talkSPORT To Boost Listening With Television Push
Kelvin MacKenzie’s national speech-based radio station, talkSPORT, is launching a major television campaign worth £500,000 this week as it attempts to drive listening amongst the highly targeted male audiences watching Sky Sports.
The campaign, which breaks on 4 September, features three different commercials to be broadcast over two months during Sky’s range of live sports programming. Two of the executions depict a listener escaping his nagging wife to tune in to talkSPORT, while the third features the station’s three most famous football presenters: Alan Brazil, Tony Cascarino and Alvin Martin.
Commenting on the marketing push, which is the most high-profile to be launched by talkSPORT in some time, Michael Franklin, managing director of the station, said: “Wives are always nattering on and stopping men from listening to talkSPORT and these ads reflect that.”
This week also saw talkSPORT make its debut on the Freeview digital terrestrial television service. The station is now available via more than 13 million set-top-boxes in digital quality, as well as via DAB digital radio, Sky, Telewest, NTL and through traditional analogue radio. talkSPORT’s website also carries the service, streaming its signal live to listeners around the world.
Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman and chief executive of The Wireless Group, owner of the station, said: “More and more people are using different platforms to listen to talkSPORT and this is becoming an important and exciting growth area for our business.”
Earlier this year MacKenzie announced a positive performance for The Wireless Group, with second quarter revenues rising by 36% year on year. The chairman also revealed that success during the Euro 2004 football championships had helped talkSPORT to see revenues for the quarter rise by 40%, with a massive 87% increase in June alone (see Euro 2004 Helps Profits Surge By 40% At Wireless Group).
The latest RAJAR audience figures for the three months to June reveal a slightly lacklustre performance for talkSPORT, which saw its weekly reach dip by 0.2% year on year to just over 2.1 million. However, the station saw its share of listening increase by 0.2% points during the same period to 1.8%.
talkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.co.uk
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