Emap Signs Virgin For Kiss Breakfast Show Sponsorship
Emap Advertising has signed Virgin Mobile as the exclusive £1 million sponsor of Kiss 100’s Bam Bam Breakfast Show, running for a full year and featuring unprecedented coverage for the mobile phone giant.
The deal will see Virgin integrated closely with the breakfast show’s content, providing on-air promotions, tactically linked news and gossip tags, weekly listener give-aways and joint marketing activity, as well as the usual sponsorship credits and on-air promotions.
The partnership aims to build on the cheeky, irreverent humour of Virgin Mobile’s recent advertising campaigns, with sponsorship credits aping celebrity tactics and showing the two brands denying a relationship with each other. Emap claims the creative will be very tongue-in-cheek, in line with the persona of Kiss, the breakfast show and Virgin Mobile.
Commenting on the partnership Kiss 100’s programme director, Simon Long, said: “Only Kiss 100 could work effectively with a forward-thinking brand like Virgin Mobile to create this kind of unique partnership. Spontaneous creativity is the key, kicking off with an ‘anti-sponsorship’ impactful message and then ensuring that the Kiss 100 Bam Bam Breakfast provides Virgin Mobile with the opportunity to be entertaining, quirky and above all current.”
Alison Pye, brand manager at Virgin Mobile added: “Part of Virgin Mobile’s success has been its single-minded approach to product and communications. In response to consumer demand, new products will soon be launching, and strategically we want to avoid fragmented communications. This partnership gives Virgin Mobile a consistent brand voice in the form of Bam Bam while we introduce new products via the show and other communications.”
The sponsorship deal was brokered by Jules Hawkins, radio account manager at MGOMD. She said: “We look forward to this mutual friendship between Virgin Mobile and Kiss. It promises to be highly entertaining and rewarding for listeners, with refreshing audio that brings new sounds to the world of radio sponsorship”
Emap Advertising recently launched a massive promotional campaign to promote the Kiss brand, spending around £1.5 million on a mixture of conventional advertising, as well as experiential events and guerrilla activity around London.
The activity aimed to build on the station’s youthful, active listenership, offering visitors to many of the city’s parks free footballs, frisbees, towels or t-shirts, as well as entertaining them with swing ball games and giving out free ice creams, all to a backdrop of Kiss music (see Emap Unveils Massive Advertising Push For Kiss).
The latest promotional activity will extend Virgin Mobile’s portrayal as a cheeky and risqué alternative to rival mobile phone brands. However, the company’s advertising tactics were recently thrown into the spotlight when a television ad featuring one man helping another to use a urinal in a public toilet attracted complaints from more than 400 viewers. The spot was later cleared by Ofcom of being offensive (see Virgin Mobile Escapes Censure Over Toilet Humour).
The latest RAJAR results for the three months to June 2004 show that Kiss has seen its weekly reach dip by 3% year on year to 1,554,000. However, the London-based dance station became the top station for 15 to 34 year-olds in the capital following a strong quarter on quarter performance (see RAJAR Results Q2 2004: Vaughan Fails To Boost Capital).
Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk
Recent Radio Stories from NewsLine Radio Festival Puts Spotlight On Advertising To Over Fifties Capital Spins Sponsorship Deal With Woolworths Television Will Lead Switch To Digital Radio
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive