New marketing campaign for the launch of the 95-106 Capital FM Network

A rather exciting day for commercial radio in the UK – as Global Radio’s 95 – 106 Capital Network now becomes a quasi-national pop music brand across the UK. The station launched at 10am on Monday 3rd January and will include a heavy marketing campaign to amplify their ‘hit music’ strapline and to educate previous listeners of Galaxy, Red Dragon, Trent FM, Leicester Sound and Ram FM about their new local radio station. This blog post looks at some of the marketing activity involved at launch.

The Capital FM brand has been rolled out to eight further regions of the UK today, spelling the end of the Galaxy network (Birmingham, Manchester, Yorkshire, South Coast, Scotland) and the Hit Music Network – Red Dragon FM, Leicester Sound, Ram FM and Trent FM.

Capital FM, previously only available in London, will be broadcast across the country and is expected to reach more than 6.5 million people.

Ashley Tabor, Executive President of Global Radio, said it was “a monumental day” for commercial radio.

He said: “The UK has never had a national commercial hits station before, this is game changing – another national brand, delivered locally, from Global Radio.”

Programming

Radiotoday.co.uk explains the programming changes as:

Capital FM London will remain a London-centric station, whilst the new quasi-national network will mostly recieve a second feed with pre-recorded links from Leicester Square. Local breakfast and drive shows will remain on weekdays in Scotland, North East, Yorkshire, Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, South Wales, South Coast and London.

“Significant Marketing”

Global is to launch a multimedia marketing campaign with a “significant above the line investment”, Stephen Miron [Global Radio Cheif Exec] says. He adds that for some of the stations involved, this represents the first marketing investment for a long time.

Social Media

Capital FM Facebook

Global Radio have understood the importance of social media within the marketing mix. More importantly, the importance of having to have a single brand touchpoint within the social media space for the ‘network’ brand. They worked with Facebook to succesfuly merge the users from all the various Galaxy and Hit Music radio station Facebook pages into a single Capital FM Facebook page which boosed 311,000 Facebook users at launch.

The Promotion

Capital FM Usher Launch Promotion

There’s nothing like a good hours builder promotion campaign to help build up profile of the station at the best of time, especially at launch. The New Year is always a typical time for a ‘win-money’ promotion as shown by Absolute Radio and their Thousand Pound Mix Tape. Well, again to amplify the HIT MUSIC strapline – the Capital FM network will launch with a music based win promotion involving key artist Usher. Listeners will win the chance to meet the artist, attend his gig but also win £1000 in cash – and it’s no doubt, this will be a promotional campaign designed to raise hours/bring in new listeners. However, listeners need to wait until the 10th January for details on how to enter.

The Street Team

Jo Jo from Capital FM Yorkshire with new station mugs!

As well TV, outdoor and digital advertising – the Capital FM network will use “Street Team” activity to help get the Capital FM team out there. Local teams in each area will work under the “100 day plan” to get out and about in the TSA to help drive audience awareness and brand recall for the new Capital FM radio station. A similar marketing tactic used at the launches of Heart FM back in 2009 – where a branded street team attend events, concerts and high footfall areas/attractions in the TSA, to hand out Capital marketing materials and take pictures of new listeners for the station website. Some will also be running targeted S&P launch activity with the street team like Capital FM East Midlands and Starbucks in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby.

The TV Advert

Capital FM launches with a brand new TV ad which really hammers home the ‘hit music’ message. With real stand out, these slick adverts have localised inserts and tails – including Rhianna talking up ‘your’ city. The ad features key artists from the playlist, including many world stars such as Rhianna, Blake Eyed Peas, Nicole Sherzinger, Usher as well as JLS, The Script, Tinie Tempah and The Saturdays.

Have you seen it yet?

This is just a snapshot of the initial marketing plans for the station. There is likely to be more marketing activity in the coming weeks for the national Capital FM network from the teams at Leicester Square –  which will be covered on radioandmarketing.com.

Disclaimer – All posts and views are my own, and are not endorsed or representative of any current or previous employer.

Image Source: Global Radio