When Dan Healy, head of 2fm, first saw the station’s new logo he thought of a Brigid’s cross - a symbol RTÉ used prominently in decades past. “We were looking for something that had a design language for today but recognised where we have come from. I saw the logo and I saw the future and the past simultaneously,” says Healy.

The 15-34-year-old audience 2fm is chasing is unlikely to make same conscious connections as Healy, who is in his early 50s. And the logo, a curvy “2” in double-white stripes wrapped around a cloud of flames, was designed with modern needs in mind: it can be animated, lending itself for use across digital platforms. It’s just one element of an all-encompassing rebranding of 2fm that began when Healy made sweeping schedule changes in February 2014. The project took another step forward last month when 2fm “soft-launched” a suite of new presenter visuals and began a digital-focused advertising campaign in a bid to recruit more young listeners.

RTÉ Radio 2, as it was then, first went on air in May 1979. “We may be at that 1979 moment again,” says Healy. “That was when RTÉ started repatriating younger people from the offshore pirates.” Now, as a result of emigration and music market trends, “we have to repatriate the audience again”, he says. “This isn’t just 2fm’s challenge, it is the challenge for the entire radio sector. I just think it’s a cracking opportunity for us.”


Source (Irish Times)

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