WBEZ 91.5FM Urges Chicago to ‘Go Make Babies’

Chicago’s WBEZ 91.5FM, one of the country’s premier public radio stations, working with creative partner Xi Chicago, will unveil its first new marketing campaign in 10 years on February 1, to attract future listeners by asking the most interesting Chicagoans to go make babies.  The campaign is being dubbed the "2032 Membership Drive" and inspires interesting people to hook up with interesting people and make more interesting people,thereby creating the next generation of listeners.

 

Created under the unifying theme “Radio for the Curious Class,” this campaign aims to populate the Curious Class with a call to action to visit www.GoMakeBabies.com, where people can take an “Interesting Assessment.” Visitors will then be offered up links to current WBEZ content based on their tastes, along with potential mates who share their interests. The app also features a Future Viewer gallery where people can upload photos of their interesting child/future listener and in return receive a “Future Curious Class Member” onesie.

 

The campaign elements include local print outlets, WBEZ.org promotion and mobile experience; digital banners, Pandora and Facebook ads; contextual out of home, wallscapes, train platforms, bus shelters and street decals, taxi tops and bumper stickers and T-shirts with messaging and taglines such as:

 

· Do it. For Chicago.

· We want listeners tomorrow. Go make babies today.

· Hey Interesting People, get a room already. And then put a crib in it.

· To anyone NOT currently running a virtual farm: GoMakeBabies.com

· You’re an interesting person. Pass it on. Like, literally. Through your DNA.

 

Said Daniel Ash, VP of WBEZ 91.5 parent company Chicago Public Media, “We tasked Xi with developing an attention-getting campaign that speaks directly to young adults who’ve never heard of WBEZ and who respond positivelyto tongue-in-cheek irony and playfulness. Certainly it’s a different approach than what one would expect from a public media station but we hopethis will reach, and resonate with, younger news consumers who've never heard of us.”

 

“This is a recruitment campaign. Pure and simple,” said group creative director Rick Hamann. “The more interesting, smart, curious Chicagoans we can deliver to WBEZ the better. But we figured it would be far easier to target their babies. Because they’re far easier to carry.  And I’m sure we’ll be happy with the results, in the next 18 years or so.”