Mars is asking fans to #Believe as its leverages its partnership with The FA through a new multi-channel campaign to help generate support ahead of Euro 2016.
Led by a 60-second TV spot – which spearheads a £5m media investment that also spans cinema, radio and digital marketing – the campaign includes an on-pack display of support that sees its replace its brand name with the campaign title
The flagship TV commercial, which debuted on the 15 May climax of the Barclays Premiership, sees England footballers and fans invade France and it is fronted by some of the most discussed England stars of the season.
In addition to headline-grabbing strikers Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspurs golden boot winning forward) and Jamie Vardy (the attacker who drove Leicester to the title this year) is Arsenal’s (sadly-injured and out of the tournament) Danny Welbeck.
The narrative sees the footballers head an eclectic throng of English fans across the channel to (host nation) France.
Complete with dinner ladies, knights and animals, the creative is some sort of madcap, reverse Dunkirk armada of dinghies and floats.
We’re getting behind @England this summer, will you? #BELIEVEhttps://t.co/1tArOSQg9z
— Mars Bar Football (@marsfootball) May 13, 2016
as well as on official FA/England platforms such as Twitter.
We love this! Thanks for the support, @marsfootball. #TogetherForEngland https://t.co/2eW0LCnc5d
— England (@England) May 15, 2016
The spot, penned by Michael Hughes, art directed by Dalatando Almeida and directed by Sam Brown through Rogue Films, urges viewers to get behind the team and visit @MarsFootball to see how to support the side.
And also encourages them to use the campaign hashtag #BELIEVE when sending in their ‘Singing Selfies’ – incentivising fans to film themselves as they sing the lyrics to an England song and sharing them online.
To further push the ‘singing selfies’, Mars have partnered with TalkSport and BallStreet to drive entries and released a call to action video (including Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane) on social media.
Sing Your Support! Tweet a video singing “We Love You England” & we’ll take the best to the @England team. #BELIEVEhttps://t.co/cv5DmSDtbf
— Mars Bar Football (@marsfootball) May 18, 2016
The best ‘singing selfies’ will be launched on the day of England’s first match on 11 June.
The #Believe campaign also includes a limited edition packaging strand that aims to drive support by replacing the brand name with the campaign title on its single, duo, four and nine-packs and which includes a set of point-of-sale assets for participating stores.
Mars is also amending all its FA assets for the upcoming England friendlies to sit in line with the #Believe campaign: this spans everything from its press conference backdrop presence to practice pitch training boards at St George’s Park.
Together, the TV, digital, on-pack and in-store work aims to encourage collective support for the national team.
Or should that be ‘teams’, as, with Wales and Northern Ireland qualifying alongside England, Mars is rolling out ad assets and POS solutions in all three teams’ national colours and matching creative imagery.
While Scotland didn’t qualify for the tournament, Mars is nevertheless rolling out #Believe on-pack in tandem with a Scottish competition for the winner to scoop a kickabout with a Scottish international.
‘International football tournaments ignite the passion of England fans like no other sporting event. Up to 20 million people are set to watch each match at Euro 2016 with a potential audience of 15.3 million UK football fans predicted to be on Twitter at any one time during a game,’ comments Mars brand manager Greg Kent at the campaign launch.
‘As we all know, the twelfth man can make all the difference in football, and through our multi-channeled campaign we hope we can give the England football team the extra edge they need to go all the way in France.’
The campaign has been developed with creative agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and sponsorship agency Octagon, while MediaCom handled the media planning and buying, the TVC was produced by Rogue Films with post-production from The Mill and audio post by Wave.
The group spearheading the work for Mars marketing director Mike Davies, brand director Alison Smith and brand manager Greg Kent at creative agency AMV BBDO included creative directors Ant Nelson and Mike Sutherland, copywriter Michael Hughes, art director Dalatando Almeida, planner Will Whalley, account managers Katy Talikowska, Daniel Wegrzyn, Callum Raines and Abigail Brown and agency producer Anita Sasdy.
While the Octagon team was led by Joel Seymour-Hyde, Kassi Denman and Tom Gayner.
Comment
The return of the #Believe line sees Mars roll back from its more recent #Winning concept – as illustrated by the brand’s most recent previous TV spot a few months back.
This switch certainly seems like a sensible move: after all, loyal fans and partner brands backing England in major football tournaments certainly can’t rely on the side ‘winning’.
And with 250,000 YouTube views within its first week, the early engagement signs are positive.
This campaign follows on from Mars’ Euro 2012 activation – which was led by a TV spot featuring a Mars bar eating steward producing heroic saves to defy the Premier League’s top marksman, Robin van Persie.
That spot, which was also created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, was launched slightly earlier than its 2016 counterpart – as it was first aired during the 15 April 2015 FA Cup semi-final, as opposed to the 2016 release during the second week of May (see case study).
This 2016 campaign is timed not only to leverage interest in the final day of the Barclays Premier League season, but also to link in to media interest around the unveiling of the England squad as well as the lead-in to the Football Association’s annual flagship property – the FA Cup Final.
Mars has been an official sponsor of The Football Association, the organisation which administers English football and the national football team, since 2009.
It was back in December 2013 that The FA and Mars renew partnership through to 2018: ensuring Mars’ continued role as Official Supporter of the England Team and Official Partner to the Just Play programme until July 2018.
The Just Play programme, which launched in June 2011, aims to drive up the numbers of adults playing football in the country.
Links:
Mars ‘Play Your Part’ YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MarsBarPlayYourPart
Mars Website:
Mars Facebook:
Mars Twitter:
https://twitter.com/marsfootball
#Believe
The FA:
England Twitter:
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO:
Octagon:
