Magic Marketing on Radio. Live!

Nicola Thomson was appointed marketing director of Magic 105.4 in December 2005. She joined the Emap radio station from Jazz FM, where she was head of marketing. Previously, she was part of the team that launched Carlton Screen Advertising in the UK and Ireland. Here I post the interview with Nicola Thomson about her ideas on making marketing more "workable" and easy using latest technologies and methods! Enjoy it, my friends! How would you sum up Magic’s current marketing strategy? It’s simple - we’ve stuck to what we know best, more music less talk with great competitions, and Magic continues to gain audience from our marketing of just that. We’re confident of the product, with the best mix of music without the clutter, lifting your mood ‘whatever the weather’ and our current television ad does the job. The last Rajar presented us with record reach, with almost two millions listeners per week, and we remain the number one commercial radio station in London and market leader from 9am through until midnight. The marketing has contributed hugely to this success with a strategy that this year has used a multi-media mix to promote core brand strengths and highlighting our core music artists. What are your ambitions for the brand? To become one of the strongest multi-platform media brands for our core audience, who trust Magic and can access us through digital and analogue platforms. How can commercial radio stations in general best compete with the BBC when it comes to marketing? The BBC has an enormous marketing ‘pot’ to play with, so it can be hard to compete when it comes to budget. That just means we have to work smarter, marrying great programming with creative insight into what audiences want. It’s a competitive market place, but with everyone needing to be at the top of their game, that can only be good news for the listener. How important is technology such as digital radio and the internet to growing the Magic brand? I believe that DAB and the internet are crucial in the development of the Magic brand. The internet in particular has already played a great part in how Magic has grown its audience. Magic.co.uk was re-launched in July last year, and in that time we have begun to build a real community for those that love music and great competitions. Magic obviously has restrictions with its more music less talk policy, and magic.co.uk can interact with our audience in ways that radio cannot. Cross promoting  magic.co.uk and Magic 105.4 has contributed to our unique users increasing by 78 per cent from this time last year. What advertising campaign, for any brand on any medium, has most impressed you in recent months? M&S comes to mind immediately. The Christmas Magic and Sparkle TV campaign with Dame Shirley Bassey was fantastic and says so much about the brand. In fact all of M&S advertising is stunningly executed, and brilliantly consistent. It goes without saying that I’m pretty fond of the current Magic TV ad, and at one point I did actually wonder whether Magic had jinxed the summer weather!