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Virgin Media takes on BB8

Posted in General, Media March 21st, 2007 by gabay

In a masterstroke to boost its sense of rebellion against more traditional communications brands such as BT and Sky, Virgin Media has taken over the sponsorship of Big Brother 8 (BB8) through the multi-channel sponsorship.

The company will primarily be promoting the Virgin Mobile brand.
Carphone Warehouse suspended its sponsorship of BB following the race row over Celebrity Big Brother, which prompted tens of thousands of complaints to Ofcom at the time.  

Despite the uproar surrounding the recent highly controversial Celebrity Big Brother series, Virgin is confident enough to take on the programme - along with all the uncertainties regarding content that it brings. On reflection I am not surprised that Virgin Media has taken on Big Brother. The programme has become so notorious that it would be difficult for any brand seeking publicity to ignore. Jade’s Celebrity Big Brother eviction night offered an almost irresistible allure of reaching around nine million modern voyeurs aged 16 -34 who relished the opportunity to watch celebrity gladiators thrash it out like big bullies on the small screen. That figure represented the highest viewing numbers in Celebrity Big Brother’s history; easily outnumbering the 7.7 million who watched last year’s non-celebrity final in August (Channel 4’s largest audience of 2006).  It’s the similar kind of mainstream brand media opportunity offered by the lucrative celebrity gossip press.
 
Like some BB contestants, Virgin has always been known as a, ‘Rebel Brand’, which is why it makes such good sense to sponsor BB8.
 
The Virgin name typified the rebellious Punk culture of the 1970s. At the time Branson was starting a relatively ‘virgin field’ type of approach to business. Sir Richard’s first business venture was in 1968 when he published the Student Magazine. Virgin Mail Order started to operate from 1970 and the first Virgin record shop opened in 1971. Music Publishing started in 1973. (It is thought that Virgin Records may have alternatively been planned to be called, ‘Slipped Disc’)

The biggest brand problem facing Virgin is to maintain the original sense of ‘edginess’ that made its icon so distinctive from the top-heavy commercial giants that trundled around back in the 1970s. The BB sponsorship helps maintain the brand’s spirit or individuality - especially now that Virgin Media is going head to head with Sky and BT - the more traditional faces of communications.

www.brandforensics.co.uk