Exclusive: William Hill chief brand officer lauds new football ad campaign

William Hill has unleashed its new multi-channel advertising campaign ahead of the domestic football season. The new campaign, which will span television and digital channels, launched on Saturday to coincide with the start of the start of the EFL season and features many of the characters from last season’s promotion. Speaking exclusively to EGR, Charlotte Emery, chief brand officer of William Hill, said the advert was all about inclusivity and camaraderie. “We really wanted to capture in the start of of our campaign for the new football season, that sense of the camaraderie and also rivalry that exists between fans in a positive way and capture the excitement and encapsulate what it’s like to be a football fan. “This is going to be the most extraordinary season – the women’s Euros, then moving into the new men’s season and with the first winter World Cup at the end of the year you go from being joined as a nation, to rivalry and back to being together again. “It’s a patchwork of emotions that happens,” she added. Emery also touched on the England women’s success at the Euros also acting as a springboard for inclusivity. She said: “Our world is inclusive and we want to become synonymous with all of football. “We are passionate about football and we want to share our passion for the beautiful game with the world. “EPIC is a great vehicle to demonstrate this and also to highlight our outstanding value proposition to our customers.” Following the 2021-22 ad programme, the London-based bookmaker has maintained the rights to continue using Neil Diamond’s iconic anthem Sweet Caroline. Speaking about revisiting the song, which has been popularised at sporting events recently, Emery said that the firm made a conscious decision to bring back the familiarity of last season’s campaign for the start of next season, with Jermaine Jenas also reappearing as a pundit and a number of characters returning. Jenas said: “It was exciting to be part of another EPIC TV ad for William Hill. “I’m really looking forward to the season ahead and all the exciting initiatives William Hill have in store for sports fans like me.” The campaign has been entitled “EPIC”, with the 888 Holdings-owned firm promising to provide epic prices over the course of the football season. For the opening weekend, Liverpool, whose market price is 2/7 to win this weekend against Fulham, have been boosted to evens. The “EPIC” price boosts are primarily being rolled out over football, however, William Hill has hinted that they will be introduced over further sports over the next 12 months. At the start of July, Hills announced that it had agreed a one-season deal to sponsor Sky Sports News and it has been confirmed that alongside the 60- and 30-second-long adverts for EPIC, bespoke 15 second idents have been created to start and end the advert breaks. Merman was the production company behind the adverts, with brothers Michel and Nico Arribehaute returning to direct over the course of three days at Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road. “We were thrilled with the work that Michel and Nico did on last season’s master campaign, and they clearly understand the look, tone and feel that we wanted to create and their ability to capture those nuanced moments within a friendship group that are centred around a love of football, is what drew us to get them back involved in EPIC”, added Emery