Radio needs to Focus on Partnerships in the Big World of Entertainment

Kenny Ong, the CEO from Astro Radio gave an inspirational and insightful presentation on where radio is now and where it needs to go in the future.  Said everyone is on different journeys in radio, starting radio now is daunting for some. What Kenny Ong did next was to give the audience some great examples of the difference between brand and product. And how can radio compete in this new world as radio is a small dot in the entertainment world, radio needs to focus on partnerships in the big world of entertainment. The Masters of the Media world needs to be on the side of radio and in partnership with radio station. He showed all of the technical advancements that are happening in all of the media systems, it’s very complicated and everyone is fighting for attention and the competitors is not other stations but other media. What radio stations need to focus on in the future is the ‘Attention Metrix’ a new method of how much time can you hold people, how much they understand and what they recall – “your partners will not want to see reach in the future they will want to see attention”. Kenny said you have to manage the audience and create an eco-system which will keep them involved. He noted there is a “JTBD –  Job to be Done” – people don’t buy things for the most obvious reason they buy it for other reasons prestige, peer pressure, better second hand value for cars – nothing to do with the features. Radio needs to think about how they will get their JTBD done for their audiences. In the audience family you need to track data, content is no longer king, reach will no longer be the measurement it will be more about how involved the listener is on every level.  He also told the audience they need to loot to Asia as well as the Western world. In Asia you need to note the technologies from China and Japan, they have far superior in AI and VC. The West is far behind than China. Finally he said you need consistency. Kenny Ong is proud to be in Radio because radio is for the community, Radio is always first and this is why he loves radio.