Why DAZN’s UK advertising is all about boxing and liberation

DAZN, the global sports streaming service, has launched its first major campaign in the UK & Ireland with a media plan that combines flashy TV and outdoor executions with a targeted regional approach to marketing boxing stars.

Planned and bought by dentsu X, the campaign promotes the “Game. Changed.” global brand platform, with advertising creative and campaign strategy by Dentsu stablemate dentsumcgarrybowen. The campaign is also rolling out in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Canada.

The campaign marks a marketing shift for DAZN (pronounced Da-Zone), which had previously used a fixture-based strategy in which it would advertise around big boxing matches.

Now, DAZN is delivering a brand-building message that focuses on the ways in which the brand is innovating to liberate sports fans from the restrictions of previous technology and business models.

Making the screens crack at Piccadilly Circus

The campaign runs across cinema, out-of-home, video-on-demand, radio, digital and social, as well as TV in Ireland. A hero video spot, narrated by This is England lead Stephen Graham in the UK and Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy in Ireland, tries to gets under the skin of everything a boxer goes through inside and outside the ring.

Daniel Robinson, Global Client Lead at dentsu X, told Mediatel News that the media plan was designed to epitomise the DAZN platform, in that it represents “incredible sporting moments and athlete stories”.

The brand has invested in a placement at the Piccadilly Lights in London as part of a nationwide OOH buy. Like the film, these installations are meant to draw an analogy with the ways in which DAZN is ‘smashing up the rulebook”, with famous boxing talents punching their way through the building façade of Piccadilly Circus. The screens crack, before an explosion of shards reveals fighters including world champion Katie Taylor.

Robinson said: “To truly live-and-breathe this in media it was important that we utilised executions that were iconic – such as Piccadilly Lights – but also placements that allowed us to transport audiences ‘ringside’ to bring them closer to the action.

“Sensory out-of-home sites that delivered high-impact visual and/or sound-activation allowed us to pay tribute to this strategy and elevate the audience experience.”

Boxed in?

The company, founded five years ago in the UK, is yet to become a major streaming brand in its home market despite becoming a global force that is now active in more than 200 countries and territories. Soccer rights are its main draw in its core European and Asia-Pacific markets, while in select regions it also streams  combat sports, basketball, baseball and motorsport.

A major reason for its relative obscurity in the UK is due to a highly competitive sports rights market in which most major rights are held by Sky and BT Sport. DAZN has reportedly been in talks to buy BT Sport, which has exclusive Champions League and Europa League football coverage as well as shared rights to the Premier League and the FA Cup.

In the UK, DAZN is focused on showing international boxing rights in order to strengthen its brand name among fight sports fans and pursue more mainstream sports rights in the future.

The focus on boxing helps explain why, according to Robinson, the campaign is also using a “regional-relevance” approach to its media plan. In order to drive excitement to “fight night”, local placements will showcase individual fighters in the areas they’re from and are most popular.

“This played out with Katie Taylor being the focus of our messaging in Northern Ireland and ROI,” Robinson explained. “Josh Warrington led our creative across his native Leeds and surrounding Yorkshire/North West areas, and Conor Benn taking centre stage for London and the south. This regional strategy is one we’ve adopted across the full breadth of channels & partners across the media plan.”