During his presentation, Gagasi FM Managing Director Vukile Zondi gave a clear perspective in terms of the brand journey towards that futuristic moment. “Over the past few years we have undergone an intensive process of reviewing our business environment and redefining how we needed to move forward. From our company values, to performance measurements, to our on-air talent offering as well as enhancing consumer engagement across on-air, online and eventing platforms. In the process, certain elements about how the brand was being projected needed to change,” said Zondi.
When the proudly KZN radio station first hit the airways in 2006, it was referred to as Gagasi 99.5FM with the pay off line “The New Sound of the City”. At that time the station’s reach was limited to Durban, Pietermaritzburg, near South Coast and near North Coast. As such, it made sense during that time for 99.5 to feature in the station’s name as it was the main and only frequency.
A few years later the station began to get more frequencies in other areas, including the remote parts of KZN which then meant that 99.5 was no longer the main frequency. At the time, the tagline moved from “The New Sound of the City” to the “The Sound of the City”.
“Moving towards the future, we needed a paradigm shift in our mindset. We needed to adopt forward thinking and begin to define our business beyond the parameters of radio in the traditional sense. This meant a new vision, a new perspective on the brand, a new beginning,” said Zondi.
Media lifestyle brand
The narrative that stands out very clearly is that Gagasi is moving from being just a radio station to becoming a media lifestyle brand. On the horizon there are a number of brand extensions which will be launched, with the most imminent being GagasiWorld, a new online platform and Gagasi Events which has been in existence but we are now broadening its scope.
Gagasi FM Head of Brand Ms Phinda Magwaza elaborated on this media lifestyle positioning saying, “The reality is that the market is not staying the same, we need to remain relevant to consumers and their lifestyle patterns at the same time ensure that our media solutions also remain relevant to advertisers and their spending patterns. So when we say we are now a media lifestyle brand, we are responding directly to those market dynamics. Our new corporate identity and our new office space therefore speak to this new era of our business”.
The new logo, features the brand’s trademark “G” which has now been refreshed to fit in with this new vision.
The new building features a public and semi-public area in the ground floor to be used mostly for station guests. This space, which was used for the official launch of the premises, will also be used to host various events such as music sessions, panel or roundtable discussions, cocktail events etc. The state of the art main studio is also situated near this public area allowing interaction with the public from the live studio environment.
“We are very excited about the future. This moment marks the start of a new journey for the brand, we are now officially a multi-platform business. This will have an impact on how we are operating from now on, how we drive engagement with consumers across these platforms to ensure commercial viability and sustainability,” concluded Magwaza.
With all that being said in terms of radio, online and events platforms of brand Gagasi, is there more in store from this innovative media lifestyle brand in the near future? Only time will tell!
