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When WUNC moved into its 40th year of broadcasting, they turned to Avenir Bold to lead them through a branding initiative to commemorate the anniversary and reposition their brand to meet the challenges of public radio as they strive to maintain relevance in a new era of digital content. 

Though they are highly successful and enjoy tremendous listener loyalty, they were having difficulty connecting with younger and diverse audiences, and were not reaching a large segment of potential listeners due to lack of awareness.

To gain clear insight into the brand challenges and inform the creative development of the brand messaging, we conducted one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders in the Triangle. Participants discussed topics ranging from general perceptions of WUNC and marketing campaign objectives to key target audiences and the competitive landscape.

Our objectives for the research were to:

• Identify brand challenges and opportunities
• Assess messaging and marketing campaign expectations
• Evaluate perceptions of key target audience groups and the competitive landscape
• Guide translation of brand benefits into relevant marketing communications
• Establish metrics for success

In addition to stakeholder interviews, we fielded a comprehensive brand AAU study among radio listeners in WUNC’s core geography. 

Based on our newly discovered insights, our creative approach depicted a more youthful aesthetic and reflected a more diverse audience. We promoted “gateway” content in order to expose listeners to all that WUNC has to offer. Listeners are consuming audio content through a variety of channels — podcasts, live streams, etc. — so it was important that we position WUNC as more than a “radio station” in order to align with current listening trends. Throughout the campaign, we appealed to our audience’s innate desire for discovery and curiosity about the world.

For the past year, we’ve worked closely with WUNC leadership to carefully define and articulate the challenges, and develop compelling creative to position them as a key resource for enrichment and discovery with a consistent, clear brand voice and messaging. The creative messaging is being finalized and is set to launch in the next few months.