The voice of Brian Blessed will soon be bellowing out of TomTom satnavs after a campaign on Facebook attracted over 25,000 members.

When motorist Richard Gardner from Saddleworth, Manchester discovered that the king-sized actors booming voice was not available on his TomTom satnav, he decided to set the wheels in motion himself. He launched a Facebook group called ‘Campaign to get Brian Blessed to do a voice-over for my satnav’ in April 2008, and promptly forgot about it. In February 2010, he revisited it to find 450 members. Realising there was some demand for the voice, he proceeded to spread the word, and within weeks attracted several thousand members.

As the petition gathered momentum, Gardner contacted TomTom, who said they would open negotiations with Brian Blessed if the group attracted 25,000 supporters. He then approached the big Yorkshireman himself, who agreed to film a campaign video and lend his voice if the target was reached.
The group now has 25,772 members and TomTom has confirmed that Blessed will be the new voice of sat nav from October.

“I believe this is the first time that a product has been created through social media,” says Gardner says Gardner. “Companies have been spending so much time and money trying to work out how to use social media to sell us stuff, I wondered whether it was time they started thinking about using it to ask us what wed like to buy.”

TomTom UK VP sales and marketing, Damian Woodward says that voices are becoming an increasingly popular personalisation tool for TomTom satnavs. “Its been an interesting journey watching this particular campaign take shape,” he says. “It shows the power of social media, and if we can bring shouty happiness to over 25,000 people who are we to deny it?”
There’e more information about the Facebook group here.