Defining a brand with Mo & Bolt

You've got to hand it to Virgin Media, less than one week after Mo's second gold medal win and his subsequent poses with Bolt on the track, i'm confronted with this in the Saturday paper (a few weeks back now).

Mo & Bolt deliver 'fast' positioning for Virgin Media

I love it for all sorts of different reasons. It stops you in your tracks, it's funny, it builds on the existing 'keep up' idea and it captures the spirit of the moment - just like the Virgin brands always do.

I've read that Virgin Media stumped up around £500k for Mo. He certainly deserves it but will Virgin Media get value for money out of it? I think they will. By signing two such iconic athletes in such an important year for the sport when it's at the forefront of the nation's conscience, it feels like a turning point for Virgin's position in the category. After years of clever copy driven DM slagging off Sky and claiming all sorts of advantages, this concerted effort (and investment) to own speed, irrespective of what competitors do, feels really powerful.

Carving out a positioning tends to be the hard bit - will people remember it by next week? - but i think Virgin has done remarkably well attempting that in 2012. If this year's memorable campaign leads to Virgin being known as the 'one for speed' for subsequent years to come, then it's done its job and it's money well spent.