Bookie Paddy Power teamed up with Scottish Premiership team Motherwell FC and charity Missing People on an initiative to raise awareness of missing children which saw a stand at the club’s Fir Park ground filled with rows of blank silhouettes of absent people/supporters.
The initiative is promoted through PR and with content running across the the club, charity and the book maker’s social channels.
In the time it takes to watch a football match, 35 people are reported missing in the UK.
We are teaming up with @motherwellFC to help launch an awareness campaign for @missingpeople.
Read more here: https://t.co/EBApcpGUnf pic.twitter.com/5diCTzxNLb
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) August 7, 2020
Today, Paddy Power have launched a campaign to help find missing people by filling a stand at Motherwell with 1,190 ‘missing’ fans.
Appeals for missing adults will then feature in PP shops across the country, a chance for families to raise awareness of their missing loved one. pic.twitter.com/itYoO8KOjT
— Missing People (@missingpeople) August 7, 2020
The initiative rolled out as the SPFL season got under way with all matches occurring behind closed doors.
While other clubs and sports teams around the world have filled their empty stadium seats with cardboard cutouts of absent fans and supporter avatars, the tri have chosen to use the tactic to highlight the absence of missing people by leaving them blank.
The initiative is built on research from charity Missing People which shows that one person is reported missing in the UK every 90 seconds: which makes an average of 35 in the length of time it takes to complete a football match.
“We all know fans are missing from football at the moment, but some are missing from wider life, too,” said a Paddy Power spokesman on the bookmaker’s website.
“We hope this campaign, and striking image, can spark conversations across the country – as the majority of our customer base are young men, the demographic that’s most at risk of going missing.”
As well as the 1,190 silhouettes which were placd in seats for Motherwell’s opening home match against Dundee United, the bookie also says it will also place posters of missing people across its 650 stores in the locations that they were last seen to ‘help find, or simply establish the safety of, some of those who have disappeared’.
Jo Youle, Chief Executive of Missing People, said: “This is a highly visible and needed opportunity for families in communities across the UK to raise awareness of their missing loved one – at a time when it is so hard to search due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“We will also be getting the message out via Paddy Power stores to reach a key group of people at higher risk of going missing: men aged 18-39.
“Important funding through this partnership will help more than 500 people in crisis through 24/7 support on our helpline, at a time when more people than ever are needing that support.”
Comment:
This initiative isn’t just leveraging the current, pandemic-induced sports trend for fan avatars filling stadiums around the world, but also has close echoes of AS Roma’s award winning 2019 Missing Children campaign revolving around its transfer window signings (see case study).
It’s none the worse for that though and continues to build on Paddy Power’s strengthening stable of sponsorship activations with Motherwell which also included 2019’s award winning, multi-club ‘Save Our Shirt’ (see case study).
Links:
Paddy Power
https://www.youtube.com/user/PaddyPowerVideo
https://twitter.com/paddypower
https://www.facebook.com/paddypower
Missing People
https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/
Motherwell FC
https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/motherwellfc/
https://www.instagram.com/motherwellfc/
https://www.youtube.com/motherwellfc
https://twitter.com/motherwellfc
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