On 20 January 2021, new Adelaide radio station Nova 91.9 presenters Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton enacted a live tennis stunt outside of Novak Djokovic’s Adelaide hotel in a comic promotion which ended with the duo temporarily rebranding the radio station Novak 91.9.
The background to the stunt was that the world’s top ranked male tennis player had spent the week being criticised by the Aussie media after voicing his displeasure at the players’ quarantine situation immediately following their arrival ahead of the Australian Open. Djokovic, like most non-Australian players, was confided to the country’s strict 14-day lockdown down in Adelaide.
So the Nova Entertainment brand’s breakfast DJs decided to try and lift his spirits whilst generated some publicity for their show and for the station. The duo arrived outside his hotel room wearing old-school tennis kit and proceeded to play comically lousy and noisy games of table tennis and mini-tennis – complete with a ball kid and an umpire with a microphone (and branded radio station banners) – beneath the player’s balcony in an attempt to catch the Serbian star’s attention.
The challenge for the presenters was that if they could persuade Djokovic to speak with them then they would rename the station to Novak 91.9 for the day.
Ben and Liam, after some impressively inept tennis, eventually coaxed the player onto the balcony who, after a quick tennis joke, pointed to the banner and said ‘I’m expecting to see the ‘K’ right there’.
So Ben and Liam followed through on their stunt promise and arrived at work the next morning to broadcast from a studio decked out in new Novak branding.
The whole stunt, was of course, recorded on film and via a photographer and the resulting content was amplified across the media brand’s owned channels and across its airwaves.
Links:
Nova Entertainment
https://www.novaentertainment.com.au/
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