Ladbrokes to launch GBP 5 mill World Cup ad campaign

In what has been described as its biggest single advertising push yet, British gambling group Ladbrokes is about to launch a GBP 5 million marketing campaign to capitalise on the World Cup football, which kicks off in South Africa June 11.
Starting this weekend, the television and print media blitz will seek to attract new punters as football fever mounts and the competing teams start to arrive in South Africa.
The campaign has been created by M&C Saatchi and will first appear on Brit television screens during the England vs. Japan friendly on Sunday. The campaign stars former football aces Ian Wright and Chris Kamara, who have both appeared in earlier campaigns for Ladbrokes, and introduces the slogan ‘Got the Feeling? Get to Ladbrokes’.
Viewers will be treated to a ‘Sixties-style theme featuring an array of British iconography, including bowler hats, umbrellas, red telephone boxes and Minis. The ads consist of humorous vignettes set to the tune of ‘Self Preservation Society’ from the film The Italian Job – clearly designed to stir viewers’ patriotism.
The television material will be supported by a major print and PR initiative.
Wright and Kamara are seen extolling the England team’s virtues and as the ad progresses it becomes apparent to the viewer that the pair are inside the head of a football fan. As the camera pulls out of the supporter’s head, he shouts out that England are going to win, before realising too late that he is at dinner with his girlfriend, who is less than impressed.
Other ads in the campaign feature similar situations in which fans blurt out their support for England in inappropriate circumstances. Each ad ends with the new strapline and either a betting market and price or an introductory betting offer.
Football betting, both online and at retail shops, is expected to boom during the month over which the World Cup is contested; at the last World Cup in 2006 the gambling industry in the UK handled GBP500 million in wagers, and greater broadband penetration is expected to significantly boost the online action this year.
John O’Reilly, Ladbroke’s managing director of e-gaming, said this week: “The World Cup is the biggest customer recruitment opportunity across a four-year cycle and to ensure the Ladbrokes brand is front of mind, we are launching a new advertising campaign that communicates the anticipation and excitement of betting.”

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