Are you the Fugi?

According to Primedia Broadcasting, The Fugitive was an immediate hit in 2004 and ran for two years before taking a break in 2006. During this time, market research reflected a demand for the Fugitive's return and so in 2007 it was brought back to life with a broadband sponsorship injection from Vodacom.

“Vodacom was aware of the Fugitive's past successes and we did not hesitate to use this unconventional opportunity, which coincided with Vodacom's broadband campaign,” says Andre Beyers, Vodacom South Africa's managing executive of brand and advertising. “We believe that the objectives of this campaign were achieved in conjunction with 94.7 Highveld Stereo.

“The payoff line – not even the Fugitive can escape Vodacom's mobile broadband range – brought home the fact that Vodacom's mobile broadband service offers the widest coverage and offers the fastest mobile Internet access. Vodacom's sponsorship in prize money and prizes, including three Vodacom Broadband enabled laptops, were a good investment.”

Active audience involvement

This year's promotion generated active audience involvement, with people actually gathering at various meeting points such as Nelson Mandela Square, Vodaworld and Wanderers Cricket Stadium, in an attempt to find the Fugitive and win the bounty on his head.

At the pinnacle of the promotion, thousands of people – motivated by the on-air Rude Awakening presenters – gathered at the Nelson Mandela Square, waving banners they had made that begged the Fugitive to give clues as to his whereabouts. R70 000 was awarded to the audience member whose banner appealed most to the Fugitive.

On the second last day of the promotion, 94.7 Highveld Stereo hosted a ‘Fugitive Fashion Parade' at Vodaworld in Midrand. Hundreds of contestants flocked to Vodaworld dressed in costumes they believed best represented Joburg, including a Ponte Tower look-alike, several versions of the ‘City of Gold', as well as a White Shaka Zulu in all his finery!

One of the highlights of the day was when the Fugitive circled over Vodaworld in the Vodacom helicopter, before heading back to his hideout to select the winner from photos showcased on the 94.7 Highveld website. The Fugitive awarded R100 000 to the winners – two ladies in a taxi cut-out representing the City of Johannesburg.

“Buy into the creative”

“The biggest challenge when launching a promotion is always whether the audience will buy into the creative and chase it,” says Simon Parkinson, promotions manager for Primedia Broadcasting.

“With this promotion, the audience was captivated from the very first week and so we knew we were on the right track. The Fugitive is probably the most creative of all of Highveld's promotions as it's all about personality traits and human nature, and lets face it, we are all creative and complicated beings.”

To add a new dimension to the promotion, 94.7 Highveld Stereo increased the audience involvement. “We arranged for three mass appeal events during the promotion. This gave more people the opportunity to display their feelings to the Fugitive and created huge interest and enthusiasm. So instead of just interacting with our audience by phone line or SMS, we were able to actually see them on the ground, which was great,” says Parkinson.

“We also gave the audience the chance to go online and draw a real identikit of the Fugitive, offering one of Vodacom's three broadband enabled laptops as a prize. Club VIP listeners (94.7 Highveld Stereo's loyal listener programme) who earned a certain amount of points during the promotion were automatically entered into a draw to win one of the Fugitive's laptops.”

Parkinson said the station also incorporated the Ground Patrol team powered by Nissan Murano into the promotion. The audience could SMS or email Ground Patrol as to where they thought the Fugitive was and the team fetched them and drove them to the location the listener thought the Fugi was at. Vodacom sponsored three weeks of Ground Patrols, and Motorola sponsored over 300 Motorola cellphones.

Ordinary man

The Fugitive is an ordinary man employed by 94.7 Highveld Stereo. He is a freelancer and not known to anyone at the station aside from the promotion manager, station manager and the producer. He does sign a contract with Highveld Stereo to ensure that he will not give away his identity during non-playing hours.

Deciding on who best played the role of The Fugitive was no easy feat. The Fugitive needed to be an ‘everyday Joburger' who fitted into the culture of the city.

“The Fugitive had to not only blend in with the crowd, but he had to be someone who could also interact with people, including the presenters. We didn't want someone who felt intimidated by the presenters,” says Parkinson.

“When the Fugitive comes on air he has to control the conversation. We give him full mandate when it comes to phoning in and giving clues. There is no behind-the-scenes rehearsing with presenters because the conversation needs to flow naturally.”

Over the five-week period the Fugitive formed unique relationships with the on-air presenters, from a love-hate relationship, which he had with Jeremy Mansfield, to a friendly relationship, which he had with Mark Pilgrim.

This promotion was so successful that not only will 94.7 Highveld Stereo run with it again next year, but it will also be run on 94.5 Kfm in Cape Town.