23/08/2019

Huddersfield Town FC (Motherwell/Newport/Southend) / Paddy Power – Unsponsor #SaveOurShirts

Paddy Power announced a new Huddersfield shirt sponsorship through a hoax kit launch campaign called “Unsponsor #SaveOurShirts.

 

Launched a week ahead of The Championship 2019-20 season, this PR led initiative saw Paddy Power unveil a spoof shirt sponsorship campaign – initially with Huddersfield Town FC, then later with Motherwell and Newport – that actually acted as a call for other betting sector sponsors to stop ‘bastardising’ the football shirts that fans love.

 

Territory: UK

 

Agency: Octagon / VCCP

 

 

Objectives

 

The aim was to leverage the fake news era and the start of the football season with a sports marketing spoof that both matched the brand’s cheeky values and also made a serious point about the overly dominant role held by the betting sector and which aimed to disrupt its competitors.

 

Ostensibly, the Irish bookie’s fake Huddersfield kit pre-season launch (which extended via deals with Motherwell and Newport) was an attempt to persuade its sector rivals to ‘unsponsor’ shirts.

 

But the underlying aim of the initiative was to generate identifiable PR (and potential direct business) benefit and disrupt competitors and the £150m per year invested by betting companies in English football clubs.

 

 

Activation

 

The campaign was based on research showing that more than half the football teams in the top two English divisions are sponsored by gambling/betting sector brands (including 10 of the 20 Premier League sides and 17 of the 24 Championship teams with betting brand shirt sponsors) and the concerns surrounding the situation.

 

The initiative began with Paddy Power announcing a new sponsorship with Huddersfield Town through a launch campaign for a controversial new team kits.

 

The initial phase saw the bookmaker socially troll fans with images of a brash kit designed to celebrate its recently-inked sponsorship deal with the club: the new home shirts had a prominent, branded diagonal stripe/sash featuring the betting brand’s name, while the away version paid tribute to the club’s 110-year history with 110 Paddy Power logos.

 

 

 

The second phase saw the team take to the pitch for a pre-season friendly against Rochdale wearing the kit and then amplifying reports that the FA had contacted the club to discuss the shirt breaking its rules on sponsor brand logo size and positioning.

 

Phase three saw the brand come clean and reveal that whilst it was genuinely a new team sponsor both kits were fakes.

 

Indeed, the genuine shirt actually had the shirt sponsor’s logo removed entirely in a phase that spanned more PR, digital, social and print ads via media partnerships.

 

 

Paddy Power has also donated its sponsorship of the club’s training kit to the Huddersfield Town foundation.

 

This phase also revealed the campaign’s main message that football shirts aren’t billboards and betting brands should to stop sponsoring / unsponsor sacred football shirts.

 

 

The initial Huddersfield campaign was followed a few days later when an additional ‘Unsponsor: Save Our Shirt’ campaign strand which saw Paddy Power unveil a second team tie-up with Scottish Premiership side Motherwell FC.

 

 

 

The Motherwell deal was then followed by additional partnerships with Newport County and with Southend.

 

 

 

 

 

Shirt sponsorship in football has gone too far. We accept that there is a role for sponsors around football, but the shirt should be sacred,” said Paddy Power Managing Director Victor Corcoran.

 

“So we are calling on other sponsors to join the ‘Save Our Shirt’ campaign, and give something back to the fans. As a sponsor, we know our place, and it’s not on your shirt.

 

Paddy Power Brand Marketing Director Michelle Spillane added: “As a brand, we always try to be on the side of the fans – we know they love to wear their club colours with pride, but they don’t love being a walking advertising hoarding. Which is what Save Our Shirt is all about. At Paddy Power, we know our place as a sponsor – and it’s not on your shirt.”

 

The campaign was created by sport and entertainment agency Octagon and creative agency VCCP.

 

VCCP ECD Mark Orbine commented: “Working together, we believe we have created a campaign that highlights a real issue for football fans today, and it’s fantastic working with a brand who will put their money where their mouth is. Being able to do this with Paddy Power also allows us to do this in a mischievous way that only Paddy can.”

 

While Octagon Head Of Strategy Henry Nash said: “In the face of football’s crass commercialisation and relentless exploitation of fans, our ambition was to do something good for the game. There was really only one brand brave enough to pull this off.  We’re beyond thrilled that Paddy Power have taken a stand with Save Our Shirt. We believe this idea will have a lasting legacy – not just on the brand but on the game itself.” The forthcoming campaign will include social, TV, Print, Digital, PR and sponsorship.

 

The ‘Save Our Shirt’ initiative was created for Paddy Power’s Marketing Director Michelle Spillane, Head Of Brand David Sandall and Emer McCarthy, Head Of PR Lee Price, Marketing Manager Will Gunton and Brand Manager Dan Oates.

 

It was spearheaded by an Octagon team that included Head of UK Joel Seymour-Hyde, Planning Director Henry Nash, Creative Director Josh Green and Creatives Joe Stuart, Cos Georgiou, Charlie Warcup and Joe Goicoechea.

 

The team at VCCP included Executive Creative Director Mark Orbine, Creative Directors Kevin Masters and Christine Turner, Creatives Chris Willis and Paul Kocur, TV Producers Simon Plant and Carly Parris, Assistant Producer Sydney McGauran, Planning Director Christine Asbury, Planner Max Macbeath, Head of Account Management Philip Higham and Account Director Sam Daniels.

 

It was produced by Academy, with Director Peter Cattaneo, Producer Mark Whittow– Williams and Editor Nik Hindson @The Assembly Rooms. Post Production was handled by Framestore with Colourist Steffan Perry and Sound Designers Parv Thind and Dugal Macdiarmid @Wave and Lighting Cameraman Jim Jolliffe.

 

The media agency was Mediacom.

 

 

Outcome / Results

 

While some eagle-eyed fans, marketers and sports journalists immediately deduced that as both Huddersfield kits contravened FA guidelines (which stipulates that there can only be one single area on the front of a shirt featuring a sponsor) the campaign must be a spoof, plenty of others rushed to social channels to express their fury.

 

Indeed, it was even condemned by Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe Damian Collins who branded the sponsorship “totally inappropriate” and called for the FA to investigate.

 

 

But as the true objective and nature of the campaign was revealed, fans positively shared support for the initiative with images of their own shirts unsponsored and some other clubs even spread the hashtag socially and asked Paddy Power to unsponsor them.

 

 

 

Neither brand nor agency has yet to release any results, but simple social media metrics two weeks after the campaign launch reveal that the campaign content has generated 500,000-plus views on Paddy Power’s own channel, while on Twitter tweets with the #SaveOurShirt hashtag had generated more than 100,000 likes.

 

 



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