Nivea's Liverpool-Led TVC Marks Club's Non-Typical Partnership Push

In addition to broadcasters, league partners and kit suppliers, team sponsors are ramping up their activation programmes in the lead-up to the new Premier League season and one of the more interesting recent initiatives is a new Nivea campaign fronted by players from Liverpool FC.

The most interesting aspect of the partnership is not the latest creative execution, but rather the fact that the club claim that its new Nivea deal marks a fresh push to focus on developing alliances in ‘non-typical’ football categories.

The new campaign promoting the FMCG brand’s new cream for men is spearheaded by a 30-second UK TV spot led by Liverpool stars Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana, and Martin Skrtel trying out Nivea Men Creme.

The commercial is shot from Lallana’s own perspective both on and off the pitch and follows a ‘day-in-a-life’ of a Liverpool star approach.

Of course, towards the end of the spot all the footballers are shown using the cream.

Created by FCB Inferno (creative director Gary Robinson), the ad was filmed on location in Liverpool and was shot and produced by Rattling Stick.

In addition to the national TV work, Nivea is also running Liverpool Fc content across its own social sites – such as YouTube and Twitter (using the hastag #PrepareToWin).

As well as a Facebook-led signed shirt competition.

@NIVEAMENUK Last night I won a signed Liverpool Shirt from your Facebook game just checking this is correct thank you x

— Stewart Osborn (@StewartOsborn18) July 18, 2015

However, the campaign is not currently running on the club’s own social media channels.

The partnership focusing on both the UK and on Nordic markets.

This campaign builds on a Nivea/Liverpool partnership first announced back in February and the initial creative was a commercial for the Beiersdorf owned brand featuring three other Liverpool players Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Simon Mignolet.

As well as its blended consumer experience / web film initiative that saw six lucky consumers take on a line-up of Liverpool legends.

‘The response from the partnership announcement has been fantastic and we’re excited to reveal the new line up to launch our new Nivea Men Crème,’ says Andreas Ostermayr, the northern Europe general manager for Nivea maker Beiersdorf.

‘Based on the classic Nivea Creme heritage, this product is developed especially for men with the goal of encouraging them to be a bit more skin savvy and take care of their skin.’

Nivea previously worked in football in the UK through its partnership with the England national team (see previous case study).

Comment

According to the club, this partnership (along with its deal with fashion brand Hugo Boss) marks a change in tactic as Liverpool FC specifically looks for what it describes as ‘non-typical’ football sponsorship deals.

However, few would claim the creative approach of this campaign is ‘non-typical’ – as it’s a fairly straightforward football star led spot.

In addition to strengthening its current global partnerships with major brands such as Carlsberg and Standard Chartered Bank, the club is also keen to move into regional deals and commercial partnerships in categories less frequently used in sports marketing.

There are a number of different, non-typical sports marketing categories besides airlines, beers and banks where we have a real opportunity,’ argues Liverpool FC’s chief commercial officer Billy Hogan.

‘We’re very focused on establishing a number of partnerships in new markets to bring LFC apparel to fans.’

Hogan also outlines how Liverpool FC has a number of regional partners and brings on sponsors specific to a particular region, market or category where Liverpool is particularly popular.

These include a regional milk partner (Kun milk) in Vietnam and a motorcycle alliance (with Honda) in Thailand.

Liverpool is also currently seeking commercial alliances for the redevelopment of its Anfield stadium – including a new naming rights deal for the emerging new Main Stand.

Links

Nivea For Men Website:

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

Nivea For Men Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/niveamenuk

Nivea For Men Twitter:

https://twitter.com/niveamenuk

Nivea For Men Google+:

https://plus.google.com/116530308940022338148/posts

Liverpool FC Website:

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/

Liverpool FC YouTube