#sia2021 What Makes Award-winning Work – Campaign Of The Year
As 2021 begins, Sport Industry Group is looking ahead to the Sport Industry Awards 2021 – which is set to honour and celebrate the work done by the industry throughout a most difficult year.
As we do so, this series looks at some of the trophy-winning work from last year’s Awards, celebrating what made them stand out from the pack, this time looking at Paddy Power – winner of the UK Campaign of the Year award – and Dove Men+Care – winner of the International Campaign of the Year award.
In 2021, the Sport Industry Awards will combine the previous UK Campaign of the Year and International Campaign of the Year categories to create the Campaign of the Year Award in association with YouGovSport, but here, we look back at them both individually. Throughout 2020, we saw just how important it is for a campaign to work across local, national, and international levels to be at its most effective.
Ahead of the 2019/20 football season, Paddy Power took on the controversial topic of betting sponsorship in sport with its Save our Shirt campaign.
The betting brand used its sponsorship of a number of football clubs across the UK to highlight the issue, removing their logo from the clubs’ shirts and leaving them blank. But in order to raise awareness of the issue, the company first created an elaborate prank to stoke public outrage.
Here’s the new home kit that #htafc will wear in this evening’s pre-season game against @officiallydale.
The kit goes on sale at @htafcmegastore this coming Saturday, 20 July 2019. pic.twitter.com/VZA2OKoXMl
— Huddersfield Town (@htafc) July 17, 2019
Paddy Power’s Head of PR & Mischief, and Sport Industry NextGen Leader Lee Price explained on a recent Sport Industry Spotlight session that the brand had understood its position in the market and used it to their advantage.
“It’s about that cultural relevance but knowing a) what the culture is and what people are thinking, and b) having an awareness of what people think of you and being able to harness that,” Price told Spotlight.
“The reason this one [the Save Our Shirt campaign] worked is that we were confident that people believed that Paddy Power would actually put this logo on a shirt. Without that key kicker, the campaign launch wouldn’t have been as huge as it was. We had to analyse ourselves and know that, yes, people would go for this.”
The unique campaign started off by reminding the public of the problem (in this case betting sponsorships in sport), and turned the issue into a national story, only to break it down a day later and present a solution: for the rest of the season Huddersfield played in a kit with no logo, but every fan knew who the sponsor was.
A campaign with a similarly important message was the winner of the International Campaign of the Year Award, as Unilever brand Dove Men+Care attempted to show a softer side to masculinity.
“I’ve played in some great places, with some great people. But being a father is the best job in the world.”
We couldn’t agree more with you, @AlunWynJones
Care For Every Position You Play. pic.twitter.com/pIMAVndnNc
— Dove Men+Care (@DoveMenUK) September 10, 2019
Using its sponsorship of rugby – a sport known for its toughness – and leveraging it during a World Cup year, the campaign featured famous faces from each of the major countries, creating buy-in around the world.
The campaign then highlighted the players’ softer side off the pitch, showing how they care for their families, their teammates and themselves through a series of videos.
In 2021, the Sport Industry Awards will combine the UK Campaign of the Year category with International Campaign of the Year to create one unified category. Entries are open, and will close on Thursday 18th February at 5pm.
