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Why Sky Bet approached winter sport audiences via TV and print

Why Sky Bet approached winter sport audiences via TV and print
The Media Plan

This past December was a busy season for sport fans and Flutter-owned gambling brand Sky Bet wanted to take advantage by providing excitement with “super-sized” offers.

But the Christmas period is an oversaturated time of year, with higher media costs and greater cut-through challenges.

“Audiences are bombarded with offers covered in Christmas colours, Christmas references and Christmas offers,” explained Charlotte Coalter, planning account manager at GroupM agency EssenceMediacom.

Coalter and her team were tasked with devising a media plan for Sky Bet that could capitalise on a sporting season that included the PDC Darts World Championship, multiple Formula One races and a highly anticipated boxing rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

“We went with the approach of super-sizing giving the gift of sport for sports fans,” Coalter explained, adding that the strategy was to go “completely against the grain” to capitalise on Sky Bet’s strong branding style.

Tapping into ‘less competitive areas’

According to Coalter, Sky Bet leveraged existing deals with providers to “maintain our presence” while planners kept budget aside “to try out new media avenues”.

Existing deals with Sky, ITV and DMG Media enabled the brand to “tap into less competitive areas while increasing our campaign reach”, Coalter noted. TV spots were purchased across darts, racing and the Fury vs Usyk match, as well as the newer avenues of connected TV buying on Amazon Prime Video and Dazn.

Referencing a unique glossy wrap for Metro (pictured, main), which Coalter described as one of the elements of the campaign she was most proud of, she added: “We wanted to use a traditional channel such as print to create a high-impact and innovative approach to catch those key commuters before the break-up for Christmas.”

In addition, Sky Bet completed a digital inventory takeover with DMG more broadly.

Coalter wanted to be “very selective” with the partners that Sky Bet uses, valuing trust and flexibility.

Key results the agency hoped to drive included “effective reach” through Amazon Prime Video and Dazn, as well as awareness to ensure the target audience — sports fans — was aware of Sky Bet’s offers.

Coalter added: “All the teams involved in this worked so hard to get this over the line; a lot of late nights and meetings to meet our deadlines. We achieved media firsts for our clients and a category first, which is very exciting.”

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