News International signs deal to push The Damned United film
Sony Pictures has signed a deal with News International to promote British film The Damned United across the media owner’s titles.
The cross-platform campaign aims to advertise the film, which tells the story of Brian Clough’s 44-day reign in 1974 as manager of Leeds United, to both football fans and those who might not ordinarily see a film about football, and is skewed for each audience.
Press and online activity will run across The Sun, The Times, The Sun Online and Times Online.
The in-paper campaign will include advertorial and editorial features about a key match that occurred during Clough’s short steward-ship of the then Division One champions in 1974.
The Times will run branded advertising around the film’s release on March 27 while online activity will include podcasts discussing Clough.
The campaign was created in-house following a brief from Manning Gottlieb OMD and runs from March 6 until the end of this month.
The film stars Michael Sheen as Clough and is based on a novel by David Peace. It tells the story of the manager’s doomed tenure at Leeds which ended after 44-days following a player revolt.
Peace’s Red Riding trilogy of crime thrillers are being dramatised on Channel 4 and start on the channel this week.