Paddy Power Reaping the Rewards with Strong Online Marketing Focus

Irish bookmakers Paddy have today recorded impressive half year profits up 21% from last year to £54.5 million. Which was firmly thanks to an impressive taking at Euro 2012 in which the company took €78 million worth of bets over the three week tournament.

 The major coup of the tournament came for the company when Danish striker Nicklas Bendner dropped his shorts to reveal his lucky Paddy Power pants after scoring against Portugal.Unsurprisingly Paddy Power immediately tweeted images of the pants, and thus proving the most inspirational piece of ambush marketing at the tournament.

 Uefa promptly banned the Arsenal striker for one 2014 qualifying game and dished out a record €100,000 fine.Compare this to the two fines to the Spanish & Russian football associations for racism which totalled €50,000 and it just shows how the antics of the bookmaker riled the authorities with

 The record profits of this came down to the vision of Chief executive Patrick Kennedy who regards football tournaments as marketing opportunities. Which is strongly been developed by the companies marketing focus.

 This coming in the form of engaging Facebook & Twitter feeds, short punchy TV adverts (see below) and close to the bone marketing which often comes a cropper of the ASA. Paddy Power also have the envious reputation of the most complained advert of 2010 which this humble blog looked at previously which this humble blog looked at previously.

 

 However crucially the companies policy of embracing mobile has been key in the financial profits of the bookmakers. Paddy Power are the only book-maker who has mobile betting apps across all mobile formats, including Nokia & Blackberry.

 Last year Paddy Power said that 34% of it’s customer base where accessing the site using their mobile device. This is set to rise significantly over the next year, and with the companies engaging digital content it’s hard not to see a rise in profit for the flamboyant Irish bookmakers.

Germany's Adidas eyes Euro supremacy

Words: Ronan Shields

Source: Adidas

Adidas has raised its earnings forecast for this year to €1.6bn based on the back of an Euro 2012 boost as both Germany and Greece bear its iconic three strips in this evening’s Quarter Final.

The sportswear giant’s football unit believes that its marketing activity is set to yield record dividends for a single year, with earlier sales forecasts coming in at €1.5bn.

Speaking yesterday at a conference hosted in Warsaw, Adidas’ global CEO Herbert Hainer said the boost in sales, including the shipment of over 1m Germany replica tops, meant it was set to be the most successful year yet for the European sportswear brand.

The increasing challenge of Nike in the football sector has prompted the sportswear giant to up its marketing and sponsorship activity and UEFA’s Euro 2012 tournament has been a focal point ahead of this year's Olympics.

Recently this has included Adidas sponsoring the official match balls of UEFA’s Euro 2012 and the launch of the brand’s first football-themed Tumblr website as the tournament began.

Adidas is using its Tumblr page, which is a micro-blogging site similar to Twitter but with more of an emphasis on multimedia content, to upload content featuring its products and brand ambassadors, see below.

As the tournament progresses the German sports giant is also using other digital media outlets as part of its digital media activity during the tournament.

This includes the use of the Twitter hash tag #unleash as six of the original 16 tournament finalists, including tonight’s Quarter Finalists Germany and Greece, wore Adidas-branded kits.

Of course, there is an irony that German-based Adidas’ brand should emblazon the shirts of both tonight’s contestants given the ongoing economic woes of Greece and the friction this is causing with Germany in the political arena.

In fact, when looking at the football jerseys of all the P.I.I.G.s nations (Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Greece) in the Euro economic zone. Only Portugal (Nike) and Ireland (Umbro) sport jerseys manufactured by non-German brands, Puma makes Italy’s kit.

But with Nike, Umbro’s current parent company, looking to sell-off its Manchester-based brand that could soon change. Who says 'it’s only a game'?

Ronaldo fronts Nike social activity as Portugal kicks-off Quarter Final showdown

Source: Nike

Words: Ronan Shields

Nike’s football is often keen to leverage the game’s international sporting tournaments to bolster its social marketing efforts and today Cristiano Ronaldo is at the centre of its activity.

This comes as the Portuguese side, captained by Ronaldo himself, prepares to kick off against the Czech Republic in the UEFA tournament’s first Quarter Final game. 

As arguably Nike’s most high profile brand ambassador, Ronaldo’s visage fronts the latest Facebook and social media campaign from Nike Football, dubbed ‘Power your Nation’.

