Vuma 103 FM appoints United Stations to drive advertising

The family and lifestyle-focused station, launched in late November 2012, has a large broadcast footprint extending across greater Durban, Pietermaritzburg and the North and South Coast and, according to chief operating officer, Nolan Vernon, has begun to make a significant impact on the market.

"The station has an advantage as it was borne out of KNI, a community radio station which had a massive listener base of hundreds of thousands developed over ten years, which have moved over to our station," says Vernon. "Since going on air, we were and continue to be encouraged by the number of interactions and by the positive responses received in the social media sphere, which gives us a good indication of the growing audience.

"The first few months have been focused on developing the content and programming, and settling in. Now we are moving into a phase to develop advertising features and partnerships and United Stations is an obvious choice in helping us achieve these business aims."

Brand focused approach

"The sales house brings a team of seasoned and passionate sales professionals, the tools, the strategy and a brand-focused approach into the partnership that is designed to deliver business results for advertisers on the station," says Rivak Bunce, MD of United Stations.

"The partnership approach is key and a relationship has been created between the sales house and the station to ensure that a shared passion for radio and advertising is reflected in professional and creative delivery to advertisers. With imagination and innovation, together with the station's team, we aim to present focused, integrated solutions to advertisers and to go beyond traditional airtime campaigns."

The sales house has assigned a brand-focused business development team, led by seasoned radio advertising strategist Michelle Randall. They will marry advertisers' objectives with the station's initiatives, utilising a wide range of properties including on-air and online content, sponsorships, promotions, special events and targeted programming.

"Radio, together with its social and online media platforms, has become much more interactive now. This coupled with the immediacy of radio, means that there are infinite opportunities to create the right kind of message and provide effective marketing solutions for our advertisers," continues Vernon. "We have designed the station to make this process of delivering a responsive audience easy and we look forward to working closely with the sales house and agencies and advertisers in creating these campaigns."