“We have thousands of devoted listeners and thought it time that we recognise them for their ongoing support,” explains Ravi Naidoo, 94.7 Highveld Stereo station manager. “Club VIP is our way of saying thanks to those listeners and rewarding them for their loyalty.”
The initiative revolves around a key-word mechanism, where presenters mention key-words at various points throughout the day’s programming and listeners sms these keywords to the Club VIP SMS line. Listeners are rewarded with points for each correct SMS received within the allocated time frame.
To date, more than 44 000 listeners have registered with the Club and almost 45 million points have been awarded.
www.highveld.mobi is basically a scaled down version of its popular online counterpart (www.highveld.co.za) and is accessible via cellphone Internet browsers.
“Roughly a third of our audience has access to the Internet. While this might be high by national standards, it’s only a small portion of our audience,” says Naidoo.
“Most new cellphones come with Internet access, and the fact that almost 90% of our audience have mobile phones means that these people potentially now have Internet access too. The introduction of a mobile platform was integral to the launch of Club VIP as now almost every single listener can become a Club member, and not just those with Internet access.”
Club VIP is designed to keep listeners tuned in for longer - the more they listen, the more points they earn. Different levels of points can ‘buy’ listeners different VIP experiences.
There will be many other ways to earn points, and get closer to those ‘money-can’t-buy’ experiences in the VIP shop. These include bonus codes, where listeners will be rewarded for literally going the extra mile.
“We plan to incentivise listeners to get down to locations in and around Joburg and find - and then submit - a special keyword that can earn them loads of bonus points,” adds Naidoo.
