For the first time ever, the 2022 FIFA World Cup is taking place in the Winter and so Lucozade Sport leveraged spiking soccer excitement by mixing football and the festive season with ‘The Very Unofficial England-ish Football Supporters Jumper’.
Working with agency Adam&EveDDB, Lucozade marked the first ever Winter World Cup with a merchandising based, marketing burst based around England Football and festive football jumpers.
The limited edition jumpers are a playful mashup of the traditionally naff UK Christmas Sweater tradition blended with soft drink’s support for the England nation team and its self-confessed ‘love for iconic fan-favourite football shirts of the 1990s’.
Owned by Japanese company Suntory, energy and sports soft drink Lucozade developed the initiative following insight that the younger generation of England supporters look set to be spending time enjoying international football in distinctly chilly beer gardens this winter and so the brand sought to equip festive fans with w3hat it describes as ‘the most enviable, unofficial England-ish football merchandise’.
The collection was promoted through creative starring rapper Niko B (aka Tom Austin) and model Deba Hekmat and which was shot by photographer Kaj Jefferies and styled by Phoebe Lettice.
The campaign, which rolled out from 28 October, includes an OOH strand led by London fly posters, a print/press strand focusing on football and fashion publications, a social media and influencer strand across the brand’s own channels and a PR push.
The tongue-in-cheek sweater was even named in the ‘Top 10 Coolest Things’ by UK GQ Magazine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkN0giqrn9K/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD7aPNiDBR4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jNIJhEFIOw
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkYbf6duG4h/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkjAKoig1Vv/
After an unforgettable summer for the England women’s team, the men’s team are about to take on a winter campaign like no other,” explained Lucozade Sport Head Of Marketing Tom Bell. “It was this uniqueness, and the England fever that will follow, that inspired us to create a limited-edition jumper for fans up and down the country.”
Agency Adam&EveDDB Creative Director Andy McAnaney added: “The Very Unofficial England-ish Football Supporter’s Jumper brings a bit of Lucozade Sport’s positive energy to the upcoming winter football tournament in a bold and memorable way, while not taking itself too seriously.”
Comment
This branded merchandise option might prove handy to home fans facing with a frosty World Cup in the northern hemisphere’s winter.
It is a similar tactic to that recently employed by FFF merchandise partner InterSport in its recent #FamilleBleue ‘Passion Size’ French national team shirt campaign.
Whether Nike and Marks & Spence – the Official lit Supplier and the Official Tailor of England Football respectively, will be equally as positive remains to be seen.
The ‘unofficial’ and ‘England-ish’ terms seem slightly incongruous as Lucozade is actually has served as the Official Sports Drink and Hydration Partner to the England men’s national football team since 2008 and in March 2019 extended its partnership with The FA by signing a multi-year extension that also included the England women’s national football team.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.