. We hope to launch it as a fully entertainment show for young people within the ages of about 18 to 35 years, right after the re-launch of Your View.
NEWLY ACQUIRED PROGRAMME AND CONTENT DEALS WITH COTE OUEST AND BBC NEWS
As well as the huge changes to home produced shows on TVC Entertainment, Morayo informs us that “TVC has also engaged external parties in order to get more brilliant content because we realize that programmes like Telenovellas, Indian movies these are things that Nigerian women love more and more everyday and, of course, as you know TVC prides itself as a station that is a good mix of young audience and women.
TVC recently announced to the advertising and marketing industry that it completed two huge programme and content deals
In May 2018:TVC confirmed that over 400 hours of world drama and telenovela is coming to TVC, Nigeria as part of a new output agreement with Côte OuestAudiovisual of Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. In a significant deal, TVC has gained the rights to transmit, by terrestrial, DTT and DTH, blockbuster Telenovelas including; Labour of Love; Blood Ties and Brave Woman; alongside other African drama titles.Announcing the deal, TVC Communications Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Hanlon said “The content deal with Côte OuestAudiovisual forms part of a major investment in programming, infrastructure and people, aimed at increasing audience share and advertising revenues, and further propel TVC television and radio stations to market leading positions. Côte OuestChief Executive Officer, Bernard Azria said: Our deal with TVC is just one step in our strategic plan to distribute content across the African continent. We are delighted to have signed this deal with such a significant broadcaster in West Africa.
Also in May 2018: TVC Communications confirmed a major programme output deal with BBC News.The agreement means that the two television channels (TVC News and TVC) operated by TVC Communications will broadcast 368 hours of BBC News brand new African focused content over a two-year period commencing May 2018.The deal sees superior quality, ground breaking documentaries, lifestyle programmes, youth news, sports features and finance programmes broadcast on TVC Communications 24hour news channel, TVC News and the family/general entertainment channel TVC.
TVC Communications Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Hanlon said “I am delighted to announce this landmark deal with BBC News which forms part of a major on-going investment in our TV and radio business with the aim of dramatically enhancing services to audiences and advertisers alike.”TVC Communications is undergoing substantial, positive change which is now delivering benefits to all stakeholders. This collaboration, with one of the world’s most respected content producers, provides further proof of that change.” The Director of the BBC World Service, Jamie Angus said: “We are pleased to be partnering with TVC Communications. This deal will see more people in Nigeria getting access to brilliant BBC News content. The World Service delivers accurate, impartial and independent journalism to all countries. We spot the stories, see the patterns and make sense of the world.”. The following programmes to be taken as part of the deal are as follows:
Investigation
Africa Eye will promote the culture of investigative journalism across Africa and strengthen the skills of African investigative journalists. All of the programmes will be based on in-depth reporting that holds power to account.
Sport
BBC Sport Africa will bring the issues, the personalities, the buzz, the key moments and the trends in sport from across the continent. The 30 minute programme will cover many different sports including those that are little-known, and will be featuring everyone from the most famous sports stars to rising stars and the fans.
Business
A daily and weekly business programme capturing the dynamic and entrepreneurial spirit of Africa. The programme will offer constructive guidance and advice on money, business and economy matters specific to African audiences.
Health
A weekly health show exploring African health, food and lifestyle trends alongside medical and scientific research to provide practical solutions and advice.
Children’s
A lively factual childrens TV show with all things that the 10-16 year olds care about. The programme will give African children a voice and connect them with youngsters from around the world.
DIGITAL GROWTH
Elucidating further, MorayoAfolabi-Brown added, “One of the greatest strengthsof TVC is the fact that we are the most interactive channel; when you talk of interaction where the audience knows that they can call in to be part of the showin almost every show that we have and even get gifts at the end of the show as well as items from sponsors and all of that. That way, our station has shown that engaging the audience is not just about giving visionary content, but actually engaging them, having them communicating with us and with that, they have that identity with us.
We get online viewers on Facebook, Instagram and all the other social media platforms that watch the show almostimmediately and even when the show is going, we engage on Twitter and the rest of the social platforms because we are very active on those platforms.That is one of the strengths of TVC because we communicate on time, real time with the audience.