Source: Nike

 Facebook users are encouraged to upload pictures of themselves taking part in football action with the campaign also running with the slogan ‘My Time is Now’.

Nike is also encouraging Twitter users to participate in its social campaign by tweeting their sporting achievements using the hashtag #makeitcount, which is also emblazoned on much of the outdoor activity, see image left. 

All of this continues from the sportswear brand's multi-million campaign launched ahead of the tournament with a viral video featuring its top brand sponsors, including Ronaldo and France's Frank Ribery, see video at bottom of page.  

This follows on from Sagres, the foremost Portuguese branded lager, running a ‘We are a Beautiful Nation’ campaign where it encouraged users to submit photos of themselves to its Facebook page, see below.

Source: Sagres

The eventual winning entrant being flown to last weekend’s game between Portugal and Denmark in Ukraine.

Earlier in the year, Total Digital Football reviewed the Ronaldo-branded mobile app. 

'Do I not Like that?!' - England's growing influence on Facebook

Source: The FA

Words: Art Bugmann 

England’s qualification for the Quarter Finals of UEFA’s Euro 2012 tournament was accompanied by a dominating performance over Ukraine earlier this week during the sides' final group stage game.  

Sound like a tenuous conclusion? That’s because we’re not talking football, we’re talking about the England Team’s performance on its Facebook page.

While England’s football was widely regarded as adequate on the night, its performance on Facebook was far superior to Ukraine’s according to research from social media agency.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Taking into account posts and fan engagement, Wildfire found that despite a slow start, the England’s Facebook fan page grew throughout the match, in terms of comments, ‘Likes’, score predictions and shares.

Source: Wildfire

Even after taking into consideration the vast disparity between the size of the two pages to get a fair comparison (England 1.5m fans - Ukraine 10,023), England’s posts still got up to twice as much engagement.

England was also ahead on the absolute figures. For example, regarding shares on Facebook posts, England scored more than 32,000 while Ukraine only got 711.

England’s Facebook page used comments and direct questions to boost engagement with fans, see below.

Meanwhile, Ukraine preferred to use more picture-based posts from the ground itself, see below.

Source: Wildfire

So what can we draw from Wildfire’s analysis?

England’s population is marginally greater than that of Ukraine, so it is evident that England’s fans are far more inclined to engage with their team on Facebook than Ukraine’s fans.

In a 60,000 seat stadium, England’s 4,000 fans were far outnumbered by the vociferous home crowd. Yet England’s Facebook performance showed that the team did not lack for support online. 

What of Ukraine’s lesser Facebook showing? It was the biggest game in Ukraine’s football history, so maybe Ukraine’s fans were in and around the Donbass Arena, rather than in front of their computers. 

Speaking of the English football team and ‘Likes’ we decided to link below to a documentary following the national side’s doomed bid to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup where then manager Graham Taylor coined the malapropism: ‘Do I not like that?!’ 

Wayne Rooney social portal launches as England return looms

Source: Official Wayne Rooney

Words: Ronan Shields

Just as Wayne Rooney prepares to re-enter the England-fold against Ukraine this evening, he has launched an official website to aggregate his social media feeds.

The site, imaginatively named Official Wayne Rooney, combines the star’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds so users can trace the posts on each forum in a chronological order.  

For instance, yesterday the England and Manchester United star used the website to comment on his widely expected return to the England starting line-up as his national side prepare to line-up against Ukraine in the side's final group game of the UEFA championship, see below.

The site also contains a timeline featuring highlights of the player’s career such as his first team debuts, even those dating back to his youth whenever he was a mascot for his boyhood club Everton aged ten.

The site was created by digital agency Lightmaker, which was also behind a number of Manchester United sites, and in a Q&A attributed to Rooney, the striker said it was meant to bring him closer to fans, see below.

"I want it to be the place where my fans and partners can see what’s really happening in my world. There will be some big things happening on the site to mark the 10^th anniversary of my Premier League debut on 17 August and lots more to come after that…"

– Wayne Rooney 

In the interview, Rooney goes on to say the website, which has been optimised to be used on desktop and mobile devices, will be a place where fans can see what’s really going on in his world.


However, in a world where footballers have become brands in themselves, the more cynical elements within the Total Digital Football’s team can’t help but wonder if this is another exercise in PR control.

Source: Wayne Rooney's Twitter feed

After all having a central hub for all Rooney’s user-generated content gives the player’s PR team a perfect opportunity to vet said content before it becomes publicly available. Although, we can never be certain. 

