The concept of branded entertainment is slowly emerging in the region, especially via online and mobile phone. Content in the form of webisodes, applications and Facebook videos are becoming common. Radio, however, is a medium that is extremely neglected. Radio channels in this region are cluttered with ads, as opposed to branded entertainment, usually in the form of boring announcements that do not interact with listeners.

Dubai is a melting pot of different cultures so not everyone reads the same magazine, goes to the same places or watches the same TV shows. But everyone can be reached on the radio. So we “freshened up” radio with our unique concept titled “Fresh Radio”. We developed “made-to-order” spots that used 45" to engage the audience, effectively communicating the brand personality and whetting the audience's appetite for more falafels and for more 'Fresh Radio'.

The requests just rolled in! They didn’t just call the radio station, Just Falafel fans even sent emails directly to the company asking for a chance to participate. Word-of-mouth in the virtual world, especially across social media, was remarkable with likes, shares, comments, SoundCloud song downloads and even lyric suggestions.

Fresh Radio was a hit. As Just Falafel continued its expansion plans, Fresh Radio helped spread awareness and increase footfall to their stores. Fresh Radio was a hot topic on Facebook and Twitter, and was featured in Directory Magazine. The songs were uploaded on soundcloud.com and roughly had 1720 plays. In the months that followed, Facebook impressions increased from 30m to 80m. Word of mouth in the real world – which was harder to count – ranged from jammed phone lines at the radio station and plenty of song requests sent to Just Falafel’s official email. With our branded fresh music spots, we pushed the potential of radio as a medium and even spawned a few copycats as well.