According to the Commercial Director, “what is exciting about Nigeria is the size of the population and a huge portion of that population is the youth population; and that for us as broadcasters necessitate the focus on digital. All the solutions that we offer to advertisers and marketers contain television, radio and online.
Huge work is going into the digital offering with three great site and huge engagement across social media. TVC is currently recruiting and building its digital team to meet the demands of the audience.
“We now have situations where all sponsorshipsand many campaigns begin on TV and radio but are extended through our online. We run competition on the online and it is interesting to seethe large amount of viewers who are coming to our station everyday to pick up their prizes. What is wonderful is that we are even seeing some advertisers taking all our social content and they are pushing them out on their own social media; that is spreading the good news aboutTVC as well.
FOCUS ON ADVERTISERS IS NOW BEARING FRUIT
“It is obvious from the foregoing that so much of the work has been done in TVC Entertainment in the last 12 months and I believe that we are beginning to see the fruits of that in terms of commercials in that all the big brands are now patronizing us.
“About 18 months ago, if we took a poll from CMO’s, heads of agencies, etc, they would have suggested that TVC was not eary to deal with, people said TVC was not flexible in terms of our negotiation, that TVC was not prepared to offer of value and that we were not as innovative as we could have been.There were many reasons why that was the case in the past; but over the last 18 months as Morayo would say, that has changed completely to a point now where all the big brands, the big Global and Nigerian advertisers and the leading marketers are now including TVC on their campaigns and increasing their sponsoring of TVC and as result our revenue in 2017 over 2016 has grown by over 75% year on year; and I expect this year 2018 over 2017 to grow by another 60%; and that is in a recessionary market and yet our revenue is growing because those changes have to happen and like we said, we are beginning to see the fruits of that labour now.
ADVERTISER AND PROGRAMMING PARTNERSHIPS
In the words of Morayo and Ronan, the company is looking ahead to 2019 with serious attention being paid to bigger and more entertainment content development. Said he, “When we have our channels performing the way theyshould perform, it will attract the audiences and the advertisers, and then TVC will be getting into partnerships with big brand advertisers to work together to createprogrammes and series that will appeal to our Nigerian audiences and these content formats might then become marketable pan African; and there is potentially a revenue opportunity that TVC and our advertising partners will derive from that.
“This is because if you look at big media organization across the world one aspect that they are very good at is content creation and collaboration with advertisers and CMO’s to create great entertainment content that allow the message of the advertisers reach their target audience, that seems to be the real growth area and that is the area that we want to get into certainly next year”.
CHALLENGES
On challenges that the advertising industry faces, the Commercial Director declares, “Let me say this in terms of challenges, this is an incredibly challenging market and even you at Marketing Edge will know it as publishers, just like we broadcasters.I mean the market has been in recession for some time;the advertising market has been in recession for the last couple of years, we were very hopeful that the market was going to see an upturn in quarter four last year, I don’t believe that happened.
We think there will be a single digit upturn this year but I would have expected more with the World Cup;but I haven’t really seen that come through in terms of spend and we are all very hopeful with the elections that we will see more revenue come down the line. So,interms of commercial, it’s been a challenging market. It is also a challenging market for me as a European coming into an African market for the first time.
Research, is another challenge.We work in a broadcast and, as you may be aware, the television and radiois very dynamic as a medium.For instance, we want to know, on a daily basis, how our shows performed the night before; but that research is not available to us.
We only have access to monthly research statistics; and audiences’ mood changes on a daily, and on a weekly basis.Alot of the time, what we have to do is rely on the expertise of Morayo, other producers and OAPS who are very much in tune with live audiences; you can gaugewhat is happening qualitatively, you know what is happening in the market.
But interms of the actual figures, it’s quite difficult and the pressure that puts on a company like ours is so much.If we only have that performances on a monthly bases, agencies and advertisers will be aligned so, it will normally take them a longer time to move their monies if you show an upturn in your audience.It takes a while for that to be recorded, it takes even longer for that to translate into more money coming in; so, definitely that is a challenge. The area of DTT is also a challenge; we are very hopeful that the roll-out of that is going to happen because we know that it is iminent but, we’ve been told that for the last couple of years.As such, that, too, presents its own challenges.
