NewsLine Column: A Brand New Heart
Chrysalis Radio’s flagship Heart 106.2 recently revamped its image and hiked up its adspend by around 20% in an attempt to knock arch-rival Capital 95.8 off the top spot in London. The station’s head of marketing, Tina Finch, explains the strategy behind the decision…
The past decade has seen the UK’s radio industry go from strength to strength; listeners across the country are now spoilt for choice and some of the best known radio brands are fast becoming ‘lifestyle choices’.
In the fiercely competitive London radio market, the battle of the radio brands has never been so aggressive. Listeners are feted with colourful on and off-air activity, supported by aspirational marketing and the opportunity to ‘dive into’ a brand’s values at any given time.
As Heart celebrates its 10th anniversary this year – it all started in September 1994 with the launch of 100.7 Heart FM in the West Midlands, followed by the launch of London’s Heart 106.2 just a year later – both stations have recorded sustained growth in audience figures. In October 2003 Heart 106.2 became the first commercial station ever to have overtaken Capital FM, and the gap in reach between the two stations is currently the smallest ever – now at just 178,000 listeners.
With the off-air brand identity often being the first experience that non-listeners will have of a radio station, there seemed no better time to get lapsed and non-listeners to reappraise the brand.
Created by BB/Saunders during summer 2004, the new Heart logo is just the third in the brand’s history, and has been created on a foundation of listener feedback, research with lapsed or non-listeners, and focus-groups designed to tap into the lifestyle choices of Heart’s core 25-44 audience.
Overwhelmingly, research findings told us that the lifestyles of our ’30-something’ demographic have changed significantly over the years. Men and women in this demographic have never been more comfortable being the age they are. What is also clearly communicated is that our listeners still want to be just a little cooler, and look just a little younger than they actually are. This finding is key to Heart’s new logo.
Refreshed and revitalised, the new BB/Saunders logo brings the Heart brand up to date, using a vibrant, friendly and modern new look. It reclaims the heart icon and positions the brand as slightly more youthful that it’s on-air nature, thus mirroring the key attitudes of both our existing listeners, but importantly also the attitude of lapsed or non-listeners.
A new media-partnership with Sony Music TV to produce and distribute two Heart-branded double albums will see the first national use of the new logo unveiled during October 2004, heralding the beginning of a new and exciting era for Heart in the UK.
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