Let’s face it in the days when the press have limited access to top-flight footballers a single tweet from a high profile player, such as Rooney, Rio Ferdinand or the ever-provocative Joey Barton, can be enough to generate acres of media coverage.

Total Digital Football has documented this phenomena before with Joey Barton's end-of-season Twitter rant still ranking as one of the most popular posts ever to have been published on this blog. 

Given the fact that Rooney is prone to the occasional outburst of temper, this seems like a sensible move from the player’s own brand management team, remember the below verbal attack on a certain section of England supporters post England's 2010 FIFA World Cup 2010 game against Algeria?

Wayne Rooney's verbal attack on fans

Source: YouTube

Uefa looking to exploit American market during the Euro's.

In recent years, viewing figures for televised sports have suffered a downward trend. The causes for this are two-fold: the proliferation of televised sport and sport channels, and the shift from free-to-air to pay-TV. Particularly during the global financial crisis of 2008, the collapse in advertising revenue made it difficult for free-to-air channels to compete with high-bidding pay-TV channels.

However, fear not! Football is as popular as ever and more so: The live cumulative average audience for the 2010 World Cup was Eight-billion, and each game at Euro 2012 is expected to draw an average world-wide audience of 150million viewers.

If such figures stack up, it will make Euro 2012 a ratings spectacular equal to, or greater, than if each match were a Champion’s League Final; a match which is already more popular than the NFL Super Bowl.

FIFA’s average earnings per match in South Africa was $56.7million while the same for matches in Poland and Ukraine is set to be $51.6million. Perhaps this reflects the widely held view that if the FIFA World Cup has the most prestige attached, then the UEFA European Cup has the better quality.

‘We would never claim to be bigger than the World Cup… But you can see in certain territories, if your own national team is doing well you get some very good numbers,’ said David Taylor, chief executive of UEFA Events. ‘You can see it is mega… when we are talking to sponsors and others, they are interested in the wider global impact.’

Kick-off times in South Africa were tailored to suit the Asian market, and this year UEFA has made sure that America can enjoy Euro 2012, with kick-off times conglomerating around their early afternoon. In 1998, the USA was ranked 23rd in the world’s largest football markets, but has now grown to 7th in 2010. Clearly, UEFA is hoping to tap into the potential growth areas away from the traditional football-loving but saturated South American and European markets.

Traditionally, the two most watched teams at the World Cup have been Brazil and England. Brazil are anticipated for playing attractive ‘samba’ style football, while England benefits from the ‘home of football’ moniker and the global appeal of the Premier League. Alas, Brazil will not be featuring at Euro 2012, but the team who had the largest average audience after Brazil in South Africa - Germany, will be. The diversity in their team, which boosted interest from nations like Ghana, Poland and Turkey, contributed to their appeal.

So with England set to kick off a few hours away, we can expect a massive audience for the kick off against France from across the world.

By Art Bugmann

Will Tweeting England players push the team onto glory?

The England team for Euro 2012 has been told to be wary when using Twitter. The Spanish and Danish teams have been banned from its use during the tournament. Clearly, some football  establishments fear the potential repercussions of 'wayward' Tweeting. 'Players need to be told what they can and can't say. As long as there's emotion and somebody can make a statement at the end of a mobile phone, there will always be social media cock-ups', says

Peter Wood, social media account manager at Steak, a digital marketing agency.

Yet, however important it may be to avoid a Barton-esque Twitter row during a major international tournament, the argument against limiting the use of social media is simply put: the Danish goalkeeper Tomas Sorenson, described it as a 'shame' to be unable to speak with fans, and the Danish Sports Minister, Uffe Elbaek,declared it 'a violation of freedom of speech.'

A curb on freedom of speech it may be, but football managers have made their feelings plain  on the matter. Just ask Neil Warnock, who blamed Twitter for losing his job at QPR. Ask Alan Pardew, who said that, 'putting something out instantly can be very, very, damaging - not only to a football club but to any organisation.' 'Sir Alex shared with me quite ferociously how difficult this Twitter issue is for clubs, particularly managers.'Last August, Pardew issued legal warnings to Newcastle United players that criticising the club was a breach of contract.

Perhaps the FA is particularly worried about what might emanate from certain England players at the upcoming tournament. Wayne Rooney is suspended from England's first two matches at Euro 2012 and will have time on his hands. He has not been afraid in the past to express disenchantment.