Lending her voice to the issue of challenges, Afolabi-Brown said, “We know that the station is doing well but there is the challenge of data, like he said,for us to be able to know what kind of programmes that the audience loves to watch. This data collation is a huge challenge for everybody in television; we do have one data and that data comes in only on a monthly basis.
“We know, for instance, thatWake Up Nigeriais doing well because people talk about it; but we don’t have the data to tell us specifically how the progarmme is performing on a day to day basis, as well as tell us why the audience watch it, which part of the programme they like, and such stuffs.
Another challenge that I have seen is the appetite of the audience for more and more content whichis growing daily because they are exposed to so many contents both within and outside the shores of our country; through cable, they are exposed to all sorts of International contents.
“So, the challenge of satisfying thee increasing appetite of our audience has necessitated ourhaving to constantly be on our toes to see how we can close that gap to atleast ensure that our audience which is not necessarily the A, B class, but your C,D, and E. They have huge appetite but, at least ensuring that we as a terrestrial station can meet up this appetite and give them the contentsthat they desire”.
OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR BIGGEST ASSET
Personnel, too, is a challenge, according to Ronan Redmond. The reason, as he submits, is because“as a media entertainment company, your biggest asset are your people so, we have a workforce of about 400 young dynamic people that are very eager, very dynamic but, the problem is you train your people up to be the best they possibly can be and in a very competitive market, lots of competitors out there with new entrants like the BBC recently, what they are going to do, ofcourse, is that they are going to come to you and they are going to poach your best talents.
“With that, you are always in the market place searching for talents and you are looking for professionally trained people; and because the market is so competitive; because there are so many different media outlets out there, it can be hard finding them.
“How, then, do we cope with that challenge? Well, we invest alot of money in our people interms of training.Our HR team haveundertaken a huge programme of work in partnership with outside HR consultants in the last six months to put in a company-wide appraisal system whereby every individual, each of the 400 of us, have our own individual key deliverables that can be measured and then our superiors will assess us on a monthly basis. That, I suppose, opensup a culture of more transparency because we all know how we are performing because we have got five key tasks that we are going to be measured against every month.
“In so doing, we see the areas where we need to be improved and once we see such, we invest in training to improve on those areas. There is no such culture as you being in a position because you are my friend.
“In actual fact, we are creating a culture whereby you are in a positionand rolebecause you are the best qualified person to be in that position and that has to be the way it works in a media organization because it is the people that are the asset; it is having the best qualified and trained people that helps produce the best contents and that is what engages us with the audience. Therefore, people and talents are an ongoing challenge”.
102.3MAX FM – A NEW RADIO DAWN
In Ronan Redmondswords, “Radio was a very straightforward body of work for us in the past 6 months. Radio Continental which has been around for a long time, was literally ranked number 15 in the market, according to the research.It had an audience of about 350,000 listeners; and, again, going back to the fact that we listen to advertisers and marketers all the time and so based on what they tell us, every major agency, every advertiser said if you want us to invest in a radio station with advertising, you have got to be rankedamong the top 5 radio stations.So, it was an easy decision for us to make. We looked at the market, it is a young market, we know our TVC Entertainment is doing really well because it is appealing to the young people through entertainment, videos, news.etc. It thus made perfect sense that when we looked at the radio landscape, for us to launch a radio music station, a hit music station.
“The problem with Radio Continental was that it was reaching a very low audience because it was a station that had a mix of politics, general talk, health; a bit of music, a bit of news, a bit of sports, and so on. It had no clear product offer that marketers could indetify with.
“To that, we said fine, we will give you advertisers and audiences a clear proposition, we are going to create a hit music station for Lagos, it is going to play the best Nigerian hit music; so, every time a listener tunes in to 102.3MAX FM, it is a hit song they are going to hear.80% of those songs will be Nigerian, 20% will be the best international hits.
“On the 20th of October, 2017we launched102.3MAX FM, as a dedicatedhit music station for Lagos”.
Why focus on music?
The focus is on hit music “It is because in any market where you launch a well run HIT music station, it turns out to be successful and we have seen that and that was the reason why we introduced Max FM as a hit music station in Lagos.
