Npower to ambush London Live Earth

Energy brand npower is to roll out a guerrilla marketing blitz around the London element of the global Live Earth concert being held at Wembley stadium.

It is understood that the RWE-owned energy brand had been in talks with Live Earth to sponsor the London strand of the event, but the organisers hesitated over striking a deal.

Npower signed up to sponsor Wembley Stadium in 2004 in a £2.5m deal. However it is not known whether the sponsorship deal did not go ahead because npower was not considered to be a global brand or whether its green credentials were called into question.

Headline sponsors for the event include Absolut, MSN, Pepsi, Smart Car and Philips. The npower guerrilla campaign will focus on the fact that npower is the “green energy behind concerts at Wembley Stadium”. Npower will also roll out a series of press ads before and around the event later this week, as well as running poster ads close to the event venue.

The event is being organised by Kevin Wall and Harvey Goldsmith, who also helped set up Live 8 in 2005. Live Earth aims to reach 2 billion people in more than 120 countries. More than 100 pop stars have signed up to support Live 8 with its message to combat climate change. It is in conjunction with the Alliance for Climate Protection, headed by Al Gore.

However it has been reported that a proposed Live Earth event, to be held in Istanbul Turkey, was called off due to a lack of interest from sponsors in the region, while the Hamburg event still had half its tickets to sell at the beginning of the week.

The London event is sold out and includes spots from stars such as Madonna and Bon Jovi.