Naked lands NFL’s Super Bowl terrestrial TV drive

Naked has been appointed to work on the National Football League’s (NFL) project to re-establish American football as a leading sport on UK terrestrial television.

Naked will handle the media strategy, and work with creative agency Karmarama on the business.

NFL Europe has given Five the live terrestrial rights for the Super Bowl, the premier US football tournament, for broadcast on January 26 (MW November 28). The event will also be aired on Sky Sports. This is the first time that the Super Bowl has been screened on a terrestrial channel for five years. Five will be running Super Bowl programmes in the week running up to the tournament.

NFL has not disclosed how much it intends to spend on marketing the event, but it is the first time the body has briefed advertising agencies in the UK and the campaign is expected to use TV, print and outdoor. The NFL wants to restore the sport to the high profile it enjoyed in the Eighties when Channel 4 held the broadcast rights, and offered twice-weekly and Saturday morning coverage.

The sport went to satellite in 1998 and since then has only had limited exposure on terrestrial TV.

This year’s Super Bowl takes place in San Diego. Traditionally, the ad slots in the US are used by companies to break major brand campaigns, which often gain international coverage. For instance, PepsiCo’s ads starring Britney Spears were first screened during this year’s NFL Super Bowl.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has appointed Karen Earl Sponsorship to manage its £20m title sponsorship of rugby union tournament Six Nations.

Karen Earl is understood to have won the business after pitching against its much larger rival IMG. The sponsorship project team will be headed by strategy director Tim Crow, who will oversee hospitality, exploitation and media relations for the sponsorship. The deal between Karen Earl and RBS is initially for a year, but could be extended to the entire three years that the sponsorship deal will run.

Last week, RBS announced it was taking the Six Nations title sponsorship, ending months of speculation (MW last week). It takes over from Lloyds TSB, which decided to end its association with the tournament after sponsoring it for three years, to support grass-roots rugby initiatives instead.

Finding a new sponsor proved more difficult than the Six Nations committee anticipated because of a deteriorating sponsorship market. As a result, Karen Earl has just over two months to plan activity before the championship starts in February.

Other Karen Earl clients include Coca-Cola, Orange and Nestlé Rowntree. Earlier in the year, the agency was also appointed to manage Wilkinson Sword’s global multi-million sponsorship of Manchester United Football Club, which involves retail link-ups, media partnerships and online activity.