Lawn care company Pennington teamed up with Super Bowl winning linebacker Von Miller to leverage the 2023 NFL Draft by highlighting the dangers of playing on artificial turf and pressuring the league to ‘Flip The Turf’
Pennington timed the latest phase of its #FliptheTurf initiative – which aims to switch all football fields from artificial turf back to grass – to leverage spiking interest in the sport and the league around the NFL Draft which took place between 27 and 29 April in Kansas City.
The lawn and garden care company recruited Buffalo Bills defensive star Miller – who is personally invested in the issue after suffering a torn ACL in a game against the Detroit Lions on the Ford Field artificial turf field which ended his 2022 season – as an ambassador and campaign spokesperson. Miller, a two-time Super Bowl winner, fronted a spot timed to coincide with the NFL Draft by dropping on 27 April across Pennington’s online channels and in paid social and digital linked to the existing hashtag #FlipTheTurf.
The campaign, by creative agency David Miami, was spearheaded by a film called ‘‘The Rejected Ad featuring Von Miller – Draft Day #FlipTheTurf’ that built on the themes Pennington first highlighted in 2022 in its Super Bowl linked campaign focusing on its belief that artificial turf not only poses a greater injury risk to players than grass, but is also more harmful to the environment.
The spot’s opening frames feature onscreen text that reads “They rejected this ad from airing during the draft” and features Miller speaking out about the risks of artificial turf and asks viewers to support #FlipTheTurf’s aim to bring back grass to every football stadium by signing the petition at pennington.com/fliptheturf.
In addition to the main Miller spot, the campaign also included supporting social content and cut downs, while the brand also amplified the initiative through podcasts and hosted a Round Table to discuss the issue.
Pennington partnered with iHeart Radio to run custom host reads on football-oriented podcasts and broadcasts during draft week. These also included a call to action for viewers and listeners is to sign a petition to put pressure on the league and on its 16 teams who use artificial turf to fully embrace grass.
Plus an additional partnership with The Players Tribune featured a roundtable discussion about the dangers of artificial turf. It sees ambassador tight end George Kittle with Green Bay Packers’ offensive tackle David Bakhtiari and draftees Bryan Bresee (a former Clemson defensive tackle) and Will Levis (a former Kentucky quarterback), as well as trainer Jeremy Holt.
The petition, which first launched last year, has notched up around 30,000 signatures at press time.
“We did submit this ad to run during the draft and it was rejected,” explained Pennington Chief Marketing Officer Mike McGoohan (who declined to elaborate further as he said he was subject to a nondisclosure agreement.
“We’re a sustainable grass seed manufacturer, so advocating for grass is central to our mission,” continued McGoohan. “But secondly, our core consumer is talking about this issue in their own communities. More sports are being played on turf fields than ever, and they have concerns about the environmental impact. And they also talk about this issue as it relates to their favorite professional athletes and the rising injury rates.”
McGoohan claimed that the first phase of #FlipTheTurf in 2022 (which was developed with agency Droga5) was a success in driving brand awareness and growing market share.
Comment
The marketing initiative works on multiple levels: it is a cleverly timed, dual cause-based campaign (anti injury, pro-environment) that is also product-centric.
The player ambassador’s involvement seems even more authentic as Miller prefers playing on grass even though he is actually allergic to it.
“He usually takes a shot before every game to reduce the allergic impact of grass, yet still feels so strongly about it being a safer surface,” added McGoohan. “We felt like he had just a lot of authenticity on this issue.”
The tactic of teaming up with NFL pros seems a smart one: after all, they have both star power, personal reach and knowledge about the risk of injury – as well as having much to lose. Indeed, George Kittle – the San Francisco 49ers tight end – was a key part of Pennignton’s 2022 ‘Flip The Turf’ campaign.
The campaign launch timing also showcases smart tactics. First it piggybacks the NFL conversation around drafted players (which includes their injury risk) and secondly the Draft is held annually during the Spring grass-growing season which is a key time of year for the brand’s visibility and sales.
The NFL itself disputes Pennington’s claim that artificial turf is more dangerous than natural grass. Last fall it issues a press release stating that, as far as it was aware, there ‘wasn’t a meaningful statistical difference between the surfaces’.
In fact, some teams such as the Tennessee Titans, recently switched from grass to turf, based on NFL research which the league claims showed that ‘more lower-body injuries were happening on the Nissan Stadium grass than on the league’s monofilament playing surfaces in recent seasons’.
But, on the other side of the debate, in 2023 NFL Players Association President JC Tretter – the union that represents the league’s players – disagreed with the NFL’s analysis and suggested the league’s data was misleading and incomplete.
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