“The differenceofMax FM from so many other music stations that are out there is that most of the stations might have a music play list of about 2,000 songs,MaxFM works its play list within the range of 300 songs. That means that the listener is hearing Davido’s hit song, Rihanna’s hit song, etc, and we are reviewing that constantly. So we have this understanding of making them (the audience) know what they are going to get when they tune in to our station. For us, music and entertainment are very important because we believe that if we get it right on radio then Max Radio with TVC Entertainment would be a chart bursting combination. If an artist comes on TVC Entertainment, for example, when they are done, they will leave the studio there and then go straight to Max FM and vice versa.
“Now, an organization like Airtel is now sponsoring Entertainment Splash, they will also sponsor Max FM, too, and there is this cross-over; then it goes back to what I said earlier, it is about finding those opportunities where we can give credible solutions to advertisers.
“Advertisers hardly believed in us when we were still operating as Radio Continental, they were not convincing mostly because of the editorial content, and now that it is a hit music station – the number 1 hit music station – we are finding all the brands coming along and saying I want to be on Max FM.
“I think that when it comes to music, Nigerians love music and Nigerian music is the best in the world.Moreover, we are talking about an incredibly young population and what young people like is music. So, we simply understand what that young audience wants and we are giving it to them; and we are guaranteeing them on that.
“When we took the decision, it seemed like a risk because some people were saying why are you launching a music station, it doesn’t work because Nigerians love to talk. We know that quite well; but we also know that people like music and then if we can find the best combination of that (talk and music); that is what I believe has grown the station’s audience to 1.6 million”.
A STUNING RESULT
“The results of that format change have been STUNNING inthat the audience has grown from 350,000 in October, 2017 to 1.6 million when the April researchfigures came in!This means that audience growth was recorded over just six months! 102.3MAXFMis now number 4 overall in the market but, it is the number 1 hit music station in Lagos.In justsixmonths, it has gone from number 15 up to number 4
“We see a massive opportunity for radio, simply because radio reaches 100% of the audience here even more also than TV.It is thus our intention to roll out more radio stations in the coming months.
MAX FM ABUJA LAUNCH IN JUNE 2018
The CEO Mr Andrew Hanlon exclusively confirmed to Marketing Edge new exciting and immediate radio developments “on the 25th of June, we are opening up MAXFM in Abuja; it is all ready, we already have a staff of about 30 in Abuja, we have a general manager running the radio station up there and it will be MAX Abuja. After the launch of Max FM Abuja, I would imagine that another three to four other stations will be rolled out from next year.“We will have quite a strong radio network, by mid next year. We believe that there are real opportunities for us in radio and that is why a lot of our investment is going towards that direction”.
Mr Hanlon introduced MrOlaonipekunOLOYEDE,the newly appointed General Manager MAXFM ABUJA. a creative media practitioner with a wealth of experience in Media management and administration.
‘Pekuna.k.aFlexxy B has been instrumental to the setting up and running of major media houses in the Nigerian media landscape.“Prior to joining CBS, My vast experience and competency that spans over 20 years, as a media administrator and Consultant has been instrumental to revamping and executing turn around projects for media houses with the sole aim of increasing profit margins and creating new organizational cultures that propelled such media organizations and has stood the test of time till date.”
When asked What is the vision and mission of the station the GM resaponded“In time MAXFM Abuja will be the leading Hit Music station in Abuja offering listernes fantastic entertainment and choicve in the Federal Capital. He believes Max FM’s competitive edge is “Music! You just can’t go wrong with Music.Our professional delivery of music and our impeccable robust station format”
TVC NEWS NIGERIA
TVC NEWS NIGERIA WILL UNDERGO A MASSIVE REBRAND AND STUDIO REFIT IN QUARTER 4 2018. This will be a multi million dollar investment in upgrading TVC News already established News output. In advance of the this huge project we spoke with BabajideOtitoju(acting head of news)about TVC News Nigeri. These are very exciting times for TVC News Nigeria.
