Specsavers continued its familiar tactics of cheekily leveraging major sports events through eyesight-themed humour by celebrating England’s progress at UEFA Euro 2020 through a billboard stunt and linked social campaign claiming ‘It’s Coming Home’.
The chorus from the team’s official Euro 1996 song by David Badiel and Frank Skinner with the Lightening Seeds is once again on every England fan’s lips, so Specsavers put up a single giant billboard mimicking the style of the familiar eye test chart found in all opticians which simply reads ‘It’s coming home’ in letters of decreasing size.
The work, creative by Tangerine Communications (which was appointed to lead the brand’s social marketing strategy following a three-way pitch back in November 2020), took a low latency OOH response to match which eschewed its nationally known ‘Should Have Gone To Specsavers’ and instead tapped into the sense of national optimism.
The outdoor execution carried the national message of football hope and wrapped it up in a Specsavers package and unveiled the billboard at 6.51pm on Tuesday evening as the final whistle blew confirming England’s last 16 win over Germany whilst millions of delighted fans were singing the exact three words.
The outdoor poster was immediately amplified across Specsavers social channels.
You’ve got to see it to believe it…#ENG #ItsComingHome pic.twitter.com/Y8Tfc4so70
— Specsavers (@Specsavers) June 29, 2021
Tangerine Senior Creative Lead Martin Kevill commented: “You can have a great idea, but knowing when to put it live and finding those right opportunities to engage is everything. And in order to do that you have to have three things…. a great idea, a team in place around the clock and trust with the client. In this case, when the final whistle blew at the end of the England Germany game, we had everything we needed to push the button.”
“Ever since 1996, It’s Coming Home has always been a huge part of England’s fan culture, but during the 2018 World Cup, it was swallowed whole by the internet and became a meme,” added Kevill. “People all over the country were looking for messages of optimism, signs of hope… Tangerine wanted to capture that with Specsavers.
Even Head of Social Media at Specsavers Lisa Hales wrote: “Being German (and Welsh), I shouldn’t love this, but I do. Well done Specsavers’s social team and Tangerine.”
Comment:
As well as flashpoint sports event like the 2020 Ashes, Tangerine Communications has also worked with the British multinational optical retail chain on creative over the lockdown which similarly focused on topics and themes that united the country in tough times: previous work included the ‘Customer Stories Series’ campaign featuring testimonies of Specsavers’s store partners describing “how their teams had gone above and beyond for their local communities”.
We can confirm we will offer Jack Leach free glasses for life https://t.co/7rfPBK77GS
— Specsavers (@Specsavers) August 25, 2019
Other similar Specsavers’ sports sponsorship and ambush stunt marketing range from 2018’s ‘Test Experts‘ to 2013’s sponsorship of the RLWC ‘Tournament Officials‘.
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