Woolworths and ARN team up to lock horns with Nova’s Coles Radio
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It will be shopping trolleys at 50 paces as Australia’s two supermarket giants go head-to-head with in-store entertainment, as Woolworths makes sweet music with ARN.
Woolworths and ARN have partnered to create their own tailored customer experience that will be broadcast in Woolworths stores across the country and on digital radio via the iHeartRadio app.
Andrew Hicks , Woolworths Chief Marketing Officer said, “With millions of listeners every week, we’re pleased to partner with iHeartRadio to enhance our in-store radio and improve the experience for our customers, team, and supplier partners.”
Advanced technology will be used to create superior audio for a series of in store radio stations that are tailored to time of day and geographical locations, giving Woolworths a competitive edge.
Expect to see parents chilling to relaxing sounds as they pick up groceries on the way home from school drop off, and to watch late night shelf stackers moving at a faster pace to the up tempo songs programmed to motivate them during the after hours packing shifts.
The advanced software will use automatic ad insertion through Woolworths media business, Cartology, to reach customers in a more personal way with tailored marketing that can be executed almost instantly in one or all Woolworths stores across the country depending on client needs.
The stations are made to suit customer demographics with the goal of elevating customers’ shopping experiences.
There will be a home focus with Woolworths Radio getting behind more Australian artists and championing local up and coming musicians in a show of support for the Australian music industry, with more Australian classics as well.
The broadcast will also increase marketing opportunities for Woolworth’s supply partners and give the supermarket a competitive boost against arch rival Coles, which has been partnering with Nova Entertainment for years to broadcast Coles Radio.
ARN CEO Ciaran Davis says “Woolworths Radio is an innovative collaboration between ARN, Mood Media and Woolworths to develop an industry-leading audio platform that will enhance the customer experience and deliver exceptional opportunities for the supermarkets supplier partners to engage with shoppers.”
“We know iHeartRadio has a unique ability to engage and connect with listeners across Australia and this solution is going to reach millions of people each week and is another great example of the innovative audio solutions we can provide to our commercial partners.”
Woolworths Radio can be heard at all stores nationally and on the iHeartRadio app via iHeartRadio.com
Listening to it now at work. Sounds great! It may sound like a tiny gripe but with Coles Radio on a browser you can only listen via a pop-up, meaning it takes an extra second to click, then mute, whereas iHeart plays in a TAB so you can simply click the audio symbol on the TAB to very quickly mute it when taking a phone call etc.
… what’s so amusing about this is, having just done the weekly shopping at Coles, the ad content has increased so much that it’s actually destroying the “ambience” of the shopping music resulting in a mental turn-off …
And Nova can’t do any day part targeting on Coles Radio so it makes they’ve just been leapfrogged.
I’m sure they’ve taken a few calls from coles today
Thank sweet baby Jesus I do all my shopping online and get it delivered
Well done ARN, proves you don’t need to be a first mover to make waves.
The potential created here with ARN and Cartology has the opportunity to be very compelling!
Dab bandwidth is limited.
Was it squeezed in or did something else get removed in the process?
Matt, unlike Coles Radio this one is not on DAB+ it is on the iHeartRadio app.