2017 Bronze Best launch campaign

Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative

Client: Sun Bets

Sun Bets launch

Campaign overview

For 60 years The Sun had been stimulating and informing sporting opinion.

Now felt like the right time for them to launch a betting brand that could immediately stand-out against already established competitors.

Strategy

The launch strategy for Wunderman UK was simple: establish Sun Bets as the nation's home of betting by leveraging on The Sun's unique tone of voice.

This was to be achieved by staging a full-on media assault via all owned, bought and earned channels with a bold, humorous and provocative campaign.

The Sun had been stimulating and informing sporting opinion for a long time with pub chat and small talk fuelled by The Sun's outspoken, straight-talking tone of voice. For the betting brand to be successful across sports, Wunderman UK quickly identified that they needed to build this.

They devised three key pillars, which would shape the creative approach. Sun Bets would be bold, humorous and provocative, and would set out to become the nation's home of fun-filled betting regardless of what sport or topic you're betting on.

Creativity

Everything Wunderman UK did was about provoking an opinion or encouraging punters to back their chat with a bet. The team dominated The Sun's owned channels with contextual, tailored communications, and a blog featuring tips and opinion pieces from sporting legends.

The TV ad was shot from the POV of a fan, echoing the day-to-day chat amongst The Sun’s sport-mad readers and fans.

Small format 'bet balls' placed amongst editorial in paper, and pop-up widgets among online editorials featuring related odds to the article content, ensured Sun Bets were always present and provoking audience opinion.

Racecourses were covered with bold branding that only The Sun could get away with. And in the other public hotspots, ambient ads provided cut-through.

Every communication led with clever, cheeky headlines, any of which could have run on the back page of the paper.

Results

Sun Bets is the fastest-growing bookie in UK history.

Wunderman UK helped the new betting brand acquire 100,000 customers in six months, as well as generating 14.8 million video views on their social videos, and took brand awareness from 0% to 30% in four months.

ROI figures based on revenue turnover against spend resulted in an ROI of 8:1.

Team

Matthew Thomas (Managing Partner) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Keith Drewrey (Senior Account Director) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Brendan D'Arcy (Senior Account Manager) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Tania Roy (Account Manager) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Michael Maxwell (Strategy Director) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Jon Beach (Creative) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Chris Lovell (Creative) Wunderman UK, part of Pulse Creative - Roy Swansborough (Producer) Pulse Creative - Jim Vandermeersh (Business Director) Pulse Media - Kate Bird Chief (Marketing Officer) News UK - Claire Gribben (Planning & Communications Director) News UK - Gemma Bell (Marketing Manager) News UK - Will Martin (Marketing Manager) News UK - Charlotte Pike (Head of CRM) News UK

Contributors

Stink Films TV (Production) 75 Sound MPC (Editing / Post Production)