Virgin Media broadband ad sees Usain Bolt pose as Richard Branson
Virgin Media has enlisted triple Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Usain Bolt for a multichannel marketing campaign to raise awareness of its forthcoming fibre optic broadband speed boost.
The cable company is set to double the download capabilities available to more than four million of its broadband customers as part of an 18-month upgrade programme that is due to get underway in February.
To inform subscribers about the move, Virgin Media has unveiled a new campaign that sees Bolt posing as Sir Richard Branson, complete with the Virgin founder's trademark strawberry blonde goatee.
Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon is at the helm of the adverts, which will air for the first time on Saturday night (January 14th 2012) during Take Me Out on ITV1.
Jeff Dodds, executive director of brand and marketing communications at Virgin Media, said: "What better spokesperson for our super-fast broadband than Usain Bolt? He's the living embodiment of speed."
Download capabilities of up to 120Mbps will be made available by the upgrade programme, enabling customers to download a music album in only 4.4 seconds or an entire high-definition film in around five minutes.
