Capital Secures Major Sponsorship Deal With British Airways
Capital Radio Group has secured an extensive one-year deal with British Airways that will see the airline become the exclusive broadcast sponsor of a range of drivetime shows across the network.
The deal marks Capital’s third major cross-brand sponsorship and covers drivetime shows on 95.8 Capital FM, Southern FM, Ocean FM and Capital Gold Network, as well as weather bulletins on BRMB and 105.4 Century FM.
British Airways will also run tactical promotions throughout the duration of the sponsorship to support key sales periods. It will also rotate product messages to support the range of different business areas and destinations it offers customers.
The deal, which runs until June 2005, builds on British Airways’ previous sponsorship of weather bulletins on 95.8 Capital FM, which ran from June last year promoting a range of the airline’s products and services with the creation of commercial radio’s first ‘advertrail’ (see Capital Takes Off With British Airways ‘Advertrail’ Campaign).
Commenting on the deal, Linda Grant, Capital Radio’s commercial managing director, said: “We’ve worked closely with British Airways over the last year to get under the skin of their strategic objectives and understand the role that our portfolio of brands can play for them in delivering those. The expansion of activity into a new programming segment, new geographic areas and new brands will be key elements in developing our already strong partnership to the next phase.”
Jayne O’Brien, head of UK& Ireland marketing at British Airways, added: “The sponsorship deal has also helped support a number of different commercial objectives. The Capital Radio group is one of British Airways’ key strategic media partners and we are very excited to continue our relationship for a further year.”The latest RAJAR results for the three months to March 2003 showed that Capital Radio saw its weekly reach decline by 3% in year on year analysis to just above the 2.3 million mark as lynchpin DJ Chris Tarrant played out his last few weeks at the station.
However, Capital 95.8 FM is expected to show a significant increase in its audience in the latest RAJAR figures due out on Thursday. The station has invested in a heavyweight television advertising campaign to promote the arrival of its new breakfast presenter Johnny Vaughan in April and will be looking to reap the rewards (see Capital Pushes Vaughan With TV Ad Campaign).
Capital Radio: 020 7766 6000 www.capitalradiogroup.com
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