Leveraging the fact that there is no official England song for Russia 2018, former FA kit supplier Umbro is ambushing the tournament and filling the void with a new campaign exaplining how to write a classic football anthem.
The sportswear brand’s campaign, which runs primarily across YouTube and Umbro’s other digital and social channels, launched ahead of the World Cup in the first week of June
Developed with Manchester based agency Love (run by former Umbro marketing boss Trevor Cairns), this light-hearted initiative is fronted by Brett Domino (alter ego of comedian Rob J Madin) who offers a guide to writing a hit football song.
The comedy revolves around the fact that Domino/Madlin lacks both football knowledge and musical ability.
The campaign is spearheaded by a silly five-minute spot that sees deadpan Domino, the front man of the Brett Domino Trio, guide consumers through all the crucial elements of penning a classic World Cup anthem (with comic interventions from the Umbro team).
The film finishes with Domino’s self-penned England anthem: shot in the same style of his popular, silly YouTube spots.
The campaign runs across YouTube and on Umbro’s social channels from 7 to 22 June and content will be cut and edited across Umbro’s platforms linked by the #EnglandAnthem hashtag.
No football anthem released to spur our boys on to glory this summer? Relax, between @BrettDomino and ourselves, we’ve got this covered: https://t.co/PjuBhhB2xo #EnglandAnthem pic.twitter.com/9ENOV0IhNf
— Umbro (@umbro) June 7, 2018
Throughout the tournament, the brand is also leveraging its former position as official FA kit supplier with retro England kit content and an unofficial World Cup #UmbroProjects Summer Collection.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjErRzNgsUn/?taken-by=umbroukofficial
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi4OxwpgNle/?taken-by=umbroukofficial
https://www.instagram.com/p/BizZx9GgXYm/?taken-by=umbroukofficial
Comment:
While we are 100% sure that this song wont inspire England to World Cup success, we like the work.
Umbro’s unofficial World Cup anthem ambush carefully avoids FIFA regulations: avoiding protected words and phrases such as World Cup and Russia 2018.
Indeed, much of the campaign’s comedy is based around this issue – thus positioning former official England supplier Umbro firmly in the rebel/challenger brand category.
Umbro is just one of several brands to activate around Russia 2018 with work led by music: these range from Qatar (see case study) to Coca-Cola (see case study).
Umbro’s World Cup work dovetails with its current comic approach that is also evident in its previous campaigns such as its Valentine’s Day spoof (see case study) and its Medusae II ‘Speed and Touch’ creative.
Links:
Umbro
https://www.youtube.com/user/umbro
https://www.instagram.com/umbroukofficial/
Love
