Bookie Paddy Power launched a hoax, pre-season fake football kit sponsorship initiative, called ‘Save Our Shirt’, in an attempt to persuade its rivals to ‘unsponsor’ shirts
The PR led initiative, launched in the middle of July (a few weeks ahead of the new 2019/20 football season), saw a Paddy Power spoof sponsorship initiative act as a call for other sponsors to stop ‘bastardising’ football shirts.
The campaign launched with a controversial kit design for Huddersfield Town which included a prominent branded diagonal stripe bearing the betting brand’s name.
The bookmaker trolled fans with a bold kit designed to celebrate its recently-inked sponsorship deal with the club.
The home kit featured the Paddy Power logo prominently emblazoned in a sash-style motif across the front of the shirt, while the away version paid tribute to the club’s 110-year history with 110 Paddy Power logos adorning the top.
Huddersfield Town fans will be looking for a new club unless its a stunt after the launch of the Clubs horrendous new Home Kit….
Wishing Paddy Power a great hen do pic.twitter.com/XD22pyRmNo— Trevor Martin (@TMPfoto) July 17, 2019
The team even took to the pitch wearing the kit for a friendly against Rochdale and reports rolled out that the FA had contacted the club to discuss the shirt.
Of course, both kits were later revealed to be a fake when the genuine shirt was launched with the logo removed entirely.
?
The message was simple and clear: football shirts aren’t billboards and brands should to stop sponsoring sacred football shirts.
Unfortunately, we were too late for some of these. #SaveOurShirt. https://t.co/EF2Cbtz298
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 21, 2019
The company is still genuinely sponsoring the team, but its activation of official rights revolves around the idea of ‘unsponsoring it’.
Paddy Power then followed up by adding a tie-up with Scottish Premiership side Motherwell FC as part of the ‘Save our shirt’ initiative.
Have you seen that @MotherwellFC have joined our #SaveOurShirt campaign? Check out their gorgeous new kits: https://t.co/EIwCj3ZgBQ
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 22, 2019
Financial details of the Motherwell tie-up were not revealed, but club chairman Jim McMahon did say that it was “biggest shirt sponsorship in history”.
The Scottish strand was then followed by a Newport County tie-up.
In case you missed it, @NewportCounty are also on board with #SaveOurShirt! https://t.co/zBEC8XNnj6
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 23, 2019
“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 has also donated its sponsorship of the club’s training kit to the Huddersfield Town foundation.
Michelle Spillane, Paddy Power’s Brand Marketing Director, 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.
Mark Orbine, the ECD at VCCP Blue added: “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 Henry Nash, Head of Strategy at Octagon 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 Design by Parv Thind and Dugal Macdiarmid @ Wave and Lighting Cameraman Jim Jolliffe.
The media agency was Mediacom.
Comment:
In the era of fake news, this is something of a sports marketing masterclass: a successful spoof which both matches the cheeky heritage of the brand and which also makes a serious point.
Certainly the PR and business benefit to Paddy Power is clear as it disrupts the £150m per year invested by betting companies into English football clubs.
It may seem a surprise to some that the brand is taking such direct aim at fellow bookmakers: more than half the teams in the country’s top two divisions are sponsored by companies in the gambling/betting sector (with no less than 14 Championship teams bearing a betting brand’s logo).
Quite how those clubs, particularly the smaller ones, might feel if this Paddy Power campaign to regulate betting sponsorship is successful is a matter of speculation.
Whichever side of that debate you sit on, this is certainly a clever shirt sponsorship spoof: the proof is that a far few media organisations and a hoard of fans all fell for it.
Twitter seemed to go into something of a meltdown about the spoof sponsorship.
It was even condemned by a senior politician: MP Damian Collins branded the sponsorship “totally inappropriate” and called for the FA to investigate.
Although there were plenty of eagle-eyed fans, marketers and sports journalists who were quick to point out that both kits contravened FA guidelines – which stipulates that there can only be one single area on the front of a shirt featuring a sponsor – and thus suggested the initiative was actually a spoof.
This is an elaborate prank and a sophisticated, yet cheeky piece of sports marketing (albeit one that some in the market claim has been an idea pitched to several clubs over the previous year or so) from a brand with a heritage of pranking fans with its marketing.
Indeed, Paddy Power is not averse to stoking controversy with its marketing and advertising work.
For example, at the 2018 World Cup it seemingly stamped a Russian ‘polar bear’ with the England flag to draw attention to the species’ plight (see case study) and also ran an award-winning cause-led, equality-focused ‘From Russia With Equal Love’ initiative (see case study).
While back in 2014, its Brazil World Cup work seemingly etched the brand’s name into the rain forest in a stunt that was actually a collaboration with Greenpeace.
Paddy Power – Shave the Rainforest from Lucky Generals on Vimeo.
Links:
Paddy Power
https://www.youtube.com/user/PaddyPowerVideo
https://twitter.com/paddypower
https://www.facebook.com/paddypower
Octagon
Mediacom
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