Following the ‘huge’ popularity of our last trawl through Virgin Radio TV ads of the past, it seemed fairly obvious to treat you to the comprehensive guide. Think of this as a DVD with incredible extras and commentaries rather than White Fang 2, Godfather 3 or some massively successful spin-off like Joey or Joanie Loves Chachi.
Of course it could be said that our success is simply due to the fact that no-one tires of seeing Russ Williams in a banana suit, I know I don’t.
Pete & Geoff mentioned at the same time as Mick Ronson & David Bowie appear – thankfully we didn’t see the ‘climax’ of their usual stage routine, that’s the spiders from mars not P&G of course. Also, isn’t it amazing to see that Nickelback have been around since 2003, they clearly have a timeless appeal.
If all else fails, a celebrity endorsement is always useful – and it prompts the question ‘does a radio exerpt work well on TV?’, discuss…
Does anyone really have one of those radios in their bathroom? I thought not.
Aside from the general promotion of our musical proposition (ad-speak), we have also ventured into the tricky area of promoting our promotions. You may have come across the popular Belgian turntable-masters 2manyDJs, this is our TV equivalent 2manylogos:
Obviously we always respond well to feedback, and a Mr G. Lloyd of Salford particularly wanted to see Pete & Geoff as animated eggs. I know he speaks for all of us…
I was less surprised by the eggsecution (this is not an eggscuse for egg-related puns btw) than the fact that we once believed that “next up Keane” was a good sales pitch for our station.
Much like the nuts and bananas, once we have a creative idea it seems that we don’t just stretch it as beat it to death (beat, eggs, geddit?)………this is the eggs & chips version:
Eventually we became a lot more sophisticated. It is all about the music after all.
In a similar vein, but entirely for ourselves let’s see The OC™ show-off his method skills as he out-acts an actual actor. Try saying that with a gobfull of marbles (not sure why you’d have a mouthful of marbles in the first place but what you get up to in your spare time is no concern of mine).
Or in the tricky area of big stars promoting what was literally a big star.
Unfortunately some of the other presenters don’t seem to share The OC™’s thespianic talents… is thespianic a word?
Impersonating yourself doing a link is not as natural as actually doing a link it seems, but why would it be? Maybe this is why some superb radio presenters are terrible on Television. None of ours though, obviously!
Sadly we still seem to be missing the ad that we most wanted to find – “Tune in, or next time he’s naked” – we’re sort of hoping that like the lost Dr Who or Dad’s Army episodes, someone will have it on an old video somewhere and get it to us in time for the re-brand. It’s an idea that has legs – hairy ones I suspect.
Finding original marketing ideas is always a challenge, particularly for those of us who’ve lived with the station and attended as many brain-storming-scenarios as we have. It’s always best to adopt a scorched-earth policy and remember what the great Bill Hicks once said…
Nothing is sacred, if you need any proof of this then consider that the seemingly humourless Russell Crowe is lined-up to play Hicks in a bio-pic.
Seriously though…
Satan’s little helper.
