How Sydney community radio station FBi sold its soul to Richard Branson
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Last week, advertising group Naked Communications and spinners Frank PR snagged four prestigious AIMIA awards for their ‘Ask Richard’ campaign on behalf of struggling Sydney community radio station FBi. Crikey readers may recall that last year, in serious financial strife after sponsorship dwindled during the GFC, FBi decided to concoct a scheme to pester billionaire Virgin chief Richard Branson for a $1 million donation, with the winner to be flicked a 5% kickback for their trouble. The station enlisted Naked chief Adam Ferrier to come up with a stunt. He produced this:
FBi volunteers donned t-shirts with Branson’s likeness, skydived out of planes, paraded around Martin Place to get on Sunrise and got creative with fake commercials and video games to snag the billionaire’s attention. Unsurprisingly, Branson never stumped up the cash, but the stunt saved the station from bankruptcy, doubling subscriber levels and generating sob stories across the media. According to FBi General Manager Evan Kaldor, ‘Ask Richard’ was “transformative” and alerted the music community to the imminent failure of a community icon. A win-win situation for everyone concerned you might think. But amid the plaudits, questions persist over the commercial nature of the campaign, with FBi subscribers and community radio insiders crying foul over the decision to prostrate itself at the altar of the Branson brand. Essentially, critics say the station, on its last legs, was forced to betray its principles to survive. A stunt at the centre of the campaign has been unmasked as a fake, and others have pointed to the some of the major players’ relationships with Virgin and the strict non-commercial stipulations in FBi’s license. The major coup for FBi came when Virgin’s PR company setup a call with FBi breakfast presenter Alison Piotrowski a month into the campaign. In that interview (Youtube here) Branson said that the first he had heard about the campaign was when “a soaking wet Australian girl” had swum 4 kilometres to turn up on his private island to demand the cash. Let’s go to the transcript:
The mercy dash was quickly reported on News.com.au, the Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian, sending the viral campaign nuclear. But the island swim was pure fiction. Despite numerous follow-up requests to FBi and Virgin, the mystery girl’s identity has never been revealed. (This morning, Crikey was told by FBi that “we’d have to ask Virgin” whether the story was true). Crikey understands that the visit was entirely the invention of Virgin’s Australian PR department, who wanted to kick the campaign along. In the next part of the interview, Branson gives Virgin a plug:
Instead of donating the cash, Branson’s flaks in Australia had decided to donate flights and tickets to his V-Festival in the UK. But those on-air promotions put FBi in breach of its sponsorship guidelines which prohibit commercial plugs outside of formal announcements (FBi denies this, saying they had specifically excised the word “Virgin” from its promotions up to that point and that after the flights and tickets were donated, future mentions of Virgin fell within the stations 5 minutes per hour of allowable sponsorship). Frank PR, owned by the multinational Photon Group, also had something to gain by plugging Branson. Its UK parent has worked with various Virgin brands over the years and after ‘Ask Richard’, Frank Australia worked on a Virgin Media UK Ashes campaign in Australia. Frank MD Myf McGregor told Crikey this morning that the work had been conducted pro-bono and was part of a genuine grassroots effort to save the station. Responding to criticism over the campaign on Mumbrella, FBi’s Kaldor was blunt:
FBi has maintained its good relationship with Branson and Virgin. On the front page of its website, the station lists a major prize of “2 Virgin flights to anywhere in Oz” for its current “Bootycall” promotion. |
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15 Comments
It would appear that FBi has remained within its charter as a community station.
If they have is the issue one that they ended up partnering with a global brand, thus offending the sensibilities of those who like their community radio independent of such commercial concerns?
This headline is a new hyperbolic low, even for Crikey.
Your problem is with Naked, or Virgin? FBi did not violate its charter, and the campaign has had zero impact on the content of the station. It did however serve the somewhat useful purpose of keeping it on the air.
Could not agree more with Elmo Keep. This seems like a shallow attempt to dig up some dirt where there is none to be found. It seemed obvious during the height of the GFC, as it does now, that through the entire “Ask Richard” campaign, one of Sydney’s most exciting and unique cultural lifelines was in jeopardy, and the measures taken were to ensure the station survived, and remained in line with the stations sponsorship guidelines at all times.
There is a lot of contradictory ideas and information in this article - and as I write this, I am not so simplistic to assume Crikey has sold its independent soul to the big banks as I have ANZ and ING ads flashing all over my computer screen.
It’s interesting to see that this article conveniently omits key parts of the response made by Evan Kaldor, FBi General Manager, on the Mumbrella thread.
“Neither FBi, nor naked nor Frank Australia had an existing relationship or arrangement with Richard or any Virgin business at the launch of the campaign. Virgin and Richard were not tipped off before the campaign launch. Virgin approached FBi directly once the campaign was underway and neither naked or Frank ever had any direct contact.”
(You can read the full response in the comments section here: http://mumbrella.com.au/ask-richard-wins-big-in-aimia-awards-as-digital-firms-are-urged-to-help-traditional-companies-get-up-to-speed-19900)
All this article can manage is a tenuous link to the fact Frank PR in the UK worked with Virgin in the past and that Frank Aus worked on a Virgin campaign AFTER (note, AFTER) the Ask Richard campaign.
