Scope: A national radio network with a ‘for purpose’ community remit wanted to understand its audience demographics, their needs and listening habits and to establish a benchmark against which to analyse audience development.

It also needed to identify reasons why other members of its ‘community of interest’ were not tuning in.

Methodology: Canvass prepared a comprehensive questionnaire to track the network’s performance over time. Canvass then interviewed a sample of network listeners and non-listeners from the community of interest.

The research findings revealed that while the network appealed to current listeners, it was a ‘well-kept secret’, reaching only a very limited age demographic, virtually unknown in the wider community and therefore unattractive to sponsors.

Driving Change: In strategic planning sessions at the Network, Canvass worked to re-prioritise its strategic goals on the basis of the findings.

Canvass developed a communications and marketing plan to address listenership + awareness problems + to liaise more closely with government services tasked with supporting its work.

Key findings and listener verbatims fed into revised promotional collateral and promotional channels, attracting new sponsors, new listeners and ongoing community support.