He notoriously criticised England fans after the dire game against Algeria during World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and caused astonishment last year when he offered to fight a 'fan' who had insulted him on Twitter. The FA might well be glad that Rio Ferdinand is not part of the squad going to Poland and Ukraine, since he has had his fair share of Twitter

controversy. In April last year he famously exchanged insults with Piers Morgan for four hours on Twitter.

The advent of Twitter and its real-time communication between players and everyone else has rejuvenated and accelerated an age-old issue. If you limit or block someone's communications  then you are infringing their right to freedom of speech. If you allow unlimited freedom of speech then you will inevitably get abuses of that right. Which is more important for England's representatives at Euro 2012? An unadulterated though silent focus on the tournament? Or their right to speak out when and how they wish?

Understandably the FA is inclined to support the former and take no risks. They hope that wariness of Twitter will slow potential exposure of off-pitch controversy and reduce the potential for distraction.

Steven Gerrard told a news conference on Friday that, 'We've been told not to be Tweeting anything unnecessary.' Maybe England's players will be spending more time than they should,

wondering whether or not one of their Tweets be unnecessary.

By Art Bugmann. 

Adult rating handed to Paddy Power 'goal-line' ad

In the same weekend as Andy Carroll’s non-goal in the FA Cup Final stirred an ongoing debate, Paddy’s Power’s goal-line technology ad has landed itself an 18-rating from YouTube.

The 30-second ad is an irreverent take on the possible England football team’s behaviour while at EURO 2012 this summer and depicts Eastern European ladies posing in a provocative manner.

It concludes by proposing “goal-line” technology to ensure England’s footballers don’t “cross the line” while off the pitch and is a satirical take on the bawdy antics of top-flight footballers.

While this may sound innocent enough it’s perhaps the graphical depictions of ‘goal-line penetration’, see below, accompanying which has caused such a stir in YouTube towers.

As a result, web-surfers clicking through to the ad must "agree that this warning will no longer appear for content flagged as inappropriate." See the ad below and make up your own mind.

Paddy Power – Goal-line Technology

The ad is true to the controversial brand-voice that Paddy Power has adopted and follows the bookmaker receiving a flood of complaints for its blind football/cat-kicking ad campaign. 

Ever eager to capitalise on an opportunity to gain publicity Paddy Power has issued a press release labelling YouTube as “the fun police” highlighting that the piece had already had a six-figure view count.

A Paddy Power spokesman said, “This is political correctness gone bonkers and it seems that our censorship friends could do with some common sense technology!”

Brand's stepping up presence ahead of Euro 2012.

With just 37 day's to go before the European Championships the race is on  for brands to win the hearts and minds of fans before the big kick off. Total Digital Football has a round up of the latest brand campaigns.

With England ending their much feted search for a manager by appointing Norwegian speaking, globe trotting, and all round good egg Roy Hodgeson. Uncle 'Woy' and his softly spoken dulcet tones will now begin the difficult task of rallying his troops ahead of the tournament where England by all accounts are predicted to bow out in unspectacular fashion. Thankfully the brands who sponsor the official England side has started the excitement with a number of television and online campaigns with an aim to boost our nation's faltering hopes at the tournament.

First up official snack provider of the England national team Mars who recently launched a brand new advert in line with the Euro's staring England players Theo Wallcott, Glenn Johnson and Scott Parker, along with PFA player of the year Robin Van Persie. All of which can be viewed in the video below. It's part of a wider campaign over the course of the tournament which includes a give away of 1000 special limited edition t-shirts. Coupled with extensive social media presence pushing the "play your part" tagline over Facebook.





Carlsberg are also ramping up there presence in the market, to go with the brands new phone application which they recently launched. In conjunction with the offical beer of the tournament the brand is also the official beer of the England national team. To celebrate the brand has launched a limited edition pack for the tournament, featuring Leighton Baines, Darren Bent, Joe Hart and Ashley Young (see above). They have also arranged a tie up with Sports Direct to make sure that all customer's are entitled to a 10% discount on all England branded products. Expect the brewer to also up it's digital offering through Facebook and brand ambassador Gareth Southgate. 

Eager not to miss out on the branding frenzie the official sports drink of England Lucozade, has just released a new advert. The 30 second advert which made it's debut during the break of Monday's Manchester derby. It star's the drink brand's ambassador Ashley Young, talking about the importance of remaining focused for the whole 90 minutes, presumably if it doesn't involve throwing yourself to the ground to win a penalty. Along with this the energy drink is currently running a promo to win an official England football from especially marked up packets.

