‘Primary Star’s sees the Premier League roll out its first solo ad campaign: an integrated initiative led by a TV spot fronted by several of the league’s biggest stars interacting with primary school kids as they read from TH Palmer’s inspirational poem ‘Try, Try, Again’.
Primary Stars is the league’s central school community programme: it is a curriculum-linked teaching resource targeting teachers, parents (particularly mums) and young football fans and its objective is to support 10,000 primary schools by 2019.
The integrated campaign, developed in harness with agency Y&R London, breaks on Sunday 2 April and runs across TV, press, cinema, social media and other digital channels.
The hero 60-second television commercial, debuts on 2 April during the final of ITV’s ‘The Voice’ (between 7pm-8pm)
The players in the commercial’s cast include players including Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, Chelsea’s Gary Cahill, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott, Tottenham’s Eric Dier, Liverpool’s Sadio Mané and Manchester United’s Juan Mata.
The ad begins with Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho in a playground ringing the school bell, before various players pop up in classrooms and on the playing fields quoting Palmer and a sequence of vignettes showing kids reading the poem.
The video closes with a voiceover saying: ‘We’re helping to inspire primary school kids in everything from maths and English to teamwork and sport. Search Premier League Primary Stars to get your school involved.’
This spearhead spot is also being amplified across the Premier League’s digital and social channels including Twitter
Our most ambitious community project to date – #PLPrimaryStars – is aiming to inspire the next generation…
More: https://t.co/Y5xohq9ZiS pic.twitter.com/FVDObSxeoh
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 31, 2017
and Facebook
and it drives viewers to the initiative’s bespoke microsite at https://plprimarystars.com/
Other strands of the campaign include a 30-second cut of the TV ad, as well as an online content series that tells the tales of Premier League Primary Stars lessons (and their impact), plus further assets running across VOD (https://www.premierleague.com/video#!), digital and social media.
#PLPrimaryStars is for pupils aged 5-11 in every primary school in England and Wales
Learn more: https://t.co/HfpJbHHu9p pic.twitter.com/UMK04dZqlk
— PL Communities (@PLCommunities) March 31, 2017
‘The campaign highlights the vast amount of work being delivered by professional football clubs in their local communities,’ explains Premier League managing director Richard Masters.
‘Our goal is to connect the Premier League to the heart of the community, namely families and schools, to promote learning and fitness to children and tangibly demonstrate the benefits of football in all aspects of life.’
The Y&R London team was led by by Nicola Wood and Andy Forrest, while media was planned and bought by MEC and the TVC was produced by Gorgeous and helmed by Vince Squibb.
Activative Comment:
This major campaign may be new, but the Primary Stars project is an ongoing programme which has been working in harness with schools and clubs across the country.
For example, one of its recent club-associated strands ran in recent weeks in tandem with Stoke City FC and its local area schools.
But pone of the more interesting aspects of the marketing campaign is that it is the first ever solo project from the Premier League: the rights owner of the elite tier of English football has previously relied on its title sponsor to advertise.
But in June 2015, the Premier League and long-time title partner Barclays parted ways and the league stated it was not replacing the bank with another main title sponsor as it aimed to develop its own clean brand.
The initiative is one of several from major UK rights holders and governing bodies aiming to encourage and support kids playing specific sport: for example, it launches a few days after the roll out of the ECB’s ‘All Star Cricket’ programme (see case study).
Links:
Premier League
https://www.premierleague.com/
https://twitter.com/premierleague
https://www.facebook.com/premierleague
https://www.instagram.com/premierleague/
Y&R London
