The COI wanted to demonstrate the benefits of singing in primary schools - that children can learn skills and retain information in other subject areas by singing. To do this they wanted to target parents with primary school children. Radio was the perfect medium to offer this personal connection. We recognised that the COI wanted to connect locally but this needed to be achieved on a large scale. In order to make this happen, we partnered with GCap and First Radio to produce a campaign that ran across 64 stations across the UK.

To demonstrate the benefits of singing in primary schools by targeting parents with primary school children.

We created the 'Big School Sing Up' where we asked primary schools all over England to enter their singing for the chance to feature on their local radio station. Each station held receptions for head teachers in their studios to talk them through the campaign and generate interest. 781 primary schools entered their songs, all chosen from the diverse Sing Up Song Bank, and all songs were available online for parents and schools to listen to. 640 schools got to be radio stars and all those that entered were sent a certificate and Sing Up goody pack for their efforts.

- Winner of 'Innovation Award' for the creative use of radio at the 2008 Radio Advertising Awards and Nominated at the Cannes Lions Advertising Awards for 'Best of UK Radio' - Such was the power of the local forums held at the stations that every school that attended to find out more about the scheme signed up for the initiative.

'This was a great campaign for raising awareness of the Sing Up initiative and the results have been much better than expected. The award is a fantastic achievement and a radio advertising first to get children's voices heard on national radio on such a large scale and we hope that everyone who heard our singing stars were encouraged to give singing the attention it deserves.' Clare Whitmore, Brand Manager, Youth Music.