Hari Krishnan, Managing Director, Zenith Optimedia, was of the opinion that there is huge potential for brands in radio.

He was speaking at a session titled ‘How can radio kill the video star?’ at the annual India Radio Forum conference in Mumbai on Friday.

Acknowledging that double digit growth was good news for the radio industry in 2016, he said that brands seem to use radio for geo-targeting audiences.

But there was a need for the medium to move faster than TV and digital and increase the use of radio for brand promotion.

He also looked at the limitations of TV and online advertising and how radio can use those to come up with innovative solutions for advertisers.

According to him, with so many start-ups coming up, radio has a greater scope of becoming an indispensible part of their media plans.

With 76 new TV channels being launched last year, the audience is bound to get more fragmented, which could work to radio’s advantage.

With so many screens at one’s disposal, from smart phones to computers and television sets, watching something may be more of a distraction than actually watching it.

A 90-seconder on YouTube is not what customer looks for; all he can see is SKIP button. Adverts attached to online videos are like hoardings on highway, you just speed past it.

Radio should focus on these loopholes offered by other mediums to enhance brand engagement and make radio an indispensable part of a media plan.