YouGov: Was Paddy Power's Huddersfield stunt a success?
YouGov's head of product sales Ted Harwood explores whether the campaign increased brand awareness and consideration
Bookmaker Paddy Power got the media talking last month over its controversial shirt sponsorship of English Football League club, Huddersfield Town FC. Sponsorship of football shirts by betting companies is, of course, far from unusual yet this one stood out from the crowd with its ‘bait and switch’ manoeuvre.
The company is renowned for its offbeat campaigns but was this one a stretch too far? We took a look at the data we collect on the brand every day as part of our BrandIndex service to find out.
Our BrandIndex service monitors 16 separate metrics and we looked at two of the most pertinent to a campaign like this – Word of Mouth and Attention. And the data from these metrics tells us that the stunt had a significant impact on the general population.
In short, the campaign certainly got the brand noticed among the general public. The number of people telling us that they have heard something (positive or negative) about Paddy Power over an 11-day period (beginning just before the start of the campaign) has increased significantly. In fact, Paddy Power’s score for our Attention metric climbed from just over five to almost 13 over this period – a terrific result for the bookmaker.
But better still, the campaign didn’t just get the brand noticed. It also got people talking. Our Word of Mouth metric tracks whether people have actually been talking about a brand to friends and family. And over the same period, this score increased from less than one to almost six.
So far, so good for the ‘Save Our Shirts’ campaign. But the purpose of any corporate PR campaign is to get more people to spend more money with the brand. Sometimes, a PR effort can take months to build up traction. In other cases, it may not happen at all.
In the case of Paddy Power, has the stunt made an impact on the number of people who might use the bookmaker?
We looked at the data and the answer, in short, is yes. Our Consideration metric asks respondents when they are in the market to use or visit brands, which would they consider?
Paddy Power’s Consideration score has increased from a score of less than one, to more than six over the same 11-day period. That’s some leap.
In the short term, Paddy Power will now be looking to translate those higher Consideration scores into more business. But in the meantime, they will be very pleased with the way the campaign has captured the imagination of the public.
Given the stunt’s success, it is certain that the brand’s PR team will have more tactical executions up their sleeve but what is interesting about this campaign is that it serves a dual purpose.
In the first place it raises the profile of the brand but it also allies the bookmaker to a set of key messages which are likely to be well-received by football fans – namely that the front of football shirts are at least somewhat sacrosanct. On that basis alone, it is unlikely that we have seen the last of ‘Save Our Shirts’.