The Challenges of the Customer
Radio Zürisee was founded in 1983 and is one of the highest-reach private radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland.
The station recognized early on that its digital channels - its website and native apps - are key touchpoints. An appealing digital presence not only increases the station's reach, but also offers listeners a user experience that is superior to traditional FM reception - especially in the car. The brand experience should be consistent and high-quality across all channels.
During the development of an in-house solution, it became increasingly clear to Radio Zürisee that the technical complexity and the resulting project costs were not economically feasible. As a result, an external partner was sought to provide a solution that would meet the high demands.
In addition to a variety of specific features that were requested, such as podcasts or forms, five points were particularly important to the Radio Zürisee team:
Audio focus
The audio streams, posts and podcasts should be the main focus. The high-quality integration and seamless interaction of the various audio and video elements in the player are crucial.
Login and 1st-party data
Registration and login for users as well as the option to place content behind a login wall to make registration attractive played an important role. In addition to generating 1st-party data, this is also the basis for personalizing content.
One system
Content creation, management of the various channels and all other functions (including user management, creation and management of competitions, messaging) should be possible from a single interface. This is the only way to keep the complexity for online team members at a manageable level.
Marketer integration
The existing marketer (Goldbach, Swiss Radio World) was to be integrated in order to monetize the digital channels optimally. The focus was on data transfer for CPM optimization, data protection compliance and user-friendly integration.
No one-time solution and predictable costs
The aim was not to create an individual agency solution, as these usually lead to very high costs and are not economical in terms of maintenance and further development. Instead, the aim was to create a technology platform that could be continuously developed and planned in terms of costs.
In addition to the wishes already described, the new digital presence had to be ready in time for the already planned relaunch of the brand presence. This meant that there were only four weeks between the signing of the contract and the launch date.
"We were looking for a solution that could meet the complex requirements of radio stations' digital channels. The radiosphere platform even exceeded our expectations here. An audio-centric, consistent user experience across web & apps with many interactive elements - all from one user-friendly interface, allowing our staff to fully focus on the content. radiosphere allows us to fully exploit the digital potential of radio. And in addition, we still benefit from continuous development and the knowledge that our feedback is being heard."
The Solution
With radiosphere, Radio Zürisee was able to fall back on a technical platform that already provides all the essential functions and requirements and also offers many customization options in order to cover the complex requirements of the digital presence cost-effectively on the one hand and at the same time to individually implement Radio Zürisee's strong brand.
High level of integration of the radiosphere platform
radiosphere makes it possible to perform all essential tasks from one system. Whether creating and editing website or apps, creating content (articles, podcasts, events, sweepstakes, etc.), managing sweepstakes, sending push messages or analyzing essential KPIs - all this is possible within radiosphere CMS+. Two points are crucial at this point: first, data and the login are not a silo, but deeply integrated into the platform. Second, there is a WYSWIWG editor ("What you see, is what you get") , which is used to create a wide variety of content and formats. The employees at the broadcaster can thus always find their way around quickly and work correspondingly productively. The clear architecture and user-friendly structure makes it easy for the employees of Radio Zürisee to quickly master and apply the multitude of workflows and features that are available.
Optimization for the best user experience
Our aspiration is to deliver the best digital radio experience to every user. For us, this means that a wide variety of media types must be interlinked and all content must always be presented optimally - regardless of the end device, whether desktop or mobile. This coincides 100% with the requirements of Radio Zürisee. The development of radiosphere was conceived from "day 1" from the perspective of a radio station, i.e. audio played the prominent role from the very beginning. Our playbar, fixed at the bottom of the screen, is always there when the listener needs it and reacts dynamically to the content called up at any given time. Channel, podcast or YouTube? No problem at all. And when the Youtube video or podcast is over, the player automatically switches back to the lienar stream. The components that can be used in our CMS are tested and optimized for all end devices to always provide the user with the best display and to present the Radio Zürisee brand in the best possible way.
Implementation and onboarding
Thanks to the close cooperation with the customer and the user-friendliness of the platform, the essential steps of the project (design, implementation, onboarding and testing) were completed and the website launched in the shortest possible time. The immediate availability of the essential features needed to be digitally successful in the radio sector, as well as the radiosphere design system, allow new projects to be implemented quickly and efficiently. The ease of use of the system and the WYSIWG editor allow quick learning of the essential functions, which quickly led to a sense of achievement for the online team of Radio Zürisee.
The Result
Fast Implementation
Website and apps were launched in the new design within 4 weeks.
Team fully onboarded
The team at Radio Zürisee quickly got used to the new processes and is working productively.
Positive Customer Feedback
User feedback was very positive right from the start.
