At Barclays, as a bank, we’re known for being more serious than fun. When it comes to football, it can be tricky to position ourselves in an engaging way.
We also know how difficult it is to drive mainstream awareness around a sponsorship deal. Everyone’s seen the standard image – a few suits shaking hands holding a shirt with [insert brand name] on the back standing outside of [insert rights holder stadium].
So when it came to renewing Barclays’ partnerships with the Premier League, The FA and Women’s Professional Leagues Limited, doing it in a way that was going to generate mass awareness and positive engagement was quite the challenge.
We brought in some help. Namely, a giant furry green dinosaur. And a giant furry seagull, eagle and bumblebee.
That’s right, to announce Barclays’ record-breaking new partnerships with the nation’s biggest football properties, we brought together mascots from across the leagues together in a place you typically wouldn’t see them in: a Barclays boardroom.
The football fans’ favourite furry friends gave their seal of approval on the partnerships in light-hearted, amusing content that was then used to drive coverage. So when we went out with the news about our partnerships renewal, it was picked up by titles who wouldn’t typically run news about a partnership renewal.
When the content ran, comments on social were 100% positive (unusual for us) and the accompanying PR outreach achieved enormous reach.
Thanks, Gunnersaurus (and Pete, Stamford and Buzzette)
