Football was a critical pillar of brand health for Tennent’s, playing a significant role in driving brand relevance and was hugely important to brand loyalists. Having supported Scottish football since the 70s, latterly as sponsor of the Scottish Cup and Scotland National Sides, in 2010 Tennent’s embarked on a three-year shirt sponsorship with Scotland’s biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers. I developed a sponsorship activation plan that was designed to engage fans by bringing them closer to their club, and strengthen the emotional connection between Tennent’s and18-44yo male drinkers with a message that Tennent’s knows what it means to be a football fan.

Taking the insight that for a lot of football fans there is a lost dream of being a professional footballer, Tennent’s utilised a key contracted right to ‘play on the pitch’ at Ibrox Stadium and Celtic Park to give fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to pull on a strip and play on the hallowed turf. I led this project from conception to delivery, working with Tennent’s sponsorship, advertising, and digital, agencies to bring the idea to life to create Could Have Been A Player? - a five month integrated campaign with fans at the heart, designed to create momentum for Tennent’s activation of the sponsorship throughout the season. I developed a marketing plan that included media partnerships with The Sun and Clyde1, OOH advertising, stadium branding, match programmes, eflyers, campaign microsites at tennents.com, and event planning, branding and content creation.

The campaign struck a chord with fans, over 5000 entries were received and 250 fans were invited to bootcamp trials at Celtic and Rangers official training grounds, where club legends Andy Goram, Derek Ferguson, Chris Sutton, Frank McAvennie and Bobby Petta, put the comp winners through their paces - and based on skill, selected the best players for their squads to go through to the Finals at Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium.

The campaign took a creative and partnership approach with both clubs in utilising this contracted right, and successfully achieved a positive impact on the brand’s sponsorship association, contributing to an increase in brand consideration amongst football fans and increase in the key brand image statement ‘knows what it means to be a football fan’.