Classic FM Secures Massive Multi-Media Campaign
GCap Media’s Classic FM has secured an important joint venture in a 20-week £1 million deal with Ford Galaxy.
The campaign sees the launch of a brand new 20-week programme in partnership with Ford, Ford Galaxy of Stories, to run every Sunday afternoon from 4-5pm from 17 June 2007.
For the series, Classic FM is re-writing classic children’s’ stories to be narrated by celebrities and backed by some of the finest Classic FM music.
Produced to entertain both adults and children, each story is being re-written to incorporate the style of the celebrity narrator. Celebrities already confirmed to narrate include Harry Enfield and Richard E Grant, who along with Sir Paul McCartney became a presenter at the station last year (see McCartney Mixes It Up At Classic FM).
“The series relates the relaxed feelings from family journeys in the Ford Galaxy, to the enjoyment families will get from the magical stories,” according to Mark Jones, advertising and sponsorship manager for Ford of Britain.
As one of the biggest multi-media campaigns ever run across Classic FM, the programme will be supported online using rich media characters from the story, a Ford Galaxy microsite providing information about the car and the chance to download the podcasts.
The tales will be available as podcasts every week via Classicfm.com, timesonline.co.uk, iTunes and the Ford Galaxy website.
The campaign will be kick-started by a promotion on Classicfm.com giving families the chance to win a trip to London and play a part in a story. Last year the website achieved record figures following its re-launch. In October 2006, more than a quarter of a million unique users visited the site making a total of 2,495,362 page impressions, easily beating the figures the site achieved before its re-launch (see Classic FM Website Achieves Record Figures).
The idea was conceived in partnership between Jones, Simon Daglish (GCap’s national sales director), and Philip Shade (group head of GCap Solutions).
Daglish commented: “This is one of the most exciting projects we have worked on with Classic FM and Ford. The idea is truly innovative and combines both Classic FM’s stated aims of targeting families with children and Ford Galaxy’s objectives to deliver a dynamic way to target this illusive group in an engaging and involving manner.
“This is a good example of an idea coming together by close collaboration between disparate media owners, client and agency.”
At the latest RAJARs, Classic FM recorded a rise in its weekly reach to more than six million, up 5.6% year on year and almost 5% quarter on quarter. Its share of listening was static whilst its hours per listener declined more than 5% to 7.3 hours (see Radio 2 Boosts Weekly Reach To Over 13 Million).
Last year the station announced the biggest change to its schedule in its 14-year history (see Classic FM Announces Biggest Change To Schedule Yet).