94.7 adds "roar" to Lions Rugby

Comments Dex de Bruin, 94.7's Marketing Manager: "We started investigating ways to leverage 94.7's association with Lions Rugby, over and above the "on-air" content that currently takes place. From a 94.7 perspective, we didn't just want to do the basic "marketing" job for the Lions Rugby brand. This is successfully being conducted by the Rugby Union itself through various marketing initiatives that they're currently undertaking."

The brief to the ad agency, Gas, was to look at a way to link 94.7's listeners with "Lions Rugby", through the radio station. "The outcome was a great creative campaign. The line 'There's a little bit of LION in all of us', was decided upon. The idea is to depict average '94.7 listeners' and people living in Jo'burg in situations where they too can show that they have a 'little bit of Lion' in them," explains De Bruin.

Four creative executions were chosen, representing different aspects of people's lives (a woman licking her baby, a guy shaving his "whiskers", a guy picking a meal from a fridge stacked only with meat, and a family enjoying dinner on the floor like a pack of lions at a kill). At this stage, the ads are for print execution only, but there are numerous "above-the-line" executions where the creative can be applied in the future.

"Sport plays a huge role in the lives of so many South African's (and in particular, Jo'burgers), and what we at 94.7 have decided to do is capitalize on this phenomenon, through the association with our provinces top sporting teams ('Lions Rugby' and 'Highveld Lions' professional cricket teams). These associations provide great branding exposure for the radio station, as well as good content for the station's top morning show, the Rude Awakening (as well as various other presenters throughout normal programming).

"In order to generate huge loyalty with our audience - and continuous following from our listeners - we've linked the radio station with icons that they associate themselves with. In our case, sport plays a huge role in the lives of so many Gautengers... and we're there in the trenches with them supporting our teams... through success and failure. It's great to share in the up's and down's of success and failure with our listeners, and through these types of journeys, we earn the respect of many of our listeners as loyal supporters of 'Jo'burg's Pride'," explained De Bruin.

The "Jo'burg's Pride" campaign that 94.7 Highveld Stereo has embarked on over the past few months has been extended to a "Show Your Pride" campaign, and is being executed through the station's association with the "Lions Rugby" team. Listeners living in Jo'burg are being encouraged to pop into their nearest BP Express Shop (over 110 stores throughout Gauteng) over the next few weeks to pick up a Lions bumper sticker, and place it onto their vehicles. Over R100 000 in cash is up for grabs, courtesy of 94.7 and Xerox (Lions Rugby team sponsor).