A number of the biggest telecoms brands use live music to engage the key demographic of 16-34 year olds. The challenge for Vodaphone was to cut through this increasingly commoditised marketplace & create stand out from their main competitors. The heartland of Commercial Radio lies with the 16-34 year old listeners so radio was the perfect route through to consumers for Vodafone in terms of size & efficiency of audience delivery. Radio is also the main source for discovering new music, so provided the ideal environment for promoting Vodafone's new music credentials.

To enage with the key demographic of 16-34 year olds and to create stand out from their main competitors.

Vodafone worked with GCap Media & Bauer to create a brand new property that showcased Vodafone's unique commitment to live music content for music aficionados, aired across 58 stations. The Vodafone Live Hour braodcast weekly & consisted of live tracks, exclusive recordings, interviews, content from gigs & ticket giveaways. The network show was presented by MTV's Jo Good & supported with three bespoke regional shows with their own presenters. Vodafone also created 6 live gigs called TBA's featuring the hottest acts of the moment, & later established the Live Music Awards.

In terms of audience, RAJAR demonstrated the huge success of the project for both Vodafone and the radio industry as a whole, with the programme reaching 650,000 listerners on a weekly basis. Research has demonstrated that 36% of listeners spontaneously recalled the show and 50& felt more positive toward Vodafone as a result. More importantly, since Live Hour began Vodafone has gone from forth to first in 'music association' out of four main telecoms networks.

This revolutionary project shows how Commercial Radio can work together to crete original content and appointment to listen programming. The Vodafone Live Hour proved that using cross-group radio branded content on an ongoing basis is a highly effective means of maintaining the momentum behind a core brand idea. "The success of the show is testament to the approach of collaboratively developing a new solution rather than just working with existing properties." (Daragh Persse, Head of Sponsorship & Engagement Marketing, Vodafone).