Otitoju explained that the Editorial Policy of TVC News Nigeria refers to the guidelines that determine the news content of a media outfit. At TVC News, Reporters and other news staff have to follow, the code. TVC News Nigeria is: 1.iMPARTIAL2. FAIR3. PROMPT4. VERACITY5. ACTS IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST
He continued “TVC News Nigeria continues to command a healthy lead in its news gathering and dissemination function with wide-range content sourced firsthand from major news and sundry content sources across the country.Its special attention to stories bordering on goings-on within the political sphere appears to build a reasonable connection with followers of developments within the nation’s left-leaning circuit.In just four years, the station has become the oracle of political news programming in the country, commanding reasonable loyalty from a sizeable chunk of the Nigerian television audience who have continued to invest loyalty in TVC NEWS.That same thread is visible in the manner in which programming is designed and delivered on the station. TVCNEWS’ popularity with a genuinely national audience (within and outside Nigeria) is evident in the active participation of viewers who not only call in frequently during live programmes but also travel down to the Lagos studios to participate in audience interaction editions.
Viewers are known to have traveled all the way from far-flung states such as Sokoto, Kaduna and Bayelsa to be part a live audience on Journalists’ Hangout, for instance. And that at their own expense!
The zeal with which it has demonstrated capability to remain the platform of choice for pan-Nigerian content has seen it enjoy grassroots reckoning leading to the unprecedented live broadcast of an aspirant’s declaration to run for local government chairman in Rivers State. This is not to mention the patronage it has continued to enjoy from more state governments that recognize the solidity with which it sits in its coveted spot as Nigeria’s news medium of choice.
WHAT MAKES TVC NEWS NIGERIA UNIQUE
Otitoju maintains that TVC News Nigeria is unique. He says “TVC News is the industry’s most authentic newsgathering source, providing reliable local and international news, up-to-date sports and real-time business. Our news is factual as the stories are fact-checked by our dedicated and experienced editorial staff.TVC News’ market signature is breaking news. Using all our live channels – OB Van, Skype and Backpacks, we have set the pace in delivering news real-time in Nigeria.With our correspondents in more than 20 states in Nigeria, our reportage of key topics such as politics, business, sports and entertainment has reached an impressive height while our audience has continued to expand. Every hour comes with a unique audience base, tuned in to get informed and entertained.”
In detail Otitoju outlines how the attention to detail of each news segment benefits viewers “From 10am, the editorials are refreshed from the 10pm news spiced with fresh foreign and, sports news as well as live guests. The Mid-day news sees our local audience in Lagos getting a feel of what to expect all they long .Our evening flagship news is 4pm. The audience cuts across all strata – from young to tbe old. The stories are mostly breaking news with live reports featuring the personalities as well as our correspondents. This belt is the station’s most-watched as our local audiences Gabe opportuned to join via terrestrial platform.Our 6pm and 7pm news, feature stories from our correspondents, while the 8pm has only trending foreign stories.
Our Primetime 9pm news features major events from Nigeria and the world and our flagship nrws is the 10pm.
ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A RETURN OF TVC NEWS AFRICA
The Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Andrew Hanlon, has this to say, “Never say never because what we are trying to do, right now, is to manage the core businesses first. It is all about putting all the foundations that we have in place and improve tremendously on our performance here in Nigeria first. It is a young channel but looks older because of the graphics looks of the channel; so we are going to change all of that.
“Just like I talk about foundation, they are our foundations, TVC Entertainment, TVC News and Max FM and it takes a lot to pull all of these things together. Max FM is the obvious one because the station is doing very well, it is number 4 at the moment and number 1 music station in Lagos.
“From the business side, what we are doing is to make sure that we use our platform to really engage marketers, CMO’s and advertisers who advertise their products.
“If we get the core pillars right then things will fall in place perfectly.So our main target right now is let’s get the core parts of the business fixed and every other thing will follow”.
TVC A LOT DONE BUT MORE TO DO!
There is no doubt but that huge changes are taking place at TVC Communications. When the Marketing Edge team visited TVC we were struck by the size of the media campus which houses 400 dynamic media professionals. We saw all the building work going on with new offices, studios and reception areas recently completed.
On air,both on TV and radio the department heads took us through all the fantastic changes that are resulting in bigger audiences and more engagement with CMOs and Media Agencies. All the leading brand advertisers now include TVC on their media schedules and all the major CMOs have visited TVC to discuss innovative media soluitons and great value on offer.
Everyone at TVC seems to be relishing the challenge to become one of Nigeria’s leading media and entertainment businesses. The CEO and the Commercial Director appreciate that a whole lot of change for the better has happened in the past twelve months but they and the team emphasise that there is a whole lot more of great changes to come.
At Marketing Edge we will stay tuned in to TVC!
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