Southern Cross Austereo shows the path to DAB+ at WorldDAB Workshop

07.03.2018 by Bernie O’Neill, Project Director, WorldDAB

During the DAB+ workshop at ABU DBS, Dave Cameron, the General Manager at SCA Melbourne, outlined how they use DAB+ to reach new audiences and grow the brand.

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) is the biggest commercial ‘landholder’ of DAB+ spectrum in Australia – this gives them the capability to add an additional 6-10 stations in each capital city on top of FM parent brands. 2017/2018 saw a reboot of the SCA DAB+ strategy to ensure they were making the most of what digital offers.

Official ratings measurement in Australia now includes DAB+ alongside traditional FM and AM stations – this means that SCA can report an aggregate total audience figure of all listening to a specific brand – no matter what the platform.

The brand extensions on DAB+ have enabled SCA to continue to build strength around their key network brands, rather than starting with a new and unfamiliar name. This gives advertising partners a much greater reach and DAB+ no longer needs its own sell.

SCA clients get an extra 10% audience reach on their adverts, with DAB+ included in their advertising spend. It also makes things simpler, with no need to ‘buy’ additional stations.

In just the last six months since its brand alignment strategy, SCA added over 100,000 listeners. They have also been able to incrementally increase average unit rate by offering clients a new solution for increased reach on their advertising campaigns.

It’s not just the commercial sector seeing success with DAB+. In this video, Mark Cummins and Alex Lazenby from SBS Australia, the public service broadcaster, talk about how they use DAB+ to offer services in other languages for Australia’s culturally diverse population.