RadioDays Ireland panelists, Andy Roberts, UK Radio Consultant, Alison Healy, Today FM and Mark Cunning, Group Content Director at Onic, discuss how they connect with 15-24 year old radio audiences.

All three have had success with a young audiences using different strategies:

Alison uses social media to reach young listeners.

Andy believes young listeners are attracted to radio by it’s ‘camaraderie and creativity’.

Mark looks at visualising audio through podcasts and developing new content.

To engage youth audiences Mark suggests the following:

1. Create moments of joy
2. Enable unique experiences
3. Put major station promotions on every platform
4. Use access to different platforms
5. Take content and amplify using social media.

“We’ve got to make content because youth crave content so we need to feed the monster. We need to be authentic and connected,” said Mark.

Alison suggests the following for youth engagement through harnessing socials:

1. Socials need to be independent, connected, and authentic.
2. The social media personality needs to be independent of the station. This way you’ll connect with your audiences and your content will reach a wider audiences.
3. You need a TikTok presence.
4. Strike the right note between trends. Know when to contribute and when to hold back.
5. Always think and prioritise socials.

“Remember that youth don’t want marketing and that you have to grab your audience in the first three seconds,“said Alison.

“Radio is a dangerous word when it comes to youth audiences, so you need to think about using multi-platforms,” said Andy. “SEE. SHOW. DISCOVER is my mantra”

1. Work with talent and get the flow right.
2. Note that 90% of 18-24 year olds are on social media.
3. Create brand with multiple touch points.
4. Reinvent the greatest hits formula with multiple touch points and include personalisation.
5. Think about monetisation of retro formula, place fashion on TicTok

Here are more tips to avoid an age problem and keep a youth audience.

1. “Tap into youth culture moments,” says Alison.
2. “We need to look for new young talent and give them a platform”, says Mark.
3. “Our secret weapon is to reward listener engagement. Let’s look at how we present the news and try news without the blues! We also need to use the language young people use,” says Andy.