Alice Cooper meets Ronnie Corbett in £20m Sky+ push

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 15-Oct-03, 11:00

LONDON - Wildman rocker Alice Cooper cooks gammon for Ronnie Corbett's supper in a new television advertising campaign, part of a £20m marketing push to promote Sky's digital video recorders.

The campaign for Sky+, created by HHCL/Red Cell, features odd pairings of celebrities watching TV together. Along with comedian Corbett and Cooper, other spots show Slade frontman Noddy Holder and Simon Callow, the author and actor, in bed together; and TV presenters Kelly Brook and Bruce Forsythe.

The aim is to illustrate how Sky+ can be used to ease the debate over what to watch on television. The three ads, which break on Thursday October 16, use the endline: "Sky+, create your own TV channel". The 40-second and 10-second ads will be shown on ITV1, Channel 4 and Five, as well as on Sky. Media for the campaign is through Universal McCann.

BSkyB is backing the television advertising with outdoor advertising, a direct mail campaign through Finex, instore marketing and a dedicated website, created by Digit.

Sky+ is a digital personal video recorder than allows users to record their favourite digital satellite programmes while watching another, record episodes of favourite series, pause and rewind live television, and record up to 20 hours' of television without using tapes.

Jon Florsheim, managing director of sales, marketing and interactive at BSkyB, said: "Sky+ is a fantastic product that transforms television viewing. With our biggest campaign since the launch of Sky Digital, we aim to communicate its benefits to the mass market for the first time and ensure that BSkyB remains the brand leader in digital television."

In September, BSkyB decided to drop the £120 annual subscription charge for users who spend more than £30 a month on premium services, as part of plans to boost the sales of Sky+. At the time, 105,000 customers had taken up the service, but the company is hoping to increase that number to 300,000 by the end of June 2004.

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