Strategy: Xfm to the power of U
Verdict: 4 out of 5
It's becoming a user-generated world with MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and now Xfm jumping on the bandwagon with the launch of Xu - radio to the power of U. That's not to say that following this trend is a bad thing. It's just not new and may not be sustainable.
The concept is simple. Between 10am and 4pm every day, the airwaves will be open to listeners who can interact with the station via text, phone or online. The listeners can request tracks, create playlists and post their own views and photos. There will be two producers on hand to manage the process and at certain points a presenter to do voiceovers. This will no doubt be extremely appealing to the station's typical listener, as they are a flock of "individuals" and this will be a perfect forum to share opinion.
The idea is to give the listener the power, but understandably this has to be within reason and apart from the three "wildcard" tracks that can be chosen the rest come from a previously defined list.
Does this make it more "power to u, within our boundaries"?
What is interesting is the implied reasoning that listeners during the day are no longer concerned with presenters, so it's brave of Xfm to take this step away from traditional radio.
How this fits with Mi-Xfm, which launched only six months ago, remains to be seen, but if this is going to work on any station, it should be Xfm. The key part of this strategy is that it keeps the music as the centre of the station.
The one question I would ask is: as the segment is during the day, does anyone have time for this level of interaction - are the Xfm listeners not at work? Xfm is trying to address this with multiple platforms to interact.
With no immediate above the line support, Xfm will have time to work on the intricacies and concentrate on what is successful, but it must also ensure it keeps evolving the idea as it could feel old very quickly.
- Review by Victoria Sangster, head of radio, Mediaedge:cia.
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