Madonna and the street teams of Birmingham

Hands up if you saw Madonna in Birmingham last night?

Mrs M and I were there and it was clear from the moment we arrived in Birmingham that the city had caught Madonna fever.

The bars and pubs were playing Madonna songs, our hotel receptionist wanted to know what tickets we had and Madonna’s hits were all over the local music radio stations.

BBC Radio WM even managed to capitalise on the event by finding a woman who lost a relative in a shooting incident and believed Madonna glorified guns. Her show should be stopped, said the woman.

Free Radio took branding high inside the National Indoor Arena, its launch advertising is still visible around the city and the station organised a fun “strike a pose” photo opportunity with a cardboard cut-out of Madonna.

Heart won the night for their promotional street activity, however.

Their bold “We Heart Madonna” banners got the Heart brand into the hands of hundreds and visibly into the hall. Heart also took-over the Malt House pub opposite the NIA to hold a packed pre-show warm-up party and record after-show reaction later.

The pub was also a great base from which to project a large Heart 100.7 logo across the canal at the end of the night. Nobody walking back from the event to the city’s glitzy Broad Street could have missed that.