BBC Radio 2 is Europe’s largest radio station with over 14m listeners. However, mainstream music isn’t all it broadcasts. It airs a wide range of musical genres, documentaries and comedy. As part of its public sector remit, the BBC wanted to champion this eclecticism, briefing us with 3 tasks:1) make listeners appreciate the breadth of quality content available to them; 2) get listeners to listen more; 3) increase traffic to their website.

As radio listening is habitual, people were unlikely to experience what else was on the station, so we decided that an approach which demonstrated the range of content would make the biggest impact. We took over the schedule, swapping all the great Radio 2 shows and presenters around for 12 hours, meaning people had to listen to something they wouldn’t normally listen to. We called this unique broadcasting event 2Day – all of Radio 2 in one day.2Day is a great example of a communications agency getting upstream with its client in order to develop a solution appropriately matched to the task at hand. By being able to influence content and scheduling, instead of just creating an ad campaign, we were able to tackle a near-impossible task.

We created a scheduling event called 2Day. Over 12 hours, we mixed up presenter slots from across the whole week so that more niche genres got peak air time: from musicals, live folk performances, soul, big band extravaganzas and even sitar solos that would normally only get a listenership of a few thousand suddenly enjoyed a peak audience of several million.

To raise interest, especially for PR, presenters worked together. E.g. Tony Blackburn and Trevor Nelson, Chris Evans and Zoe Ball.

Changing the schedule gave people a real reason to visit the website. They could find out more about the day and also see behind the scenes on live stream.As a 1 day event it made it much easier for the media to understand and it even secured us the much sort-after front cover of the Radio Times. We also supported the event with TV and radio ads.

60% of Radio 2 listeners were aware of 2Day (BBC Pulse Tracker), not just because of the advertising but also received national media coverage e.g. front cover Radio Times; it was picked up on prime time TV - BBC One, as well as on the key competitor ITV 1.74% of listeners to a part of 2Day felt that it demonstrated Radio 2 offered a breadth of different content: “2 Day was a great idea; made me realise there is so much more to Radio 2” (Pulse).

The days impact actually changed radio habits. 1/3 claimed that “2 Day makes me want to listen more”.

RAJAR data showed average amount of time listened to Radio 2 after 2 Day increased 27minutes.Weekly reach of network rose by 340,000 people35% surveyed (Pulse) claimed they’d be interested in watching highlights online.

Unique browsers increased by 98% from 53,000 to 104,000 on 2Day.