This experiential radio sponsorship aimed to generate buzz about Sony’s Walkman MP3 products in the lead up to Christmas saw the radio brand temporarily remove all of its regular presenters and hand the station over to its listeners.
The background to the initiative saw Sony face up to a problem with the Walkman brand – that it needed to reconnect with 16 to 24-year-olds and reclaim credibility. The objective was to do this in parallel with promoting Walkman MP3 Player in the run up to Christmas.
The campaign, which operating under the umbrella strapline “Music like no other’, saw Kiss remove every presenter from the station and hand the station over to its listeners. Thus, in the name of the sponsor, listeners themselves became the voice of the station and chose the music over two weekends.
The aim of this was for the brand to offer listeners control over the music. The weekend takeovers were pre promoted and the street teams roamed London asking for track nominations. The chosen listeners who became DJs received a Sony Walkman as a reward for their fame. Over the takeover weekend, credits positioned Sony Walkman as the sponsors and embedded the ‘music like no other’ strapline.
To support the on air activity a series of events were run by Kiss DJ Steve Smart to further cement the open access of the Kiss brand to the local community. And the campaign resulted in more than 100 listeners featuring on air over the course of the initiative.
Comment:
Clearly radio is an excellent medium for a music-related brand to promote a music-based product as it connects effectively with a young music obsessed audience like no other platform. Kiss itself has a strong music heritage and market leading status in London for the target age group.
This campaign shows both brands involved handing over an element of control to their consumers – power to the people.
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