Media: Strategy of the Week - Blanket coverage as fcuk extends its reach to radio.

Fcuk may make the station a permanent fixture if it is a success.

For a brand such as fcuk, which has managed to maintain its cool edge since the adoption of the fcuk campaign seven years ago, there is always the pressure of devising ways to keep it one step ahead of the marketing crowd.

This summer, fcuk and its agencies (principally TBWA\London for creative and Manning Gottlieb OMD for media) have come up with the idea of launching an fcuk-branded radio station. The station is planning to broadcast across April and May, to drive shoppers kitting out their spring/summer wardrobes into stores. After this, the company will decide whether to make it a permanent fixture.

The radio station will broadcast from 1 April from the window of the flagship fcuk Oxford Circus store. The store has already been sporting the station slogan 'None of the hits, none of the time', which highlights the irreverent personality of the brand.

MG OMD's media strategy is a classic example of the Marshall McLuhan quote: 'The medium is the message.' The most innovative part of the campaign involves playing pre-recorded soundbites from the station to tube passengers walking through Oxford Circus station, the first time this has been done.

Sound chips have been installed in the ceilings of the five corridors that converge in front of the exit escalators. The music will be complemented by posters along the corridors with slogans such as 'feeling funky' and 'jump around', devised by TBWA.

At a cost of around pounds 90,000, the chips will play two ten-second bursts of music from the station every minute. Conscious that regular commuters will be using the route twice a day, the agency decided only to operate this for a month. 'Much longer than that and I think people would start getting irritated,' Melinda Athinodorou, the account director at MG OMD, explains.