Leeds United Football Club (LUFC) partner Wish, the US based eCommerce shopping platform, celebrated its sponsorship of the Premier League club through a player fronted campaign honouring its famous Elland Road.
The stadium focused campaign, created with agency Whale Amsterdam, positions the club’s famous ground as its ‘12th Man’ and describes it as the anchor and the heart and soul of the club.
Midfielder Weston McKennie starts off the spot and is joined by teammates Brenden Aaronson (attacking midfield), forward Crysencio Summerville alongside Rachel Yeadon and these player interview cuts are complimented by archival game footage from the stadium. While a fan echoes the players’ words and sentiments by expressing her wish to be able bottle and sell the sound of Elland Road on the shopping app where you can buy anything and everything – Wish.
The spot closes with a shot of the legendary Leeds stadium appearing to float on an island in the sky.
The campaign was conceived and created by Whale Amsterdam’s Kenn MacRae and Jake Kedge and Wish’s Martín Rossetti, while the hero spot was helmed by Director Sau Ali.
The team at client Wish on the project included Creative Director Martín Rossetti, Program Manager Kathleen Adams and Art Director Ryan Monroe worked with Leeds United FC Head of Partnerships Lucy Gale and Marketing Coordinator Harry Jones.
The creative agency team at Whale AMS which conceived the campaign was led by Executive Creative Director Kenn McRae, Creative Director Jake Kedge, Executive Producer Ezra Xenos and Producer Winnie Dumell, while the group at production company Great Coat Films included Director Sau Ali, Line Producer Ersan Beskades, while post production and VFX was handled by Splash Studios and music and sound by Birdbrain.
The campaign was created and produced through a collaboration between agency Whale and Splash Studios which handled edit and grade. the special effects were created by VFX Artist Sem Leuven of 50mm.amsterdam, with Colourist Luke Osborne (who extracted the club’s signature yellow and white colours out of the shots), with Flame transitions by Rebecca Weltner.
“I grew up supporting Leeds, and I spent a lot of time at Elland Road watching them play– so it was very fun to work on a project in a place where I have such good memories,” said Leeds-born Luke Osbourne.
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Other recent Wish/Leeds activations have included January and March 2023’s ‘United Together’ and ‘Almost Everything You Wish For’.
It was back on 143 July 2022, that Leeds United unveiled e-commerce platform Wish as the club’s sleeve sponsor for the 2022/23 season. The sponsor and rights owner having initially linked up on a lower tier tie-up back in 2018. The one-year deal saw Wish branding appear on the shirt sleeve throughout the season for the Leeds United Men’s, Women’s and Academy teams, as well as across all official replica shirts and throughout the stadium.
Indeed, it was through the club that consumers gained their first view of San Francisco based Wish’s new logo during summer 2022 during the pre-season tour of Australia.
“We are excited to be partnering with Leeds United for the upcoming season,” said Wish CEO Vijay Talwar when the deal was originally announced. “With a rebrand just around the corner, the partnership not only provides great brand exposure but also a perfect opportunity to shine a light on all the changes underway at Wish. We look forward to being a part of Leeds’ journey and wish the team all the best for the season ahead.”
Wish’s mission is to ‘bring an affordable and entertaining mobile shopping experience to millions of consumers around the world’ and its key categories include fashion, accessories, home decor and gadgets.
Wish’s football marketing strand followed on from its patch partnership with NBA team the LA Lakers.
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