LONDON: Radiocentre, the industry body for UK commercial radio, has launched a new "personalised" campaign as it seeks to persuade a range of marketers – starting with Keith Weed, CMO at Unilever – to invest more in the medium.
An unlikely combination of Weed and hip-hop – a song in which an artist raps "You can be the leader, Keith Weed from Unilever" if he uses radio which is "OMG to the FMCG" – was first aired on a number of national commercial radio stations yesterday morning.
"It's counter-intuitive to use a broadcast media for commercials that talk directly to one person," said Andy Nairn, co-founder of Lucky Generals, the agency that devised the campaign.
But, he told an audience at Radiocentre's annual conference, the best way to get a busy person's attention is to pay them a compliment – and that will find its way back to them no matter how busy they are.
Keith Weed is just the first senior marketer to be singled out this way – additional executions, aimed at different marketers and using a range of musical genres, will be released in the coming weeks.
"We are going to make this campaign extremely complimentary," Nairn declared. "It's flattering to be chosen. We have chosen these people because of how important they are and because of the budgets they wield and because of their influence."
Weed was selected to launch the campaign because, on his Twitter account, he says he is a lover of all things visual – so "the perfect person to ask to 'See Radio Differently'," said Nairn.
Earlier, Radiocentre CEO Siobhan Kenny reported that radio revenues were almost back to pre-recession levels and pointed out that 90% of the population tuned in every week. "And yet there is an element of advertisers being reluctant to use radio to the extent we believe they probably could."
An unlikely combination of Weed and hip-hop – a song in which an artist raps "You can be the leader, Keith Weed from Unilever" if he uses radio which is "OMG to the FMCG" – was first aired on a number of national commercial radio stations yesterday morning.
"It's counter-intuitive to use a broadcast media for commercials that talk directly to one person," said Andy Nairn, co-founder of Lucky Generals, the agency that devised the campaign.
But, he told an audience at Radiocentre's annual conference, the best way to get a busy person's attention is to pay them a compliment – and that will find its way back to them no matter how busy they are.
Keith Weed is just the first senior marketer to be singled out this way – additional executions, aimed at different marketers and using a range of musical genres, will be released in the coming weeks.
"We are going to make this campaign extremely complimentary," Nairn declared. "It's flattering to be chosen. We have chosen these people because of how important they are and because of the budgets they wield and because of their influence."
Weed was selected to launch the campaign because, on his Twitter account, he says he is a lover of all things visual – so "the perfect person to ask to 'See Radio Differently'," said Nairn.
Earlier, Radiocentre CEO Siobhan Kenny reported that radio revenues were almost back to pre-recession levels and pointed out that 90% of the population tuned in every week. "And yet there is an element of advertisers being reluctant to use radio to the extent we believe they probably could."
Data sourced from Radiocentre; additional content by Warc staff
