Guardian Media Group plans £1.5m campaign for Smooth FM relaunch

The Guardian Media Group Radio is planning a £1.5m marketing campaign to support the relaunch of flagship London station Jazz FM as Smooth FM in June, and to challenge preconceptions listeners may have about the new station.

The Guardian Media Group Radio is planning a &£1.5m marketing campaign to support the relaunch of flagship London station Jazz FM as Smooth FM in June, and to challenge preconceptions listeners may have about the new station.

The campaign aims to position Smooth as a calming station for busy Londoners. To support this, a London Underground campaign will be aimed at commuters and will include lines such as “Get off on a new station”.

To coincide with the launch, Smooth is also moving to win over listeners by reducing its number of ad breaks to three an hour. It will introduce the Smooth 40 – a series of 40-minute sweeps of continuous music every hour – to woo back listeners who have switched to the BBC, or tempt them to give the station a try.

The campaign, which has been created by Clear Marketing, will break in two stages from June 7, the day on which the new station is launched. The first stage will include 52 liveried black cabs and a poster campaign that will feature the Smooth FM lava lamp and a range of artists that the station plays, including Joss Stone and Stevie Wonder. The campaign will use the strapline “Go with the flow”.

The second phase, which will break later in the summer, will include a heavyweight television campaign and will be supported by outdoor and London Underground poster activity.