2016 Grand Prix

‘Amidst a high quality range of campaigns and innovative thinking in this year's Grand Prix, Karmarama's unibet campaign was a highlight. It successfully combined a brave strategy in a challenging sector to truly stand out with great creative and fantastic results.’

- Julia Porter

Agency Karmarama

Client Unibet

Campaign summary

A betting agency that tells you how to win

Campaign overview

To increase brand awareness of Unibet across seven global markets. To do so in a competitive market against the backdrop of Euro2016 when Unibet’s competitors would go big on offers to the young male adult market.

Turn awareness into account openings and more bets made.

Strategy

To triumph at Euro2016 Unibet had to do something different.

And to counter big competitor spending and TV-dominating tactics, they decided to help people win. Unibet told customers to consider certain factors. It was the wettest June in France for a century - would this make Iceland likely to cause an upset?

Unibet fed their audience insights: ignore possession-hungry teams; plump for the team with the most shots in the tournament (Portugal); or that playing at home wouldn’t be too much pressure for France.

To bring these insights to life Unibet created a series of entertaining experiments. Fronted by recognisable ex-players, managers and gambling experts, they dramatised the effect of potentially decisive factors on the beautiful game. To cement earned distribution Unibet turned to the F2freestylers. Their incredible popularity helped generate £7m of earned media.

Creativity

Unibet commissioned a six-part documentary, with each episode full of original insights, making customers feel they’d a greater chance of winning.

Episodes could be tailored to appeal to seasoned, irregular and yet-to-be betters. But it was the context in which the content sat that gave this campaign edge: instead of blunt targeting techniques, Unibet and Karmarama created teasers.

Global markets could place them against pre and post match media stories. Each country could choose where to place them in local media. And when broadsheets waxed lyrical about Belgium’s artistic talents, Unibet would highlight how the clinical Italians would be a better bet.

In countries where gambling advertising is restricted social platforms showed content that reflected what had or was about to happen in a match. It was a radical shift for a gambling company, with nothing to prove this approach would work.

Results

Studies from Unruly showed that in pre/ post-exposed/non-exposed testing, unaided awareness of Unibet increased 90% in Sweden and 363% in the UK versus control groups.

Brand favourability increased by 26% in Sweden and 36% in the UK versus control groups. View-through rates averaged 47% (even with 15-minute films). Unibet’s Facebook engagement increased by 38%.

They generated around £7 million equivalent media value via the F2Freestyler, with 16 million views and 35 million minutes of viewing. Unibet opened 115% more new accounts than during World Cup 2014. Deposit amounts held during the campaign period were 70% more than during World Cup 2014 and 265% more than during Euro2012. Of new customers acquired, 34% have already placed a second bet.

Taking into account the increased level of winnings for customers Unibet generated an ROI of 18.25:1.

Team

Jamie Toward (Managing Partner- Content) • Lisa Green (Production Partner) • Adam Whitaker (Executive Creative Director) • Rob Turner (Creative Director) • Natalie Carpenter (Account Director) • Sam Breen (Producer) • David Killick (Planning Director) • Rupert Greaves (Producer) • Alison Sams (Head of Brand and Design) • Pantelis Kotopoulos (Head of Social Media) • Ben Coves (Head of Content) • Mateusz Samolyk (Brand Manager) • Kayane Watson (Social Media Manager)