Fans everywhere love a ‘David beats Goliath’ underdog story and so do brands – so it is little surprise to see an avalanche of UK tactical, responsive print and social ads leveraging Leicester City FC’s stunning Premiership title.
The most famous brand from the city, Walkers, unsurprisingly worked with its long-time brand ambassador and Leicester’s most famous football face Gary Lineker to produce a social media and newspaper ad execution.
The PepisCo-owned snack brand, which has a long association with the club and sponsored them from 1987 to 2001, superimposed the former Leicester and England’s striker’s face on a comically muscular body with a LCFC tattoo on his chest, carrying a bag of Walkers ‘Salt & Victory’ crisps and wearing only white y-fronts
The ad references the BBC One ‘Match of the Day’ presenter’s promise to host the TV show in his pants if Leicester won the title and it follows on from last month’s Walkers’ ‘Countdown To Kit Off’ digital billboards showing the presenter’s modesty covered only by bags of crisps (which began to disappear as the team got closer to the title).
LEICESTER CITY ARE CHAMPIONS!
The kit is coming off for @GaryLineker next season! pic.twitter.com/0x5v0Ksdxz
— Walkers Crisps (@walkers_crisps) May 2, 2016
One more win and Leicester City are champions.
We're #backingtheblues ahead of kit off. https://t.co/6vx0Ql5eeh
— Walkers Crisps (@walkers_crisps) April 29, 2016
Official club partners are, of course, leveraging Leicester’s success too.
Kit partner Puma rolled out a social media spot built around a 5000-to-1 countdown meter – leveraging the much-discussed media and fan topic that the odds on Leicester City lifting the trophy back at the beginning of the season were 5000/1.
UNfuc*kingBELIEVABLE. @LCFC. #5000to1https://t.co/D7MWEz5KGS
— PUMA Football (@pumafootball) May 2, 2016
Shirt sponsor King Power, the south east Asian duty free business of the club’s Thai owner restricted itself to a dual language celebratory tweet,
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
ร่วมเฉลิมฉลองความสำเร็จอันยิ่งใหญ่ของ LEICESTER CITY
คว้าแชมป์พรีเมียร์ ลีก สมัยแรกของ… https://t.co/CbIIXc9UkE— King Power Duty Free (@KingPowerhq) May 3, 2016
while official timing sponsor Sekonda ran a simpler, product-focused, player-background congratulatory message ad in The Sun and on its social channels.
Congratulations Leicester City! Premier League Champions! #LCFC pic.twitter.com/620zrhuihW
— Sekonda (@SekondaWatches) May 2, 2016
Several ambush brands with strong sports synergies are also getting in on the act.
Virgin Media, for example, one of the two major official pay-TV Premier League broadcast partners had a pop at rival Sky Sports by rolling out a low-latency ad carrying the tagline ‘Leicester. Proof the best football isn’t the most expensive’, as well as other social assets.
Leicester City and Claudio Ranieri. The greatest underdog story in Premier League history. #AllTheFootball pic.twitter.com/SgNcmBm3fB
— Virgin Media (@virginmedia) May 3, 2016
Among other rapid response guerrilla tactical ads the morning after LCFC were confirmed champions was a press execution by rum brand Captain Morgan’s which superimposed Leicester’s team captain Wes Morgan on to its own familiar brand character icon shown on the bottle. The ad’s copyline is simply: ‘Well played, Wes. Today there’s #OnlyOneCaptainMorgan.’
Well played, @Wes5L1nk. Today, there is #OnlyOneCaptainMorgan ! pic.twitter.com/LxMFUOh2Nf
— Captain Morgan (@CaptainMorganEU) May 2, 2016
