Paddy Power continued its reputation as a controversial and irreverent sports marketers with a comic campaign focused on the battle for the Premier League (EPL) title based on the idea that Arsenal FC fans – represented by several club legends – would prefer Manchester City FC and not Arsenal not to win their first league title for 20 years because they can’t stand the idea of controversial Gunners supporter Piers Morgan being happy.
The Irish bookie’s tongue-in-cheek campaign is built around a series of former player confessional interviews which see legends such as former Scottish striker Charlie Nicholas, left back Nigel Winterburn, attacker Kevin Campbell and midfielder Ray Parlour argue that they would rather see their club finish second to Manchester City FC because they can’t stand the idea of high profile Arsenal supporter Piers Morgan’s smug smile if the North London club finishes the season on top.
The iconic Gunners stars from yesteryear wrestle with their consciousness’s and loyalties before concluding that they’d rather not see their beloved team win the title because they simply can’t stomach Gunners’ fanatic and polarising media personality Morgan’s self-satisfied smile and told-you-so superiority.
Created in-house, the spoof campaign was laced with sarcasm and humour and launched on 15 April to build buzz and betting ahead of the crucial EPL table topping game between Manchester City and Arsenal on 26 April.
Led by a hero video titled ‘Piers F***in Morgan: Arsenal legends explain who they don’t want Arsenal to win the league’, the digital-first campaign was backed by additional content pieces and ran across the brand’s own digital and social channels and was backed by a PR push as it sought to generate comic controversial conversation, engage customers and drive EPL wagering
In the spot, Nicholas vomits into a bucket off-camera at the mere thought of Morgan’s smugness, while former player Parlour admits: “I’d rather Arsenal never win another trophy than to see Piers Morgan happy and smiling. Honestly, I’d do something to get a game abandoned to stop us from winning the title now. Dress up as a dog and run on the pitch or something.”
“Arsenal have been so impressive this season, not even the Kim Kardashian curse couldn’t stop them,” commented Paddy Power PR Manager Rachel Kane at the campaign launch. “But there are bigger things on the line here if Arsenal manages to pull this off. We could be looking down the barrel of a tsunami of smugness from their most loathed fan, Piers Morgan. The thought is too much for some to stomach… particularly Charlie Nicolas as it turns out.”
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Morgan – a marmite celebrity reporter, turned editor, turned media personality – regularly riles UK TV viewers and newspaper readers with his seemingly deliberately controversial and contrary headline grabbing comments and opinions. Not so long ago he annoyed fellow Arsenal fans for initially being highly critical and dismissive of Arsenal’s Spanish manager Mikel Arteta calling on him before reversing entirely, changing his mind and pleading forgiveness.
The ‘Arsenal Legends / Piers Morgan’ campaign rolled out a month after Paddy Power deployed a similar tactic in a related campaign called ‘Spurs City Fans’. Also created in-house, the similar set up for this Premier League title race campaign featured former Tottenham Hotspur legends playing the role of devoted Manchester City fans as they backed the Mancunian club to win the title over Sprus’ North London rivals Asrenal.
Again, the creative was built around spoof interviews with former Spurs legends – Glenn Hoddle, Teddy Sheringham, Darren Anderton and Gerry Francis – who all claim to actually be long-time sky blue Manc fans. Led by a two-minute online video which dropped on 13 March, the creative shows the diehard ‘Spurs City’ fans embracing Mancunian culture (from Oasis to Vimto).
The in-house team which created the campaign included Head of Content Jack Wilson, Creative Content Manager Noel Slevin and Content Producer Sean Clancy with Steven Quick of Oranges and Lemons.
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