A 5-star review for Tuning In

By Neil Tookey, VP Head of Commercial Trading at EssenceMediacomX

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending Radiocentre’s Tuning In and wanted to give the team a shout-out because in my opinion, it was the best conference to date. 

It helps when the channel is delivering record numbers in reach, hours and billings, but that doesn’t stop everyone involved coming together striving for more.

So here are my key takeaways:

1. Presenters want to be involved more coming up with ideas for your brands so with that in mind I’m sure Bauer & Global + other networks will open the studio doors to advertisers – I didn’t say it – Capital Breakfast Show’s Chris Stark did 😉 – Legend!
2. VOXI Mobile KISS Ibiza legacy – let’s see more of that, great results, clear strategy, good radio activation. 💡

   

3. Specsavers hearing loss ads using talent like Rick Astley to spearhead its campaign. It’s not all about trendy current influencers on TikTok – look what you can truly get out of this medium when you get the right talent involved. “We need a bigger trophy cabinet” loved that from Specsaver’s Rob Fox, be proud & own it.

   

4. Why Gen Zs are important. The talented Rahmon Agbaje, co-founder of Loud Parade, took us on a journey to deliver creative music, speaking to audiences on their level – I loved the Ben & Jerry’s example. Also kudos to delivering a presentation solo as his partner was stuck on a train. It was flawless and a reminder to us all, stay calm, you know your stuff and he certainly delivered an inspiring presentation. 😎

   

5. Jordan North and the rest of the Capital Breakfast show – among other things gave us a compelling case study around how they worked with Greggs to make Jordan North’s favourite bacon butty using a trilogy of sauces – to something its customers could buy in store. This really showed the power of audio delivering authenticity in abundance.

   

6. Flora Williams head of planning at Manning Gottlieb OMD’s session on AI planning. I met this lady a few years ago now and back then I could see a future leader with a passion for the channel – so it was so good to hear her now talking about AI and the use of synthetic data in audio planning. Yes it blows most people’s minds at times, but we need more champions to challenge how to get the best out of it, so shout-out to her for bringing more measurement together so advertisers can deliver deeper meaningful / contextual ads in real time – watch this space. ➡

   

7. If you missed it Global have launched 12 new stations – it’s another reminder that the channel continues to invest in keeping current & delivering more to grow audiences, I will certainly be trying Capital Anthems & Classic Calm.

   

8. Last but not least, the finale of the morning with Bauer’s Lucie Cave chairing a panel of their talent made up of Spandau Ballet and Greatest Hits’ Martin Kemp (what a guy), Hits Radio’s Fleur East (great Coldplay story, love that) and KISS breakfast show’s Jordan Banjo & Perri Kiely (great lads!). Radio really does have the best of the best, wanting to produce more, so get those briefs in.

   

Needless to say the Radiocentre know how to run a show especially with Kiss’s Tyler West bringing the energy as the morning’s host.

My final highlight was seeing so many familiar faces still loving the channel and wanting to grow the sector, but even more rewarding a lot of new faces attending from clients and agencies wanting to know more about this fantastic medium.

Can’t wait to HEAR what’s next…