Absolute Radio develop Branded Content for Bowie

Absolute Radio has developed a three part documentary series as part of a branded content exercise to celebrate the launch the of the new Bowie exhibition at the V&A Museum.

‘Bowie’ is documentary series funded by the Victoria and Albert Museum, telling the definitive story from his early life in post war Brixton right through to his new album The Next Day. Produced by TBI Media, the story is presented by Tim Minchin and is told through exclusive interviews with those who know David best, the friends and musicians who have been part of Bowie’s life over six decades; using the memorabilia, lyrics, photos and clothes which are on display at the ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition at the V&A.

The three hour-long programmes will be broadcast on Absolute Radio on Sunday 7th, 14th and 21st April at 7pm and will be accompanied by a series of short online films featuring additional material and interviews.

It lives online here: http://absoluteradio.co.uk/bowie, including a chance to listen again, a list of contributors and a set of videos that Absolute Radio have produced for the V&A with their curators talking us through some of the exhibits.

Episode 1 tx’d on Sunday and is repeated this Saturday. Full tx times are:

Part 1: Brixton to Ziggy (1947-1973) Sunday 7th April 7pm-8pm
Repeated: Saturday 13^th April 10pm-11pm

Part 2: Thin White Duke to Scary Monsters (1973-1980) Sunday 14th April 7pm-8pm
Repeated: Saturday 20th April 10pm-11pm

Part 3: Let’s Dance to The Next day (1980-2013) Sunday 21st April 7pm-8pm
Repeated: Saturday 27th April 10pm-11pm

After all parts have tx’d – the team will use content from the series to create a spotlight campaign running across the station.

What can we learn from this?

Gone are the days of standard sponsorship and promotions. Radio S&P isn’t about a badging exercise any more. Its about looking at ways that stations can effectively integrate brands through programming content in ways that excite, engage and inspire listeners.

David Bowie is a key artist for Absolute listeners – more so for Absolute Classic Rock and Absolute 70s however (Source: http://comparemyradio.com/artists/David_Bowie) – so its important to create a content series which is relevant to the audience but also more importantly for the client, promotes the exhibition and drives ticket sales.  This is a great example of how the campaign links back to the aims of the client (selling tickets, driving footfall to the exhibition) with the use of additional video content, utilising content from the exhibition as content pieces in the doc series and V&A branding within the online hub.