ARN’s CADA has only been on Australia’s airwaves since March 31st this year, but already the station is racking up big engagement numbers and even bigger brand collaborations.
Mediaweek spoke to CADA head of commercial strategy, Andy Walsh, about what the launch has looked like and how the station has hit the ground running with brand partnerships.
Andy Walsh
With two months of airtime under its belt, Walsh says that the work that has gone into CADA is finally getting the chance to shine.
“It’s been amazing. I’ve been on the team since September last year, and at that point everything seemed like such a long way away. Now we’re two months in and everything from the community feedback through to the growth that we’ve seen speaks volumes as far as the vision that we’ve had and the effort that we put into it. The fruits of the labour are definitely coming through.”
The proof is in the pudding, and for Walsh the numbers only tell half of the story.
“On our website traffic, we’ve seen a spike of over 30%. On our Instagram, we’ve had huge engagement. Our Facebook numbers have been really significant, too, with 15% growth.
“But what I find more engaging, and I think relevant, is the comments and the participation. It’s one thing to have an audience. But it’s something else to have strong engagement, and people actively leaning into what we’re creating. I think that will shine through more – we’re still very early on in our journey.”
The youth audience that CADA speaks to is one that is notoriously difficult to access. For Walsh, the key to connecting with them is through genuine interaction and meeting them where they are.
“If you think about how we create our content, we’ve got experts in the field with our own talent, we’ve got an amazing creative team, and our job is to entertain that Gen Z audience. We’re actively spending a lot of time looking at people’s passions, what they care about, what they’re sharing on socials. Understanding and having a deep knowledge of that audience allows us to grow and retain people by being active participants in that community.”
CADA’s talent line-up
Recently, CADA announced a collaboration with Red Bull for their 64 Bars campaign – a project that sees rapper and producer duos collaborate in a lyrical rap marathon.
“Red Bull is a really interesting brand, they’ve been in the music space for a long time,” says Walsh. “They have two core parts of their business: the product, but also the brand. They’ve spent heavily through the years – globally – on some of the most amazing stunts from a brand building point of view. 64 Bars is one of those, they’re wanting to support young artists on their journey, but also wanting to make sure that there’s a unique Red Bull story in that.”
“We started speaking to them quite early on. We’ve got such a symbiotic relationship because their goal of tapping into a very culturally rich and diverse audience is in our heartland.”
The collaboration saw CADA cover the campaign across all its platforms, including integrated on-air spots promoting the launch as well as editorial and social drivers.
“We were able to secure an exclusive launch partnership – so we played the song first on air, on breakfast we did an interview with the artist, and then we turned that into a full suite of content that went across socials, YouTube, etc. It really gave us a strong talking point for on air content, but it was also quite easy to spread that across all of our channels
“We’re such a unique home for brands to tap into this audience, there’s definitely no one else like us in the marketplace.”
That’s not the only major partnership CADA has scored. Last month CADA announced that it was the presenting partner for Kendrick Lamar’s freshly announced The Big Steppers Tour in Australia.
“Kendrick is up there as far as an icon in many forms – he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, he’s sold so many records, and he is up there as probably one of the top five hip hop artists of all time. He’s a big deal,” says Walsh.
Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
“At CADA it goes back to our content. I think that’s the difference for us, we’re building out these stories with different content formats, and really unpacking this culture and lifestyle that surrounds hip hop and R&B. With our partnership with Live Nation and Universal Music on the Kendrick tour, it felt like a win-win, because we’re seeking the opportunity to tell these stories and they’re looking for something which is rich and dynamic.
“To engage the audience that would buy tickets and listen to his record, it can’t just be ads – it needs to be something that has depth and breadth to allow people to really get excited about it.”
See More: “Beyond audio:” Why ARN’s The Edge made the switch to CADA