Activating its partnership rights with Team GB, McVities launched the first stage of a three-phase Tokyo 2020 campaign by embracing and revelling in the irony of a biscuit snack manufacturer sponsoring elite athletes.
The activation, reported to be worth £10m, kicks off with the primary objective of promoting the biscuit brand’s partnership with Team GB.
The roll-out phase opened with self-aware executions highlighting the irony of the tie-up through copy lines such as:
“Biscuit company sponsors people not currently eating biscuits. You couldn’t make it up”, alongside a declaration of McVitie’s as the “proud (if not slightly awkward) official partner of Team GB”.
“We’ve just pressed play on a sponsorship deal with someone who’s just pressed pause on eating biscuits. No, really.”
“Think being a Team GB athlete is hard? Try being their sponsor when their not going near your product until after the Games.”
Created by TBWA\London, the initiative launched on 16 March and runs across television, OOH, radio, print, digital display, social media, plus retail partnerships and in-store activity and an internal employee engagement programme.
This phase, which also introduces the line-up of McVities Team GB ambassadors, will run for three months.
We’re very excited to announce our McVitie’s Team GB ambassadors! We can’t wait for them to have a few of their favourite McVitie’s biscuits pic.twitter.com/2XHmCf8ZVA
— McVitie's (@McVities) March 13, 2020
From 1 May the plan is to switch to Phase Two which will be spearheaded by a hero television commercial, plus a social video series starring Team GB ambassador such as diver Tom Daley, gymnasts Max Whitlock, Rebecca Downie and Ellie Downie, canoeist Liam Heath, taekwondo athlete Lauren Williams and boxer Frazer Clarke as they embark on a biscuit-free Olympic pre-season.
The final phase will launch after the Games (which is scheduled to take place between 24 July and 9 August) and will include further social activity starring the Team GB athletes.
The work was led by the agency’s Ben Brazier and Johnny Ruthven and directed by Ninian Doff through Pulse, while media is handled by Manning Gottlieb OMD.
“TBWA’s whole proposition as an agency is around disruption, but it wasn’t too hard to expose how we should do something different because Team GB and McVitie’s are not natural bedfellows – it’s a biscuit brand working with an elite sports team,” said McVitie’s Brand Director Emma Stowers.
“We have some things that definitely bind us together: Team GB is all about bringing the nation together through sport and we’re all about bringing the nation together over a biscuit – a role we play within society. It’s a slightly awkward partnership, but we have a responsibility as a British brand to support our team and there’s nothing we like more than to rally the nation.”
TBWA/London Chief Creative Officer Andy Jex added: “It takes a heart-of-the-nation brand, that’s down to Earth and humble like McVitie’s, to pull off an idea like this.
“I love the honesty of putting the stars who aren’t actually eating our product at the moment front and centre. It genuinely feels like a fresh break from the category conventions of inauthentic sports sponsorship.”
Comment:
There is a sense of honesty about this idea, but we can’t quite help wondering whether one person’s honest irony just might be someone else’s hypocrisy?
Of course, this campaign broke in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis and McVities stated at the launch that it was in close consultation with the British Olympic Association and has created a contingency plan in the event that the Games is postponed or cancelled.
“At the minute, it’s business as usual for us. We’re still planning in a positive way for it to go ahead, but obviously we’re looking at a plan B,” said Stowers.
“What’s great about our campaign is that we’re running behind Team GB, so we are looking at ways to kind of navigate the narrative, should it be cancelled.”
The maker of Digestives, Hobnobs and Jaffa Cakes first signed on as a Team GB partner in May 2019 when it joined fellow British Olympic backers Adidas, Aldi, Coca-Cola, DFS, Deloitte, Dreams, Haven, Ocean Outdoor, Persimmon, Toyota and the University of Hull.
Links:
McVities
https://www.youtube.com/user/McVitiesBiscuitsUK
https://www.facebook.com/jaffacakes
TBWA\London
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