R101: a new claim and “comin strip” communication campaign

Forever fun: “Everything goes better with the right radio”

R101 is launching a new and original communication campaign, ‘on air’ from 21 June, based on the use of comic illustrations.
A choice that best expresses the concept of the radio station’s new claim “R101 FOREVER FUN”, non just an advertising slogan, but also a mission statement.

The emphasis is on fun, the radio’s true mission, which is underlined by the play on words, “forever fun, forever fan”, for those who join in and feel part of the community of listeners and fans of R101. In fact the station is characterized by an editorial line that is based on entertainment, light news, the promotion of new trends and, above all, irony, joyfulness and a haven from the problems of everyday life, increasingly sought also by the sort of adult target that R101 is aimed at.

“R101 is the first radio station to use a great cartoonist in a communication campaign and for the occasion it has engaged Giorgio Cavazzano, one of the biggest comic designers in Italy and also much appreciated abroad,” said Fabrizio Savorani, marketing director of Monradio. “In the future we would like to involve other well-know illustrators who, with their different styles, will enable us to explore the full range of emotions that R101 broadcasts. I also do not exclude the involvement of emerging artists who can interpret some of life’s more amusing moments,” concluded Savorani.

The campaign, which is being handled by the agency Tita, begins with the first project created by the cartoonist Giorgio Cavazzano, Italy’s most celebrated Disney author, whose first story was published in Topolino in 1967 – and described by many as a “genius of drawing and page composition”: his unmistakable style is dynamic, gentle as well as agile, hyper active and architecturally altered.
The creativity involved, which raises an smile and amuses precisely as the radio does with its audience, will involve three subjects: a series of situations have been imagined that are paradoxical, problematic and potentially “dramatic” and which, thanks to the music of R101 are transformed into a celebration. From which comes the baseline, closely linked to the images: “Everything goes better with the right radio”.
R101 has decided to focus specifically on newspapers, with extensive planning on both national and local titles to effectively promote the brand.
The campaign is the third step of a communication plan that was launched in May in magazines, to enhance the programme “Molto Personale” by Marco Balestri, and continued in April on YouTube with the first sit-com for digital media “La carica quotidiana”. The common thread of the entire R101 communication strategy is humour, lightness and a carefree approach.
The creativity was developed by Annamaria Santoro, art director, and Andrea Masciullo, copywriter.