Npower Launches Official Track Of Team England
Team England sponsor, npower, has launched the official anthem of Commonwealth Games England (CGE) – a reimagined version of Jerusalem – to support ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in April.
Working with lead sponsorship agency, Ear to the Ground and record label, Syco, npower aimed to create a campaign built on the theme ‘home support’.
This year’s Games will see the largest group of English athletes ever travel overseas and npower’s Team England campaign also aims to make CGE’s anthem more accessible for a modern day fan base.
In 2010, Jerusalem was chosen by fans to replace Land of Hope and Glory over God Save The Queen as the official CGE anthem. However, despite the fanfare around the change, the track has only been used for medal ceremonies.
To bring the track up to date, pianist and music producer Tokio Myers – known for his winning performance on Britain’s Got Talent – was brought in to help modernise the traditional English hymn.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist and star of The Voice UK Jazmin Sawyers, was also recruited to lend her vocals to the track.
Recorded at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios, the 23 year old law graduate, who won long jump silver at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a 6.5m leap, was accompanied by a 54 piece orchestra and full choir. Sawyers was joined by teammates including Max Whitlock, Ellie Robinson, Jack Laugher and Lois Toulson, before they all head down under in advance of the official opening on 4th April.
npower’s head of marketing, Ed Madden said: “For many of our athletes, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will be their first experience at this level and far away from many of their fans, family and friends when they need them most. By reimagining Jerusalem, we want to give athletes the ultimate power of support whilst competing away from England.
“We’re extremely proud to be supporting Team England at such an exciting time for the Commonwealth Games. As the only major event to feature able-bodied and para-athlete competitions together and an equal number of medal events for men and women, it particularly resonated with us.
“It celebrates the best of sport where diversity and equality are embraced and celebrated. That was such an important factor in npower’s support for the Superhero Series and our partnership with Commonwealth Games England raises this to another level.”
Creative lead and managing director at Ear to the Ground, Richard Adelsberg, added: “The ambition was to give Team England cultural relevance amongst more mainstream sport and music fan bases. Our Fan Intelligence department identified a unique opportunity, with public support for Jerusalem as a national sporting anthem tracking far higher than God Save the Queen.
“We thought it was important for npower to play a meaningful role as CGE’s official partner and by modernising the existing anthem, we’ve brought together music, sport and culture to give the nation something they could really get behind.”
Released today [16th March] on radio, VOD and Spotify, the campaign will also include social media activity on the ground in Australia as the athletes prepare for the games to start.
