Virgin Signs Largest Ever Breakfast Sponsorship

Mobile phone giant Orange has signed as the sponsor of Virgin Radio’s new Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show, marking the firm’s biggest-ever radio sponsorship deal, and the largest on-air and online brand marketing deal in the Virgin Breakfast’s history.

The scale of the deal, Virgin claims, is testament to the appeal of Sony Award winning O’Connell, who starts his new national show on 23 January.

Commenting on the sponsorship, Pippa Dunn, director of brand marketing for Orange said: “Christian O’Connell is one of the most exciting talents in radio today and we plan to have fun bringing to life our products and services with his help. In a world where we have more things to say than we can possibly communicate using traditional advertising, the Christian O’Connell breakfast show gives us the perfect way to try out new ways of talking to, and getting feedback from, our customers.”

The deal will see Orange feature in regular elements of the show, as well as through branded trails, in-show credits and live reads. Bespoke online activity is also a key element in the sponsorship, Virgin explained, with Orange allowed to extend the partnership to the growing audience that listen to radio online, providing a link between the breakfast show and the Orange website.

The two firms also plan to extend their partnership across other channels to Orange customers, with a dedicated Christian O’Connell site on Orange’s WAP portal the first of several new initiatives.

Virgin signed O’Connell from rival Xfm last year, appointing the breakfast host to replace Pete and Geoff who announced their departure from the morning show in May. The move will allow O’Connell to reach a much wider audience through Virgin’s FM and AM signals, as well as via its digital broadcasts, but will come as a blow to Xfm, which has held O’Connell as something of a poster-boy for the past six years (see Virgin Signs O’Connell As New Breakfast Host).

Virgin Radio: 020 7434 1215 www.virginradio.co.uk