Virgin Radio Launches Marks & Spencer Promotion
Virgin Radio is to promote Marks & Spencer’s new clothing range across its Pete & Geoff Breakfast Show, as part of the station’s Access All Areas initiative.
The deal will see the breakfast show hosts invite listeners named Mark or Spencer to join them in the studio for a daily catwalk show to promote the brand’s new Sp men’s wear range. Listeners will be invited to ring in and guess whether the participant is a Mark or a Spencer to win a cash prize.
The promotion will target ‘lads and dads’ in the station’s core 25 to 44 year-old audience. It follows research which shows that over half of this demographic spend a lot of money on clothes and over a third enjoy keeping up with the latest fashions.
Commenting on the initiative, Brian Commins, head of promotions at Virgin Radio, said: “Research has shown our listeners are into cars, sports and looking sharp as part of a overall lifestyle choice. Couple this audience with a great mechanic generated through our Access All Areas approach and we will bring alive Sp to its core audience.”
The deal, which was negotiated by Dominic Eddon at Virgin Radio and David Swannell at Walker Media, is part of a wider campaign that will also see the retailer use JCDecaux’s chameleon billboard technology to target consumers with a series of special day and night-time executions.
It is understood that Walker Media has secured a further £5 million of Marks & Spencer business for the brand’s new loyalty card, which launches next month with the supports of a TV campaign.
The latest RAJAR results for the three months to June 2003 show that Virgin Radio AM has seen its weekly reach decline by 13.3% year on year to just below 2.2 million. However, the station has appointed former Capital Radio marketing director, David Andrews, to head up its marketing team, as it increases its efforts to attract new listeners in the face of growing competition (see Virgin Radio Appoints Former Capital Marketing Chief).
Virgin Radio: 020 7434 1215 www.virginradio.co.uk
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