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New marketing campaigns for Heart 106.2 and Virgin Radio, promoting their celebrity breakfast DJs, are in contrast to the trend in TV where channels are moving away from personality-led marketing in favour of branding campaigns.

Using famous faces to promote a brand's values is common in FMCG marketing and for media owners may seem a sensible use of an expensive asset. Yet there are questions over whether a single personality can represent the breadth of a station's schedule. Furthermore, what happens when the promoted celebrity leaves the station, falls out of favour with the listeners or gets involved in a brand-damaging scandal?

Capital Radio dropped brand advertising in favour of promoting breakfast DJ Johnny Vaughan when he replaced Chris Tarrant. The high-profile campaign inextricably linked Vaughan with Capital's brand identity. So when Vaughan's show opened to mixed reviews and shed listeners, the negative vibe must have impacted on the Capital group's entire business. Depressing Rajar results for Vaughan's show could have had a disproportionately damaging effect on the company's share price.

Brand building

Capital's marketing director Carl Lyons argues the campaign was not purely personality-led, but was also about brand building. "Everything you do is about building brand value and Johnny is the embodiment of Capital's brand values. We completely believe in Johnny," says Lyons.

Chrysalis' Heart has enjoyed audience success with its Jamie Theakston campaign, but there is a view that Heart established the brand with listeners before using Jamie to promote it. Nick Button, marketing director at Kiss, says: "Heart spent a long time concentrating on the brand and Jamie reflects all the brand values."

Tina Finch, brand marketing director at Heart, says a personality that epitomises the brand values of a station does two jobs. "It's a short cut to telling people what the brand values of the station are and it humanises the station." Finch is quick to point out that although Theakston is the focus for Heart's ads, this doesn't mean it has abandoned branding. "The tone and the feeling of the (new) campaign will still be in keeping with the Heart brand," she says.

Virgin is another to have ditched brand advertising in favour of ads to promote its new breakfast show host, Christian O'Connell.

Virgin marketing director David Andrews says personalities can tempt listeners to trial the station, but stations need to ensure celebrities don't dominate the brand. "It affects the position of the brand. Capital potentially had that issue with Johnny Vaughan," he adds.

Music matters

In the battle of the big London stations, only Emap's Magic 105.4 is currently running branding campaigns, eschewing the opportunity to promote its recently signed up celebrity DJ, Neil Fox. Nicola Thomson, marketing director at Magic, says the station should always be bigger than the talent. "As far as Magic is concerned, it's the music that matters," she says.

Niche stations, like Xfm and Kiss 100, need to be more creative in communicating brand values, according to Kiss's Button. "We need to use traditional media platforms in untraditional ways, or use unconventional media," he says.

Whether a station uses personality or brand marketing will depend on what it is trying to achieve. If it's looking to draw listeners in on a short-term basis, then celebrities can work, but if stations want a long-term strategy the celebrity must embody the station and be there for some time.

There's a word of warning from the TV sector about using celebrities. Clare Salmon, director of marketing and commercial strategy at ITV, which has just unveiled a new marketing strategy that replaces its celebrity-led idents with idents promoting programmes, says there are obvious risks in handing over a chunk of your brand equity to a personality. "What happens if they do a Kate Moss or Michael Barrymore?" she asks.

Although personality-led campaigns can help with brand building, radio stations must make sure the station has a solid brand proposition before hiring the face to represent it. As Virgin's Andrews says: "Personality on its own is not enough."

MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

CAPITAL

2004 - April, June & September Spend: £2m, using TV, outdoor, press, ambient and new media. Execution: Johnny Vaughan's "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner".

2005 - February, May & September. Spend: £1m-plus, using TV and outdoor. Execution: Johnny Vaughan's "Dancing in the Street".

HEART 106.2

September 2004 - Spend: £3m. Execution: new logo and brand identity, showcasing playlist and target listeners.

April 2005 - Spend: £1m on TV to support Jamie Theakston's arrival.

Jan 2006 - Spend: £1.5m on TV and cinema, with follow-up ads of Theakston in morning situations.

MAGIC 105.4

Autumn 2005 and a second burst in December and in January 2006 - Spend: £1m on TV. Execution: Song lyrics.

KISS FM

2004 - Spend: £1-2m brand-led campaign. Execution: "Kiss Feeling Good in the Summer."

2005 - Activity was all at street level and events.

VIRGIN

2004 - Spend: £1m using TV, press and outdoor, promoting the Pete and Geoff Breakfast Show.

2005 - Spend: £1m plus on TV. Execution: 'The music we all love' branding campaign.

2006 - Spend: £1m-plus on outdoor to promote the arrival of O'Connell.

XFM

April 2005 - Spend: £750,000 on outdoor to promote the Christian O'Connell show.

Dec 2005 - Spend: £250,000 on print and outdoor to promote new breakfast show host Lauren Laverne.