Radio Express scores Heineken

International syndicator Radio Express has secured a major content integration/sponsorship deal from Heineken for the company’s “World Chart Show” in 31 countries across the Caribbean and Central America.  The show will reach audiences in two languages, as “The Heineken World Chart Show with PJ Butta” in English, and as “El Heineken World Chart Show con Julieta” hosted by Julieta Ramirez in Spanish.  Both PJ Butta and Julieta are long-standing Radio Express presenters and are well known to audiences tuned in to urban-formatted stations in Africa, Europe and Latin America.

“The show is fully customized with Heineken content, including reports from Heineken events around the world and information on innovations and activities for the brand like Green Synergy,” says Gayle Harrison, of Heineken Caribbean and Central America. 

Says Radio Express CEO Tom Rounds (founder of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 when it was Watermark): “This is the largest multi-country barter deal we’ve seen this century. Branded entertainment sponsorship is certainly the most cost-effective method of reaching consumers across a huge territory."

“The World Chart Show,” launched in 1995, is produced in several editions and languages originating both in Radio Express studios in Burbank, California and those of co-producers outside the U.S.

Radio Express produces branded long-form radio shows for advertisers that include Coca-Cola, Cadbury and pan-African wireless provider Celtel. 

RBR/TVBR observation: This is the way to get advertisers back into radio--and bring new ones in. If television can do it more and more, so can radio—and be just as successful about it. Bring the advertiser into the content and programming as part of the pitch—this can be done on a local as well as national level. Clear Channel’s “Verizon New Music Channel” on HD multicast in numerous markets is another good example.

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