Our relationship with Virgin Radio began with the creation of the original brand identity in 1993. We continued our relationship through all levels of creative service; positioning campaigns, advertising and communications tools for consumer and trade marketing, interior dresign of the station’s offices, merchandise and packaging.
We worked on many sub-branding promotions, including the battle for listeners at breakfast time, which is a big deal for every radio station. When Virgin completed a great strategic move when they recruited Sony Radio Academy award winning DJ Christian O’Connell. Thinkfarm’s job was to make sure as many people knew about it as possible.
The station still communicates internationally with its listening audience and trade partners across a vast range of media platforms. print, web, live events, TV, outdoor ads and, of course, radio. We created an extensive ‘brand book’ describing its brand positioning with detailed guidelines on how the brand identity should be implemented. This ensures the station presents a consistent image and set of messages to its markets, regardless of who is producing the communications pieces.
The final campaign developed for Virgin was a new positioning strategy – ‘THE MUSIC WE ALL LOVE’ – based on the emotional connections that people make through music. Driven by an above-the-line consumer campaign in TV and print, the positioning also underpinned a trade sales strategy – offering brands the opportunity to connect with Virgin’s national audience.
When Virgin decided to redecorate their HQ on Soho’s Golden Square, we saw it as a great opportunity to create the house of ‘THE MUSIC WE ALL LOVE. With our interior design partners Precious McBane, we produced the refurbishment bringing British eccentricity and rock ‘n’ roll iconography together with functional and luxurious decor to reinforce Virgin Radio’s brand values and make it a great place to work, perform and meet.
Alongside larger brand messaging campaigns, we created many tactical promotions for Virgin, one of the most memorable of which was the ‘PAY YOUR BILLS’ campaign, where the station offered to rid listener’s of their Christmas costs if they entered an hourly on air competition.
