How to perfect brand activation with Paddy Power

The Paddy Power marketing department has a well-earned reputation for being the best in the business. The Irish bookmaker has built up an unmistakable brand over the years and capitalising on event sponsorship has been a key tactic in helping to achieve that success.

Paddy Power sponsored the 2019 Champions League of Darts which took place at Leicester’s Morningside Arena in October, and the operator left no stone unturned in ensuring the annual event felt as on-brand as possible. The firm’s creative team even had the brainwave to install green lightbulbs throughout the arena so that those who appeared in the BBC broadcasts were lit-up in a Shrek-style, emerald green hue.

Ben Huxley, brand engagement visual lead at Paddy Power, told EGR Marketing: “One of the goals of the event in the first year was to paint the venue green. We went to extraordinary lengths to do that again this year, including changing the colour of the lightbulbs above the crowd, much to the BBC’s dismay because, by all accounts, green is a terrible colour for people’s skin tone.”

Every match of the two-day event was shown live on the BBC, meaning hours of free and uninterrupted advertising on a TV channel that bookmakers ordinarily would never appear on – which was perfect for a brand solely interested in the UK and Irish betting market.

“Betfair, our brothers from the other side of the office, are a global brand, whereas our focus is much closer to home,” says Huxley. “A traditional darts tournament broadcast on Sky around the globe isn’t of massive interest for us because we know that 90% of that audience are not our target audience so there would be leakage there.”

Not content with leaving its mark on the Morningside arena, the operator extended its sponsorship to Paddy Power shops in Leicester’s city centre. Former darts world champion Raymond van Barneveld was enlisted to take photos and sign autographs for fans in a retail environment, while they were also able to challenge him to a presumably one-sided game of around-the-world.

“Barney” was also used effectively in the operator’s most ludicrous activation stunt of all, as the Dutchman’s face was stencilled into heads of foam on freshly poured pints of Guinness – of which there were many. While these ideas are obviously original, is there a chance that Paddy Power has pushed too far beyond crafty creativity and into the realms of gimmick?

“When you breathe the rarefied marketing air that Paddy Power does, you’re inevitably going to step over the cliff once in a while,” says Brand Architects founder Harry Lang. “It feels like they’ve gone from the genius to gimmicky side of the line with their darts activation but hell, at least they’re still trying. Compared to most operators who sponsor football, racing or other sports with beige, forgettable efforts, they’re still way ahead of the curve. Like the great man Barney himself, they’ve earned the right to have an off day at the oche once in a while,” he adds.

As title sponsors, it was Paddy Power’s job to provide a trophy for the event, which opened the door to cause a bit of a stir online. The operator learned from the mistake of its uncharacteristically bland effort last year and created a wrestling belt that would not have looked out of place in the heyday of 1990’s WWE.

“When you sponsor a tournament, one of the duties you have, unless it’s the FA Cup or the Masters at Augusta, is to provide the trophy and you’re on the hook for about £2,000,” says Huxley. “The year before we went down a traditional, reserved route with a silver trophy that looked about right. This year we thought, hang on, we can have a bit of fun with this. We can generate talkability in a way that nobody else has got the balls to do.”

Huxley’s team pitched the wrestling-style darts belt to the Professional Darts Corporation and they loved it. The final version of the belt was created by a famous US designer who also makes belts for UFC and MMA. The operator again struck gold when tournament winner Michael van Gerwen (MVG) tweeted a picture of himself in bed with the trophy, without so much as a nudge from Paddy Power.

Good night everyone 🏆😴 pic.twitter.com/VRY8tRRoSM

— Michael Van Gerwen (@MvG180) October 20, 2019

“MVG practised the day before how he was going to lift the belt and maximise the opportunity,” says Huxley. “The players ended up really buying into it because it’s so unique. It inspired hundreds of conversations on Twitter about whether it was classless or bringing the game into disrepute, while others say they loved it,” he adds.

Engagement equals success in today’s social media space and MVG’s tweet amassed more than 12,000 likes on Twitter. PR expert Alex Donohue praised the operator for its approach to sponsoring the tournament. He said: “Paddy Power only seem to be in competition with themselves when it comes to activating sponsorship this way and until it stops getting a reaction there’s clearly mileage in being as creative as possible.

“At a time when it seems advisable for the industry to ensure above the line marketing is less intrusive, using events almost exclusively attended by a target audience to draw attention to their brand is a clever move,” he adds.

The narrative of the tournament was outside of Paddy Power’s control, but even that went on to work in their favour. Van Gerwen had never won the Champions League of Darts – the only major PDC event he’d never conquered, but his victory in Leicester means the Dutchman has now triumphed in all nine competitions.

“He was well aware that it was the only one he hadn’t won and was pretty bored with the line of questioning, so he was clearly desperate to win it,” says Huxley. “For us to have the world number one at our tournament and then to go on and win it is brilliant. For the world number one to complete a clean sweep of every trophy in the game while at a Paddy Power tournament is fantastic,” he adds.

To drive audience participation, Paddy Power gave punters the chance to win £100k if one of the pros threw a nine-dart finish, but for the second year in a row this never materialised. The operator will be grateful for the prize money saved but a win would have inspired even greater exposure. “As a piece of marketing, that got 24 separate mentions on the BBC over the course of the weekend,” says Huxley. “That is free advertising because we didn’t pay a penny for that. It was great publicity for a great little offer, but sadly it wasn’t won.”

Maybe next year Paddy Power will offer a triple rollover and the nine-dart finish will finally come in.