Cornwall's 105 to 107 Itchy FM - Ofcom Licensing

only through this genuine investment of time in a client’s business will local companies begin to trust
the new station and its commercial ability. When our clients recognise that Itchy FM (on or off-air)
enables them to reach a substantial youth audience and that their campaigns result in a direct increase
in sales / awareness / footfall, then we will have succeeded in positioning Itchy FM at the heart of
Cornwall’s youth economy. We have held numerous meetings with organisations such as Business
Link, Enterprise Edge, the Hub – Youth Business Network and Mid-Cornwall Enterprise Trust, as well
as the regeneration organisations working to achieve sustainable economic growth, in order to ensure
that Itchy FM is well utilised by local businesses.
We are incredibly conscious that only such an integrated approach will result in long term success and
profitability of the new Cornish station. IMD Group’s daily experiences with hundreds of local
advertisers support this fact, and the opportunities associated with offering clients a commercial service
far beyond traditional ILR spot sales.
Integrated approach
We fully intend to aggregate the various ways the station can add value to a client’s youth proposition,
and present this to clients in an integrated, easy-to-buy manner.
Our commercial strategy from launch will be to ensure that sales staff are well trained to identify and
understand varying requirements of our clients, ensuring that opportunities to offer a variety of radio
based marketing solutions, plus develop valuable additional sales and client trust are not missed. This
integrated approach has been developed successfully by IMD Group in its wider youth media activities.
When presenting to local businesses, our sales staff will be encouraged to listen to the client’s
requirements and then (whether entirely in-house, or alongside local strategic partners), we will define
an advertising / marketing / promotional strategy that will enable the client’s desires to be met.
This would always be centred around station activity (on or off-air) but could also include involvement at
station events, use of sampling, data capture or IMD Group’s other local youth media (50,000 Itchy
Cornwall Guides, 7,500 Cornwall College Student Planners, Poster sites at University leisure venues
and Inside+Out magazine) or via our relationships with local promoters (SW1 Productions) or venues
(including The Green Room music venue, Redruth, Cornwall's largest nightclub Berties, and the Koola
Bar in Newquay).
Additionally IMD Group employs local sales staff to manage client sales across its poster sites, local
guide books and branded diaries, and these staff would also be trained in upselling radio as part of their
available media mix. Although we would expect this referred activity to result in additional sales
opportunities, for the sake of prudence we have not relied on any revenue from IMD Group’s local nonradio
sales staff in Cornwall.
This integrated approach will extend to the manner in which the launch team will recruit and train a
multi-skilled team to establish the station.
Social Advertising Policy
Aside from the more traditional areas of the business plan, we have developed a pro-bono advertising
programme, in response to our local consultations. More so than in other bids the directors have been
involved in, Cornwall has some real financial difficulties as highlighted by its Objective One status. As
such, Itchy FM will offer certain clients free or discounted advertising. We have proposed this service
to a variety of socially focussed businesses or support groups, non profit organisations and local
charities with resounding success.
IMD has set up this Social Marketing Fund for the station to support not-for-profit organisations and
charities. We have presented our ideas to a series of local membership organisations whose members
are involved in youth support activities (Acorn Community Theatre, The Hub Young Business Network,
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