GSK’s Voltaren leveraged its partnership with Aussie A-League soccer side Western Sydney Wanderers FC (WSW) through a May campaign tackling the ‘Grumps’ or, in other words, muscle pain which is so often ignored by men of a certain age.
The activation is spearheaded by a hero spot which follows the story of George, a committed Wanderers fan and inveterate hypochondriac who wants to maintain his active lifestyle but is constantly plagued by the ‘Grumps’ because he stubbornly ignores his back pain right up until his wife Dinah insists he does something about it.
The commercial also stars WSW players James Troisi, Tate Russell and skipper Dylan McGowan.
VOLTARENx WSW – The Grumps from Chisel on Vimeo.
The pain relief brand campaign, developed in harness with creative production agency CHISEL, emerged following an agency brief to ‘create a piece that leveraged the brand’s ongoing partnership with the club but also touted muscle and back pain relief product Voltaren Emulgel.
“CHISEL came back to us with five great ideas to bring our brand partnership with WSW to life,” recalled GSK Voltaren Senior Area Brand Manager James Meins. “But in the end, we all loved the insight around the frustration on living with back and muscle pain causing grumpiness in guys, and we felt that the amusing character of George would resonate with everyone.”
“Being a football tragic can be painful; whether it’s the team you support having a rough patch of form or your own physical soreness from the Saturday comp. The Wanderers are elite, super-fit athletes, and we didn’t want to show them with muscle pain in any real sense. Which led us to then think about some of the club’s older, diehard fans,” explained CHISEL Founder and Creative Director Zak Kaczmarek.
“We know that when people (particularly men of a certain age) suffer back or muscle pain, they’re often initially stubborn to do anything about it. The downside of ignoring it is that you become increasingly grumpy, and this impacts your mates and loved ones. We saw potential for humour there. Hence our idea to take the ‘epidemic of grumpiness’ to its extreme logical conclusion. We’re hoping that it drives consideration for Voltaren Emulgel and encourages grumpy blokes to get their old footy injuries treated, so they can continue to live an active lifestyle.”
The campaign also seeks to leverage spiking soccer interest as the A-League reaches a 2020/21 season climax in June.
The campaign was created for GSK Voltaren Brand Managers James Meins and Lilien Chen with Western Sydney Wanderers FC Head Of Corporate Partnerships Steve Petrovksi by a team at creative and production agency CHISEL which included Head Of Production Isabelle Seeto, Executive Producer Pat Sidoti, Creative Directors Zak Kaczmarek and Nick Snelling, DP Don Buppapirak, Producer Lucinda Hayden and Gaffer Matt Willis.
Comment:
We all know a few middle-aged men who still believe they have the same kind of football skills and athletic ability as when they were younger, so this is a fairly relatable campaign idea.
GSK is a primary partner of Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club: an Australian professional football team based in Western Sydney (New South Wales) which plays in the country’s premier soccer A-League (run by the Football Federation Australia).
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