You don’t have to be a York fan to appreciate the amateur genius in this. Got to love non-league football, (even if you’ve spent the last 10 years in non-league telling everyone you are a league club!)
I have been volunteering at my local football club for the last week, helping them out with their new sponsorship packages, PR and marketing strategies and new branding.
It’s been a lot harder work than I had imagined, but at the same time, some of the most enjoyable and fulfilling work I have done in my career.
One thing I loved was Instagram. I’m a big fan of the app anyway, but in putting together the new patron’s collateral, we decided to use instagram solely for the imagery. The results were superb, and although only taken on an iPhone 4, the printed version looks professional. All for free.
Time for a beer.
When flicking through this season’s GQ Style mag in Smith’s this afternoon, I had the pleasure of coming across the above four-page advitorial (I imagine - I didn’t actually check) feature on Hackett’s involvement in The Boat Race.
Didn’t noticed whether it was a paid for or not, but either way, it’s a superb feature, spot on message with some superb branding. Hackett have been trying hard in recent years to re-position themselves and the boat show is superb, traditional event, steeped in history that will further accelerate that re-branding.
With the Olympics, Rugby World Cup and Athletic World’s taking centre stage event wise over the foreseeable future; niche events steeped in British-ness offer superb opportunities for activation with higher end brands, at a low cost with a good level of ROI.
Love this new drop from Nike, featuring Rafael Nadal and Christiano Ronaldo. Great camera angles and sound - reminds me of their massive virals with Eric Cantona back in the day. (Remember when Oil Tanker football was all the rage?!)
Great drop from Lucozade. Not entirely sure about the voiceover, but in general it really captures the ‘new England’ vibe that surrounds the team at the moment.
For my final year Marketing Communications module, I had to write an essay on sponsorship and branding. As a huge football, rugby, tennis, cycling… well, as a huge sports fan, there were plenty of examples to choose from: Aviva has produced one of the most remarkably successful re-brandings of the last few years- helped in no short course by their extensive sponsorship within rugby. And, of course Evian’s involvement in Wimbledon has given them a platform on which to create some wonderfully creative experiential campaigns and headline-grabbing stunts.
Despite those two fine examples, I pitched for Santander and their sponsorship of the McLaren Mercedes team. It was the perfect subject. The message was clear, the use of Jenson, Lewis and the British team perfectly reflected their own brand values of stability and teamwork. (Not to mention establishing the British-ness of the company, in light of their recent takeovers and re-branding of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley).
The further I drilled down into the subject, the more I came to realise that even the smallest detail within their adverts, or semantic in the campaign, was a reflection of their brand values. I could have written my dissertation on the subject, but unfortunately, I was limited to 1,500 words.. and sadly, despite the best of intentions, a week visiting the girlfriend in Limerick got the better of me and I bashed out the essay on the Limerick to Dublin train, sat next to two lovely old ladies from Cork who were trying to feed me with Southern Comfort at the end of each paragraph. I got a 2:1. I am actually quite proud, considering.
But I digress.
Since then, Santander have, in this author’s humble opinion, gone on to become industry leaders in sports sponsorship, due - simply - to their willingness to actively engage with the public. Their latest campaign, brought to my attention earlier this week, uses Rory McIlroy - and once again fan participation and engagement is at the heart of the campaign, and once again, it’s a winner.
Great use of technology by Adidas for the launch of latest Scotland shirt. Compare that with this week’s digi ‘stunt’ by Bayern Munich where they announced they would present their new signing on facebook… only that the new ‘signing’ turned out to be the fan watching on facebook. Ouch. Unsurprisingly, the fans weren’t happy.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
Steve Jobs - obviously forgetting that you never begin a sentence with ‘and’.
Seville
Dropped into Seville the other week to grab a bit of winter sun.. and to see the best mate, of course. It’s a simply incredible city, just brimming with history, culture and stunning architecture. I have been reading a wonderfully poetic book on Don Juan recently, and walking around Seville, you could just sense the passion of the town as the author had so wonderfully conveyed.
What struck me en route to Andalucia though, was how all of my prep for the trip was done digitally.. or to be more precise, on my phone. Instead of grabbing a book or picking up a travel sup, I used the excellent Wikitravel. I downloaded apps for the language and attractions and pinned everything on the phone’s map. I’ve always been a huge advocate of digital within PR, but it struck me on this particular trip, quite how much scope there is for digital within the travel and tourism sector.
In the recent interviews I have been to, the mere mention of digital brings the almost now-standard response of “Ah, digital.. We’re all over Facebook and Twitter.” But the fact is, is that digi has already superseded social media. Facebook and Twitter, whilst continuing to be fantastic conversational tools and now the industry standard (for want of a better phrase - it’s late okay!) We have seen laptop sales drop significantly in the last year as people embrace tablets and mobile internet usage is now more common than ‘traditional’ computer usage - as PR’s we should now be creating content with mobile at the heart of use.
Sure, for this particular trip my location was pre-determined by the availability of free accommodation and the chance to kick a German’s arse at Pro Evo (an activity that never gets old by the way) but my decision on how to spend my free time, where to eat, what to visit etc was determined not by brochures, journalists or travel websites.. but, largely, by UGC - wikitravel, independent apps etc.
Australia have recently focussed their marketing budget on social media but for many European cities, such as Seville, the real value in digital will not be through ‘traditional digital channels’ but by adding the interactive element to their visit.
