Case study: Paddy Powers up players
By Simon Fuller. Bath time. Paddy Power turned to both social media and the nostalgia of football fans during a campaign to develop its new TV ad, Pass Me The Soap.
The UK bookmaker asked Facebook and Bebo users to pick which one of half a dozen footballers should feature in an ad showing him in the bath. There was no David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo on offer. Instead, creative agency Karmarama featured memorable players from the near past. Peter Beardsley, Neville Southall and Bruce Grobelaar, among other old favourites, each had a Facebook page dedicated to them, and gained a vote every time a user became a ‘fan’.
“We didn’t use really famous footballers, but these footballers are more obscure, and more interesting,” says Josh Herdman, account director at Karmarama. “They are fringe players but people definitely remember them.”
And this nostalgia trip triggered an emotive response from social-media users, with Facebookers using each player’s page wall to voice memories and comments. Membership on each player’s page varied hugely though – Beardsley’s star still shone with 152 members, but Viv Anderson garnered a mere five fans.
Nostalgia is what made these particular footballers right for this kind of vote. “[These players] have an underground cult following,” Herdman says. “For example, Carlton Palmer was never that famous but is known for his World Cup performances. He’s more famous for being a bad player perhaps.”
For Karmarama, key was that the campaign combined entertainment along with an explanation of the advantages of betting with Paddy Power. “The way to help explain quite a difficult concept – concession betting – in a simpler way was to use these footballers in extraordinary situations,” explains Herdman.
The results of the vote, featuring the winning player, ex-England international and football pundit Carlton Palmer, were shown on TV and on the campaign’s minisite.
