Radio continues to play an important part in many people’s lives, reaching millions of users every week. According to a report published by AGCOM (Authority for Communication Guarantees), radio is the second-most frequently used media after television.

In Italy, the radio industry represents half of the audio business, which includes music and podcasts. About 68% of the Italian population listens to the radio for an average of 149 minutes per day. With an increasing number of listeners tuning in on mobile devices and desktops, the need for a digital radio strategy is becoming more critical. Modern-day radio stations need a robust communication platform to interact with their audience in real-time and increase user engagement.

About RTL 102.5

RTL 102.5 is an Italy-based radio station that broadcasts popular hit music and entertaining content under multiple brand names (RadioFreccia, Radio Zeta, RTL102.5, and others). Even though it started as a radio channel, the brand repositioned itself as radiovision by launching a popular TV channel known as the Hit Channel, later renamed after RTL102.5 TV.

RTL 102.5 has a strong connection with its audience, and over the years, the brand has managed to attract millions of listeners across all age groups. To keep its wide range of audiences engaged, RTL has been excellently striking a balance between music, entertainment, and information programs.

RTL 102.5, being one of the leading radio stations in Italy, always embraced various technologies and alternative distribution platforms to provide a high-quality user experience to its listeners. It has grown into a 360-degree multimedia content supplier over the years, choosing radiovision as its editorial format – the only Italian radio broadcaster to do so. Today RTL streams both video and audio programs across media distribution platforms, including radio, television, web, and mobile. Besides news and music-related content, the brand interacts with people through social networks and other digital touchpoints.

RTL was the first radio brand in Italy to display SMS from viewers and listeners on TV.

RTL’s key challenges and requirements

Most of the program formats hosted by RTL require active interaction between presenters and listeners. The radio station hosts many programs across various channels simultaneously, and as a result, the program presenters in RTL receive close to 250 messages at a time from their users.

RTL hosts many programs across various channels simultaneously and receives tons of messages from its users. The radio station wanted a messaging platform that could efficiently classify and distribute the incoming messages to the radio hosts in real-time.

It was crucial for them to have more information about the senders and the context of their messages to have an engaging interaction with their audience. Since they had a huge user base, curating and classifying the incoming user messages according to the radio channels and sharing it with the presenters in real-time proved to be extremely challenging for the editorial staff.

RTL was looking for a messaging platform that could help its presenters efficiently handle the growing number of user interactions and help the editorial staff drastically bring down the burdensome task of classifying and distributing incoming user messages.

How Kaleyra addressed RTL’s concerns

Kaleyra provided RTL with a secure and scalable messaging channel that optimized their two-way interaction with listeners. Kaleyra offered two solutions – WhatsApp Business API and SMS – to ensure RTL effectively handled user interactions.

Integrating Kaleyra’s WhatsApp Business API with RTL’s existing systems helped their editorial staff easily curate all the incoming messages, classify them according to the radio program in real-time, and share it with their presenters. Kaleyra’s SMS services helped RTL send out important updates about radio programs and live events.

Scalable audience communication via Kaleyra’s WhatsApp Business API

While a range of digital platforms can play a crucial role in extending the radio’s reach, WhatsApp has an upper edge due to its widespread use, easy access, and versatility. As a web-based messaging application, WhatsApp has features conducive to information sharing and enhancing audience participation, including voice notes, group messaging, calling functions, and multimedia sharing.

WhatsApp, as a channel, is extremely popular in Italy. Since RTL had a vast user base of nearly 7 million listeners per day, they did not have to advertise about them having a WhatsApp account to gain traction. As soon as they integrated Kaleyra’s WhatsApp Business API, they received thousands of messages from their users.

Integrating all of RTL’s channels through Kaleyra’s platform helped RTL manage incoming user messages effectively. RTL has over ten radio channels and hosts many programs simultaneously. Each of these channels receives thousands of messages from users. With Kaleyra’s WhatsApp Business API, RTL can now curate, classify, and distribute user messages to the program hosts across channels in real-time.

Radio listeners feel valued when conversational texting is an option because they’re getting one-on-one attention.

Increasing user engagement with SMS

With a capacity to deliver over 2.5 billion text messages per month, Kaleyra customized its messaging solutions to meet RTL’s needs of catering to an ever-growing customer base. It allowed for seamless communication with customers through text messages. With features that can be modified to meet regulatory obligations specific to Italy, Kaleyra made engagement with customers hassle-free, secure, and efficient for RTL. Using Kaleyra’s easy-to-use platform, RTL now sends out important updates and reminders about radio programs, music concerts, and live events.

The impact of Kaleyra-RTL collaboration

Some achievements since RTL 102.5 switched to Kaleyra’s messaging services:

1) Increased user base
With Kaleyra’s Messaging solution, RTL’s user base significantly increased in a few months. The radio station now has 7 million active listeners.

2) Increased user interaction
RTL has witnessed active participation from its listeners ever since it introduced the WhatsApp channel for users. The radio station received close to 1.7 million incoming messages in less than a year on WhatsApp. For the first time, RTL received 38,000 messages via WhatsApp on the new year’s eve.

3) Effective management of incoming messages
After integrating Kaleyra’s WhatsApp Business API, RTL could efficiently classify and distribute the incoming user messages to the radio hosts in real-time.