Heat Radio drops spot ads with celeb format

Traditional day-part presenting is also being ditched in favour of more
flexible editorial-led content aligned to Heat magazine and
Heatworld.com.

The station will be predominantly music-based, but will include breaking
celebrity news, user-generated content such as listener reports of
celebrity sightings and celebrity takeover shows.

Andria Vidler, managing director of Magic 105.4, is leading the relaunch
with Heat editor Mark Frith "intrinsically involved".

Speaking to Media Week, Vidler said the "telling and selling model" is
changing.

"This is not an anti-spot move, but we are doing something for a few
clients in a different way that gives us far more freedom creatively,"
she said.

Vidler added that, although the station will launch with five
advertisers, no official cap on that figure has yet been set.

"We understand the overall impact a marketing director needs to achieve
to a very particular audience group and they have that with Heat," she
said. "While Magic has a very broad audience, this is very targeted to
the mid-20s female Heat reader."

She compared the move to GCap's two-ads-in-a-row policy on Capital 95.8,
but believes the exclusivity and flexibility for advertisers on Heat
will be more attractive.

"Two-in-a-row was meant to be about giving more impact to the
advertiser, but GCap ended up having so many breaks it was disruptive to
the station's flow," she said.

"The most successful analogue stations have a brand content of more than
60 advertisers a week, but the difference in being only one of five is
massive."

The station will be promoted with both cross-promotion and a marketing
campaign. Vidler stressed that this was the company's opportunity to
take on the BBC.

"The BBC does a lot of commercial PR within its editorial, but imagine
if an advertiser could have content formally woven into the station,"
she said.

"We're taking on the BBC and taking on radio in a way that's not been
achieved before."