New Liverpool Global Brand Campaign Dovetails With New Balance Kit Launch (& UCL Semi-Final)

20 April saw Liverpool FC launch a new global brand platform, ‘This Means’ More’, that was timed not just to leverage its UEFA Champions League semi-final but also to the reveal of its pre-season tour and to kit supplier New Balance’s new home kit campaign.

The brand campaign aims to celebrate the famous bond between the iconic club and its loyal supporters, its employees and its partners.

The initiative runs right across the club: from its brand work, fan engagement and retail initiatives, to its partnership marketing groups and through the club’s commercial partners during the 2018/19 season.

This full season campaign, developed in alliance with creative agency and sports marketing specialist Octagon UK, spans the UK, Europe, the USA and Asia as the club and its partners connect to the global fan base.

The brand platform is spearheaded by a hero film

that was amplified across all the club’s digital and social channels.

We are Liverpool. The story continues… pic.twitter.com/9R0cbSFcCo

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 17, 2018

Commenting on the fresh marketing wave of work, Liverpool FC COO Billy Hogan said: “This Means More is the first global brand campaign of this nature for Liverpool Football Club, and we are excited about the role it will play across all of the club’s internal and external communications. The new positioning demonstrates our pride in Liverpool Football Club’s heritage; a tradition that helps create the unique DNA that defines Liverpool Football Club and makes us the club that we are today. This Means More truly articulates what it means to be a part of this great club.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Liverpool Football Club. Inspired by the vision set out by the great Bill Shankly, a truly unique philosophy sits at the heart of the club some 50 years on,” added octagon creative director Josh Green.

“It has resulted in a bond between the club and the community that many would argue, is unsurpassed in football. Capturing thissentiment was both a challenge and a real privilege.”

A parallel, linked campaign launched on 23 April saw kit supplier New Balance roll out its own ‘This Means More’ campaign to promote the release of the new Liverpool FC home kit.

This shirt launch initiative, developed in collaboration between Liverpool FC, sportswear brand New Balance and its global creative agency ZAK, also sets out to ‘encapsulate the feeling that all LFC fans around the world share about the club and how they feel when they pull on the shirt’.

This integrated shirt campaign – which is also rolling out globally across OOH, print, social and digital channels – was led by a kit reveal film.

This spearhead spot dramatised how every single part of the world is tuned in to Anfield when Liverpool FC are playing.

This was then supported by a second, documentary-style film following the story of five Liverpool super-fans journeying from various far flung parts of the world – from China to the USA – to Anfield to watch the team.

This supporting video sees the supporters express just what Liverpool means to them, before they meet first team players and receive the new home kit.

There campaign included further supporting content pieces including assets relating to the design inspiration,

Inspired by Anfield and local street signs.

The story behind our new name and number style → https://t.co/nFJAa7kbrS pic.twitter.com/TovNvDq634

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 19, 2018

a neatly timed New Balance competition,

Imagine playing at Anfield in May…

We have 2 pairs of spaces in our #LFC fan team to be won.

To enter: 1. Follow @NBFootball on twitter and
2. Tag a mate who you’d like to play alongside!

Lucky winners contacted: 25.04.18. Good luck, Reds! @LFC pic.twitter.com/aDWcHNj5UO

— New Balance Football (@NBFootball) April 17, 2018

and promotional pieces for the training kit.

Melwood approved.

Introducing the first range of our 2018/19 training kit: https://t.co/cwHWUcXnFN #ThisMeansMore #NBFootball pic.twitter.com/9ifwgh8cLD

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 23, 2018

This was twinned with a parallel launch campaign for the club’s women’s team kit too.

Reds approved. Our @NBFootball 2018/19 Home Kit.#ThisMeansMore

https://t.co/sOthT4oDCy pic.twitter.com/MRNFvtRcjc

— Liverpool Ladies FC (@LFCLadies) April 24, 2018

“This year we worked to create a campaign which brings to life New Balance’s global brand platform of ‘Independence’, and which shows what is at the heart of Liverpool FC’s unique relationship with its fans across the world,” commented New Balance Football’s general manager Kenny McCallum.

“It has been New Balance’s aim to engage with LFC fans around the world through this campaign, and ‘This Means More’ illustrates that Anfield is a place of pilgrimage for Liverpool FC fans wherever they are and the New Balance kit is central to team performance and the support those fans have for the Club. ZAK have done a tremendous job in bringing that idea to life in a really engaging way.”

Matt Bennett, Chief Creative Officer at ZAK, added: “This year we’ve worked with New Balance to create a 360 degree digital campaign to engage fans all over the world, and to reflect the global fanbase of LFC. It’s been key to us to bring to life the personality of New Balance and LFC, their relationship and their affinity to the fans. We’re excited to see the fan reaction to the campaign.”

Comment:

Timed to perfection, we admire both the emotional creative and the joined-up strategy that sees the rights-holder work more closely with its partners.

Surely more teams and commercial partners could benefit from this kind of joined up marketing approach?

This fresh work marks a change in strategy and creative approach from club and kit partner: particularly when compared to last May’s ‘Pure Liverpool’ kit launch campaign from New Balance (see case study).

It’s been an impressive month from Liverpool both on the pitch and in the marketing arena.

Some of the other notable, club connected campaigns in recent weeks have included the ‘Kop Kids’ stunt starring man of the moment Mo Salah for the club’s new Official Baby Gear Partner Joie Baby (see case study), while the Egyptian striker has also fronted inventive new marketing for Vodafone Egypt (see case study).

While February saw the launch of New Balance’s own new global brand platform and positioning ‘Fearlessly Independent’ (see case study).

Links:

Liverpool

http://www.liverpoolfc.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/LiverpoolFC

https://twitter.com/LFC

@LFC

https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolFC

https://www.instagram.com/liverpoolfc/

https://dugout.com/boxsets/boxsets-liverpoolfc

Octagon

http://www.octagon.com/united-kingdom

New Balance