Incidentally, as a volunteer at the station, I can tell you that when the Ask Richard campaign ran, volunteers were instructed to never plug any Virgin products, only to speak of Richard Branson in the context of him being a media figure. Also, the first mention of the Virgin flights was in the context of it being a supporter drive prize during the aforementioned Richard Branson interview, which basically kicked off our supporter drive as part of that particular fundraising campaign. Mentioning sponsors of prizes for a supporter drive is a run-of-the-mill thing to do - you’ll hear this whenever any station does a supporter drive. So to suggest that we breached community radio standards by doing so is off-the-mark.
And incidentally, thanks for plugging our current supporter drive. It runs until Sunday 7pm.
I’m curious that none of those offended by this article are equally concerned at the possibility FBI deliberately colluded with Virgin to sell the faked woman on the island story to their listeners. The volunteers and possibly even the presenter might not have known it was a fake but it’s hard to believe that senior people at the station didn’t. Deliberately faking stories IS a breach of the community radio codes of practice. FBI refused to answer that question, according to the Crikey report, smuggly saying ask Virgin.
If a commercial radio station had done this critics would be falling over themselves to denounce the fakery.
@Etta Mills: what does Crikey being an independent media org with advertising have to do to this? Irregardless of the ethics of faking the stunt, FBi have breached the community broadcasting code of practice sponsorship guidelines by having Richard Branson on air promoting his airline/new service, and the station receiving goods in kind by allowing that promotion to occur.
William Boot, if you read the comment left on the Mumbrella site, Evan, the general manager says:
- The first we heard of the swimmer was when Richard mentioned it live on air.
There was no grand conspiracy concocted by senior management, as you seem to suggest.
The link to the full comment by Evan is here, without the accidental typo I added previously:
http://mumbrella.com.au/ask-richard-wins-big-in-aimia-awards-as-digital-firms-are-urged-to-help-traditional-companies-get-up-to-speed-19900
The Virgin mention was in the context of a supporter drive giveaway – community radio stations do this all the time, in exchange for prizes, sponsors of prizes are thanked on-air, mentioned, etc.
As a fan of FBI I would be shocked if these aligations to be true. Thankfully LTLAM has cleared this up for us.(for me at least)
But even if they did allow an on-air plug I would still listen to FBI because it didnt effect the radio content in anyway and in that case I would probably have come to the conclusion that the ends would justify the means.
@LTLAM: was the island swim real or not? Why, when confronted with calls from numerous journalists to interview the woman, did FBi choose maintain the ruse? One phone call you would have thought.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘ruse’. You ask about the island swimmer and FBi (as you’ve quoted above) have referred you to Virgin, which seems to be the obvious thing to do, given that any press enquiry for Richard Branson would be sent in that direction.
@respect your elders - the link between advertising on an independent website and relying on sponsorship and support from larger corporate bodies to sustain an independent community radio station is that there is nothing wrong with either as a means of staying afloat. If a stunt was faked, FBi has made it quite clear they had no part in it. They ran an innovative campaign revolving around asking someone with lots of money, to share the wealth. Richard Branson, like many public figures who came out at the time to show their support for the station, did so to help raise awareness of their situation, not sell more mobiles or flights. Many public figures came forward to offer prizes for FBi’s supporter drive, and they are all mentioned as a way of appreciation and showing gratitude. The goods received by FBi across the board were donated, not paid for in kind by any sort of live reads. I refer to LTLAM - “Incidentally, as a volunteer at the station, I can tell you that when the Ask Richard campaign ran, volunteers were instructed to never plug any Virgin products, only to speak of Richard Branson in the context of him being a media figure. Also, the first mention of the Virgin flights was in the context of it being a supporter drive prize during the aforementioned Richard Branson interview, which basically kicked off our supporter drive as part of that particular fundraising campaign. Mentioning sponsors of prizes for a supporter drive is a run-of-the-mill thing to do - you’ll hear this whenever any station does a supporter drive. So to suggest that we breached community radio standards by doing so is off-the-mark.”
Your accusations have all been addressed by Evan Kaldor, it’s quite clear there was no breach and the integrity of the station was never in jeopardy. This can not be any clearer than in the amazing independent music it continues to program and local arts and culture it continues to support. For a station that struggles to survive and has nothing but the best intentions, it amazes me that people continue to try and find ways to bring them down.
Hey, what happened to FBi’s Saturday morning show, the Naked City? Not commercial enough?
Wyane, the presenters of The Naked City chose to wind up their show because 1) they have a lot of projects this year and were extremely busy outside of their FBi involvement and 2) they were ready to call it day because they’d been on-air for quite a while (more than six years, I think).
Etta Mills, a huge thank you for your great defence of the station!
So if we are to believe FBi, Mr Branson made up the story about the aussie girl.
Apparently Mr Branson just lied about her swimming several kilometres and “staying overnight” with him.
Is that the case? He just lied?
And if we take a step back I have heard there was no evidence that FBI was in real financial trouble to start with.
We were told they were on the brink, and that we had to “save fbi”, but the claim of almost going broke was never verified my anyone.
The mainstream media just took their word for it.
Actually MNZ, as a volunteer, I can tell you that FBi was making HALF the revenue we needed to stay afloat in the months in the lead-up to the Save FBi campaign. A lot of nonprofits were also going through a rough time, it was when the financial crisis was starting to hit hard. If things had continued as they were, we would only have been able to survive for two more months, had the campaign not been a success.
And nowhere have we said anything about anyone lying, we just refer people to Richard Branson/Virgin about it, because we can’t really be made to speak on the behalf of someone else’s experience!