±±¾©Èü³µpk10

The competition will culminate in a celebrity-hosted grand final contested by the 60 winners of a qualifying round run by 60 different radio stations owned by GCap and Emap. The qualifying round will run on breakfast shows from September 26.

The October 1 live final will be the first networked promotional live outside broadcast held by the radio industry. An extra four finalists will be recruited separately via an SMS campaign.

The 64 finalists will be narrowed down to two, who have to spend £100,000 in 100 minutes. Whoever spends the closest amount to £100,000 will keep everything.

The promotion delivers the message that Egg Money is designed to help customers make the most of their spending money, according to Katie Roswell, Egg's head of marketing interactions.

The £1m activity was negotiated by MediaCom and comes out of the £8m budget Egg has allocated to launch of Egg Money, which enables customers to house their spending money separately from their current account.

It takes advantage of the growing willingness of commercial radio operators to cooperate to build their reach among listeners. This was initially evidenced by January's Radio Aid networked 12-hour show in aid of victims of the Asian tsunami, then May's networked election debate 'UK Leaders Live'. The shows involved Emap, Chrysalis and Capital and GWR, now merged into GCap.

Duncan George, national commercial managing director at GCap, said the campaign "capitalises on local radio's core strengths on a national scale".

Karen Stacey, broadcast sales director at Emap Advertising, said: "The fact that Emap and GCap have worked together to produce this great promotion shows how determined the radio industry is to offer our customers the best in creativity and the most effective advertising solutions."

The activity includes support from a field marketing team out and about on high streets, as well as a digital strand. Each participating station will host an Egg Money microsite offering information on the account and the competition, as well as a different 'Egg Money Game' for the chance to win "Egg Money".

The stations include GCap's One Network and Capital FM, and Emap's FM local stations as well as its Freeview station The Hits.

The deal was brokered by Anna Pennington and Lizzie Moran at GCap, Helen Robinson at Emap Advertising, Simon Ingram and Lizzie Nolan at MediaCom and Jane George at Egg.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .