Late May saw German retailer Lidl launched a UK-wide campaign, called ‘Dream Big’, activating its rights as the official supermarket of the England football team and which leverages Russia 2018 to get more youngsters playing football.
Lidl’s activation of the partnership, one that has been previously held by rival British supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco, is running across TV, cinema, radio, digital, social, VOD, DOOH and print (including cover wraps).
To celebrate Lidl’s three-year partnership and endorsement of the Three Lions as the squad prepares for the 2018 World Cup, the campaign blends the supermarket’s support for the England team with its ongoing grassroots initiative ‘FA Lidl Skills’ (which has already created three million opportunities for 5 to 11 year olds to play football).
Developed in harness with agencies CSM Sport & Entertainment, TBWA/London, Stacom, 360i and GOAT, the activation launched with a teaser ‘Comic Squad Announcement’ spot.
This debut video is the first in a series of television spots created by TBWA\London which feature a cheeky team of under-11s re-enacting the senior squad’s key World Cup moments and on-pitch action.
The follow-up spot sees the youngsters impart their wisdom to England footballers Gary Cahill, Kyle Walker and Raheem Sterling to help them succeed in the tournament.
This 60-second hero TV commercial premiered on 24 May during ITV ad breaks for Emmerdale and Coronation Street and will also air during England’s ealy June friendly games, around Soccer Aid and through the first England group games.
The spearhead spot was directed by Rattling Stick’s Gabe Turner: a filmmaker whose previous work includes sporting documentaries ‘The Class of 92’ and ‘I Am Bolt’, as well as the award winning Samsung ‘School of Rio’ commercials for the Rio Olympic Games (see case study).
Future spots to air ahead of and during Russia2018 span a set of soccer scene re-creations and range from the team boarding the plane to Russia, to the key goals, big tackles, cards and penalties.
Supporting content will roll out through Russia 2018 across multiple platforms: including large format DOOH in key city rail stations and mall locations (including Waterloo and London Bridge) and social content pieces (carrying the campaign’s #DreamBigWithLidl hashtag) which will also aim to drive viewers to the campaign microsite at https://www.Lidl.co.uk/DreamBig
I made the squad #squadgoals @LidlUK #dreambigwithlidl pic.twitter.com/fxq5ZdjBOW
— Braydon Bent (@BraydonBent) May 21, 2018
“The TVC highlights Lidl’s involvement in grassroots football and how over the last three years, the FA partnership has provided 3 million opportunities for boys and girls from local communities up and down the country to play,” commented Lidl UK marketing director Claire Farrant.
“With the nation’s attention now fully focused on this summer’s tournament, we wanted to use this as a chance to inspire the next generation of footballers with our ‘Dream Big with Lidl’ campaign.’’
Mark Bullingham, The FA’s commercial and marketing, added: “This innovative campaign brilliantly combines football participation with the nation’s excitement around this summer’s World Cup –two themes at the heart of The FA. Our partnership with Lidl has allowed The FA to invest millions into the grassroots game and help ensure that football is a sport for all.”
One of the more interesting aspects of this activation emerged from Lidl research showing that 77% of viewers second screened during football matches (see ‘Sports Fans and the Second Screen’ study at https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/sports-fans-and-the-second-screen/).
This led to Lidl’s tactical decision to create multiple, real-time assets using kids from the TVCs, to deploy at key moments in the tournament and thus amplify the campaign in relevant ways at times when interest and passion is at its height.
Plus, in a media first for Lidl, campaign content will also be rolled out reactively in a sponsorship partnership with ITV and Twitter.
While digital agency 360i Europe will further expand consumer exposure to the campaign by distributing the partnership content reactively across Lidl’s own social media channels during each England match.
Plus, global influencer agency GOAT will supporting the campaign through the distribution of assets across its network of influencers.
All aiming to align the supermarket sponsor as closely as possible with the on-pitch England team action.
Another campaign strand sees the Delta Group lead the brand’s in-store, POS activation strand which will include personalised free-standing display units installed into the home town shops of each of the 18 players picked to represent the country.
Thus aiming to help locals to ‘Dream Big’ for the whole team.
Comment:
The low latency, responsive strand seems a particularly smart way to leverage a tournament some marketers are already labelling the ‘Real-Time World Cup’.
Plus, we like the cheeky, family appeal of the young England stars: this kind of mini-me marketing approach has become a trend around the sport and sponsorship world with notable campaigns ranging from 2016’s ‘Mini Team Sky’ (see case study) to NAB’s AFL ‘Mini Legends’ campaign (see case study).
To date, Lidl has invested more than £10m in UK football partnerships with The FA in England, as well as the Scottish Football Association and the Football Association of Wales.
The World Cup work continues Lidl’s activation of its FA tie-up: previous initiatives included the grassroots community kids coaching programme which was promoted by spots such as
and which was launched by ambassadors Sir Trevor Brooking and Matt Le Tissier (see case study) and continues to roll out nationally.
This weekend, our Lidl Football Zone is coming to @hertscountyshow! pic.twitter.com/MNd6b8RJTx
— Lidl UK (@LidlUK) May 24, 2018
Lidl isn’t the only German brand in the supermarket space using a major British sports sponsorship to spearhead its growth in the market.
Rival Aldi has also adopted a similar strategy by linking up with the British Olympic Association as can be seen through its Team GB campaign leveraging the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics (see case study).
As well as an inventive ‘England Squad Reveal’ campaign (see case study), other notable England team sponsor campaigns leveraging Russia 2018 thus far have included LG’s blended FA Cup and World Cup ‘Live The Game’ activation (see case study).
Links:
Lidl
https://www.youtube.com/user/lidlukofficial
https://plus.google.com/u/1/111042129454622448102/posts
The Football Association:
https://www.facebook.com/EnglandTeam
https://www.youtube.com/user/fatv
CSM Sport & Entertainment
