Aviva signs radio deal to promote health insurance

By Maisie McCabe, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Monday, 20 February 2012 09:18AM

Aviva, the insurance brand, is to use its sponsorship of Smooth Radio's Weekend Breakfast Show with Pat Sharp as part of its push to increase awareness of its private health insurance services.

Pat Sharp: host of Smooth Radio's Weekend Breakfast Show

The sponsorship will include activity around Sharp's breakfast show, which airs on the GMG Radio national station between 6am and 10am on Saturday and Sunday mornings, as well as a bespoke integrated microsite from 3 March.

The activity will also include sponsorship of the daily Smooth Radio Good Health Guide for two weeks from 3 March, as well as a one-week promotion on Mark Goodier's weekday mid-morning show.

The sponsorship was negotiated by Aviva's media agency, Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia. The creative executions were made by GMG Radio's in-house team.

Jonathan Gillespie, group commercial director, GMG Radio, said: "We've worked together to create a brand campaign that works on different levels, highlighting the services that Aviva offers, information on a range of health-related subjects that will resonate with the listener, and added engagement with the audience online."

Smooth Radio became a national station in England in October 2010, and earlier this month, it reported a weekly reach of 3.32 million for the final three months of 2011, up 7.5% year on year, but down 0.4% quarter on quarter.

In January, Aviva launched an new ad, by Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO, starring 'The Fast Show' comic Paul Whitehouse as a "Brummie fishing fanatic", to support its new MultiCar insurance product.

Follow Maisie McCabe on Twitter @MaisieMcCabe

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk