Virgin Media readies Looney Tunes campaign

Watch the ad here

Virgin Media is using famous Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales, the ’The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico’ as the face of its superfast broadband campaign.

The first TV ad, created by DDB UK, follows the famous Looney Toons character as he heads to the UK for his big new role with Virgin Media. The 40 second ad will air from Saturday with its first high profile slot during The X Factor on ITV1.

The ads are part of a multi-million pound media campaign, which includes two further TV ads as part of a high rating TV campaign, outdoor, including ads across London Underground stations, social media and online plus print and radio to make the most of Speedy’s unique voice.

The campaign is the first fully integrated Virgin Media campaign from DDB UK who were awarded Virgin Media’s advertising, direct and digital account earlier this year. RKCR were the incumbent on the account.

The ad aims to make the most of Speedy’s pace and personality to highlight some of the benefits of ’Super Speedy Broadband’ from Virgin Media, from downloading music to streaming TV online.

The first TV ad sees Speedy start his new job only to find his employers have some very peculiar ideas of how to use him. Speedy is shown being powered by a seemingly endless supply of cheese.

Ashley Stockwell, executive director of brand and marketing at Virgin Media, says: “Speedy is the perfect celebrity partner and brings real charm and enthusiasm to our campaign. As the fastest broadband provider in all of the UK, already delivering real world speeds of 10Mb, 20Mb, 50Mb and soon 100Mb to homes throughout the country, it’s great to be teaming up with the fastest Looney Tunes character around.

“Speedy is a great short cut in communicating all the stand out benefits of superfast broadband and will help us stay several steps ahead of the competition.”

To kick off the ad campaign, Virgin Media today unveiled the world’s first billboard made entirely of cheese in Covent Garden, London.

Created by acclaimed food artist, Prudence Staite, it stars Speedy Gonzales as the face of the ’fastest broadband in all the UK’ and celebrates his love of cheese.

Using ten types of locally sourced cheese and weighing in at 110kg the giant cheese sculpture took Prudence and her team eight days to craft, spending over 100 hours in a chilled studio to preserve the artwork.

Manning Gottlieb OMD developed the media communications strategy and bought the campaign activity.

This story first appeared on Pitch, Centaur’s subscription-based online interactive marketplace for agencies and clients to share news, opinion and debate.

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