Sir Richard Branson’s space base destroyed by Usain Bolt

14th July 2014

  • World’s fastest man shows off football skills in new Virgin Media ad campaign
  • Campaign celebrates Virgin Media’s comprehensive sports TV offering



Usain Bolt takes a break from the running track to show off his football skills in Virgin Media’s latest ad campaign which first hits TV screens during Sunday’s World Cup final on ITV1.

The campaign celebrates Virgin Media being the only way people can watch every major live sports TV channel in the UK in one place from one provider.

The ad starts with Bolt watching football on TV at home. He tells the audience he’s “not bad with a football”, whilst spinning a ball on one finger. Bolt takes the football outside and kicks it to friends watching the match on a tablet next door. Bolt then boots another ball to a friend keeping up with the game on his phone whilst waiting for a train.

The final ball crashes into a nearby hut, demolishing a model moon base being built by Sir Richard dressed in a full astronaut suit. An excited Bolt shouts “back of the shed!”

Richard Larcombe, Brand and Marketing Director at Virgin Media, said: “So many people love sport so we’re delighted to offer all the live action for customers to enjoy at home or on the go.”

“With the Premier League season just around the corner, we are showing everyone they can take those must-see matches out and about on laptops, smartphones and tablets too. Usain’s impressive footballing skills are in the spotlight, helping bring our unrivalled products to life and kicking off the excitement around another fantastic summer of sport.”

Football fans will be able to find out exactly when and who their favourite teams are playing with Virgin Media’s ultimate football fixture generator, which will launch onwww.virginmedia.com/blog/sports/football-fixtures/ on Monday, 14th July. The generator will also show what time matches start, helping fans catch the best of the action from their favourite teams. Once TV schedules have been released, the generator will also give details of the channels matches are aired on. It will initially cover Premier League and Championship games, with more fixtures to be added as the season progresses.

The ad campaign was created by BBH with media planning handled by Fifty6, and will run across TV, print, out of home and online.

Notes to editors

Details of Virgin Media’s comprehensive sports TV offering can be found here:www.virginmedia.com/virgin-tv-edit/sport

Details of the full range of Virgin Media Big Bundles can be found here: www.virginmedia.com

The creative leads for the campaign are as follows:

Director: Peter Cattaneo

Creative director: Tom Drew

Art director: Uche Ezugwu

Production company: The Mill

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media offers four multi award-winning services across the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline.

The company’s dedicated, ultrafast network delivers the fastest widely available broadband speeds to homes and businesses. And we’re expanding this through our £3bn Project Lightning programme, which will reach 17 million premises.

Our interactive TV service brings live programmes, thousands of hours of on-demand programming and the best apps and games in a set-top box, as well as on-the-go for tablets and smartphones.

We launched the world’s first virtual mobile network, offering fantastic value and services to customers. We are also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the UK and Ireland.

Through Virgin Media Business we support entrepreneurs, businesses and the public sector, delivering the fastest widely available broadband speeds and tailor-made services.

Virgin Media is part of Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company. Together Virgin Media and Liberty Global serve 27 million customers across 14 countries.