For the first time, Absolute Radio reached number one in the iTunes download charts, for Dave Gorman’s Podcast – and the Absolute Radio iAmp was also the most downloaded application in its category. Soon we will be releasing the iAmp for Google powered ‘Android’ phones and the new ‘Live Amp’ application for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Innovation is important, but it means nothing without great content. The creative environment we’re fostering at Absolute Radio means that the output coming from One Golden Square is the best it has ever been, and we’re doing what we can to bring that content to as many people as possible: through absoluteradio.co.uk, twitter, e-mail, podcasts and good old fashioned talking on the phone – all our shows on Absolute Radio have close, interactive links with our audience.

Doug Erickson’s Media blog is well worth checking out (at www.ericksonmedia.com) – he says, and I agree with him, that the future of radio is developing individual relationships with the audience, he says:

‘…it’s no longer about how many thousands or millions of people your station reaches.

And if you’re not finding ways to deepen the relationship with each individual listener, you’re way behind the curve.’

It’s only by having a personal relationship with each of our listeners that Absolute Radio becomes more than a radio station, and our on-air staff become more than presenters – they become friends.

In these credit crunch times, it won’t be as important to agencies and advertisers about how many people you ‘reach’, but how effectively you’re reaching and engaging with that community. It doesn’t matter if a million people listen to your show – if none of them buy or value the product or brand you are highlighting, those revenues fall away. Look at the original Absolute Radio iAmp: you’ll notice, when running, that there’s a big white space at the bottom. We know that everyone who looks at that white space owns an Apple product – and as the iPhone is at the moment exclusively on that network, we know that a large proportion of people are also on O2. We also know that at the time people are using the iAmp, they also have access to the Mobile Internet. So if that white space is sold to be a link to a particular iTunes album, or iPhone accessory on Amazon, or ‘bolt-on’ package the effect on sales may be just as effective as a much larger ‘traditional’ campaign.

Google have been using cookies and keywords to refine and target ad searches for many years. Google is therefore seen as a more effective marketing tool than other media has been, because the adverts can tailor themselves to the market & user. With iAmp also being released for Google powered phones – we are able to use our player not only as a way to reward people who already listen to Absolute Radio – we are using it as a marketing tool to draw in new audiences.

The iAmp currently has 25,000 listening sessions a week, our podcasts have 150,000 downloads a week (our best figure yet) and the Podcast of Dave Gorman on Absolute Radio that reached number one in the iTunes download chart was a first for a National commercial radio station in the UK. None of these figures directly help to increase our ratings as recorded by RAJAR – but each of them show the possibilities for the future of radio as a digital product that targets and appeals to an ABC1 audience. They also show the opportunities that new media provides to promote our existing product, a radio station available on AM, FM and DAB as well as online.

Number one rule in AdAge’s blog on Hear 2.0 is this:

‘Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them. We may be ahead of our competitors, but we’re most definitely behind consumers. The consumer is not a moron, he’s the person defining your brand.’

If we can start to see the sort of things that our audience wants to buy, then we can approach the companies who can sell to them. Imagine an Absolute Radio listener. Let’s call him Bob. Imagine Bob listening to a break on Absolute Radio. He knows why he listens to the radio station, he listens because he likes real music, he likes our humour, he likes the fact that Absolute Radio is different – so when he listens to an advert break, the adverts that don’t annoy him are the ones that tie in to the ethos of the station. The adverts that appeal directly to him, the ones that are well suited to the radio station he had chosen, that tie in to the Absolute Radio ‘product’ he has bought by listening. Bob isn’t stupid. Bob would prefer to hear about products that he likes in a way that he likes, and he will be more likely to buy them – and in this climate, that’s something that we all need.

So – by combining a great, innovative, award winning product like Absolute Radio with intelligent and inventive marketing techniques – then we will continue to improve, and grow. I have attached some recent analysis on a whole bunch of ‘White Shirt Men’ called Bob’. For me Bob is an ABC1 ‘real music’ loving reluctant adult who he listens to and loves Absolute Radio much more he did when it was known by another name. And, according to this Rajar graph we appear to have many more Bobs than ever before…