Mumbai : Red FM 93.5 is back with its fourth season of its flagship campaign, ‘Red FM ka thappa,’ a popular stamp of approval that honours the best food joints across cities. The broadcaster has added six cities this year, making it 20 cities this year for their popular intellectual property (IP).
This year, Red FM is set to recognise the evolving culinary flavours of different cities by targeting new food trends of the city. Red FM ka Thappa will drive into 20 cities over three weeks starting from May 15, 2016 to June 4, 2016, rewarding restaurants under two categories every week. Listeners from each city will vote for their favourite food hangouts, and Red FM RJs in respective cities will pick the most voted food joint and authenticate it with ‘Red FM ka Thappa’ in a true Bajaate Raho style with ‘Dhol and Tasha’ at the venue.
The three-week campaign will be concluded with a grand food festival in Gujarat and Bhubaneswar. Bringing in more excitement, this year along with the winning food joint, Red FM is also on a hunt for the biggest fan of new food trends. So listeners can keep voting to get a chance to be the biggest fan contest.
Commenting on the initiative, Red FM, COO, Nisha Narayanan, said, “‘Red FM Ka Thappa’ is in true sense, a celebration of India’s culinary heritage and variety, innovation and overall our love and fascination with food. Thappa is a very successful IPR that we have developed over the years through extensive on air and on-ground activation and has built credibility among the various food joints across the tier II towns who take immense pride in displaying the RED FM’sThappa seal on their outlets.”
Red FM has constantly engaged listeners with this initiative over the last three years. This year the brand welcomed categories which have created an impact on the taste palette of the people. Some of them are momos, gelato, open air restaurants, sizzler, theme-based restaurants and sandwich/burger joints. The campaign will kick start simultaneously across 20 cities, which include Jaipur, Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur, Asansol, Guwahati and Siliguri.
Elaborating on this initiative, Rajat Uppal, Marketing Head, Red FM, said, “The campaign is being aired across its network as a sponsored property. Last year we had 14 cities, while this year we have 20. We have some national sponsors and some local retail sponsors. Each city has about four to five sponsors which is a combination of national and local sponsors.”
Each of the sponsors get ad slots on air with the broadcaster, says Uppal. While the promos are standardised, the execution is different across different cities as per the cuisines. Not only that, the tonality is flexible, giving it a local touch. The initiative will have a tune in every hour; hence it will not be an on ground show which will be aired.
Giving details on the marketing front, Uppal said that the broadcaster will be using outdoor, print, cinema and its network for listeners to participate. They are also looking at other activations, social media and local channels on cable TV in certain towns. Zee TV has partnered with this initiative and will be creating an episode on this initiative.
