Sky Bet kicks off Football League push to inject ‘Skyness’ into brand
Sky Bet is gambling on the love people have for the Sky brand by using presenters Jim White and Natalie Sawyer to star in the first campaign to trumpet its sponsorship of the Football League
The online bookie’s attempt to play up the “Skyness” of the brand aims to make a better fist of defining it as more than just the sports channel’s betting arm than previous campaigns. Sky Bet has been working on how to showcase the benefits of betting with a bookie that supports local teams following limited efforts last season due to taking on the League sponsorship at the eleventh hour.
Sky’s “Transfer Deadline Day” presenting duo White and Natalie Sawyer front a McGarryBowen-created TV ad next month promoting the “Sky Bet Club”. The rewards hub gives customers the chance to keep track of all offers at any given time, ranging from traditional “money back” promotions to competitions to win tickets to watch their team. Data collected from redeemed rewards will inform the company’s CRM strategy, offering more relevant rewards and services to customers over time. The scheme is an evolution of the company’s “Free Bet Club” offering only cash rewards.
Content featuring other members of the Sky Sports team such as Jeff Stelling and Jamie Redknapp will back the advert.
It runs alongside Sky Bet’s first major sponsorship activation for the League, which offer fans the chance to win a £250,000 transfer kitty for their team. Betters gain a token for every pound bet, meaning the more they spend with the firm the more chance they have of winning the prize fund. The M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment-developed mechanic runs from August until December, when Sky Bet hopes a club will use the funds to sign “one or two players” on transfer deadline day.
The customer-centric strategy is what Sky Bet hopes sets it apart in an industry, which is primarily focused on acquisition rather than rewarding loyalty. Ladbrokes and Betfair have launched campaigns in recent months to differentiate from stereotypical industry campaigns and attract recreational customers.
Rob Painter, marketing director for Sky Betting and Gaming, says: “We think we’ve got two strong activations that encourage loyal and regular betting with Sky Bet. Through the campaign we’re injecting a greater of personality and Skyness in our advertising.
“[Gambling] is a very homogenous market where everyone’s shouting about the same kind of offers so we’ve focused on the fact that we’re the only bookie that’s overtly rewarding existing customers as oppose to chasing new ones. We think this approach is capable of attracting new customers in its own right but we also have a strong acquisition programme that will run alongside our campaign.”
Sky Bet has been working towards this balance in recent years but earlier attempts around the League leveraged its branding in the absence of the TV personalities.