So with the Championships just over a month away brands tied to England and the tournament in a  official capacity are making there presence felt. In a busy summer of sport brands will be looking to make there mark with consumers, and this is where i feel that truly interactive online and creative campaigns will stand out brands for there competitors.

Orange and Carlsberg announce official mobile applications for Euro 2012.

The race for the most desirable Euro 2012 mobile application hotted up today with the announcement of two official mobile applications from two principle sponsors of the tournament.

Both Carlsberg & Orange today announced the launch of official applications as they bid to appeal to the masses ahead of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine which kicks of in 66 days time. Carlsberg announced that their app which will me made available for free across both Itunes and the updated  Google Play Shop.

It will include exclusive content in the build up to and during the tournament, this will come in the form of the latest news, live match commentary along with exclusive content from former Manchester United & Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. (See the video below!). The drinks manufacturer is also promising special content for the England national team who they are also an official sponsor for, which should include official Uk brand Ambassador Gareth Southgate. He should be at the tournament as his role as a pundit for ITV.

French telecoms group Orange announced an official tie up with mobile phone manufacturer Sony mobile, as they look to create a number of bespoke products linked to the tournament. Linked to this will be the official Euro 2012 smart phone application. Which would include cross promotion competitions to win both Sony smartphones & tournament tickets. Currently there is no word on the price of the application, however expect a clamber from developers to create the most desirable free App, similar to a raft of apps created during the World Cup in 2010.

Both sponsor's will be looking to appeal to the raft of supporters expected to visit both Poland and Ukraine, when the tournament kicks off on the 8th of June. Co-host's Poland entertain Greece on the opening game of the tournament.

Coca-Cola & Pepsi Football adverts- What's the big deal?

Pepsi have today launched a brand new 90 second advert to coincide with the European Championships featuring some of the biggest footballing stars on the planet. The advert titled Kick in the Mix also features it's own theme tune from Scottish dance DJ Calvin Harris.

The advert features several world stars including Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres & Frank Lampard, as they crowd surf their way to a Pepsi vending machine. The advert features all the footballing flair and charisma that we have come to expect from Pepsi advert's over the years. Even though the brand is not an official supplier for the European Championships they regularly roll out big adverts in tournament years to go toe-to-toe with rivals Coca-Cola.

With Pepsi often favoring well known brand ambassadors over feel good non star lead taken by the official sponsors. The two adverts should highlight the traditional family orientated vibe given off in the coke advert, in comparison to the brash superstar angle ran by Pepsi. Off the back of Pepsi's latest campaign they have created an official campaign teaming up with Calvin Harris & Neo to create the song Kick in the Mix. Pepsi will ideally be hoping the song become's the unofficial anthem of the tournament in a similar vein to Wave Your Flag by  K'naan for Coca-Cola during the World Cup in 2010. 

Either way the advert is a statement of intent from Pepsi, as they look to boost sales in what traditionally is the  brand's biggest time for sales in the Summer. 

                                            

Hyundai Ramps up Euro Sponsorship by naming brand ambassadors.

Korean car manufacturers Hyundai have announced a number of high profile sponsorship deals with players, to coincide with their top tier Sponsorship deal for the European Championships.


The firm who have been major sponsors of the European Championships from 2000 have announced link ups with five key players to raise their profile in the run up to the tournament which is being joint hosted by Poland & Ukraine. French striker Karim Benzima, & Chelsea and England star Daniel Sturridge  is joined by Spanish international Iker Casillas, Germany’s Lukas Podolski, Italy’s Giuseppe Rossi  in “Team Hyundai”.


The Korean manufacturer will be battling directly with Vauxhall & Mercedes Benz. With Vauxhall  recently secured sponsorship rights to all home nation's clubs in the United Kingdom. Whilst Mercedes Benz have had a long term relationship with the German Football Federation (DFB). 


The move has been welcomed by  the Senior Vice President of Hyundai Motor Europe, Allan Rushforth: "The fivesome should serve as a reminder to fans “of the excitement, dynamism and passion that football inspires – corresponding with Hyundai’s road car achievements.”


Alongside the new sponsors Hyundai is offering you the chance to win some tickets to the European Championship Semi-Finals if you test drive their new car. You can see the competition here