Paddy power

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Other communications techniques that are integrated into campaign.

Communication Techniques

TV ADS

One of their tv ads which Paddy Power used was the "Blind Football" ad. The objective of this campaign was to raise awareness of the World Blind Football Championships. However, along with a lot of their adds, it caused a lot of controversy and it was then banned for encouraging animal cruelty and also for being offensive to blind people. Paddy Power also had many adds before, during and after matches to encourage people to use Paddy Power when betting.

BILLBOARDS

Paddy Power do use billboards quiet a bit when advertising themselves. They choose an un-traditional approach to these billboards. A billboard add which was placed around the U.K and Ireland was the one of the "Breast feeding man". But of course it was banned as it contained offensive image towards woman’s image and sensitivity. Another billboard was the "Last supper poster" but this too was banned for being offensive to Catholics. "Desperate Irishmen" was another billboard placed all over Ireland. This was a positive image. It started social concern and community spirit. It also gained Paddy Power a lot of media coverage even in the US and Australia.

Sponsorship

Paddy Power have sponsored a number of events some include Bingham cup, The Irish National wife-carrying Championship, The annual strip Poker Tournament. These aren't conventional events in which companies would sponsor but Paddy Power does not do conventional. They prefer to make an impact with their stunts and events they sponsor. They choose to be unofficial sponsors of events.

Media Planning used e.g. when and where the ad campaign is shown.

Media Planning

With the increasing usage of social media, Apps and mobile phone technologies over the last number of years, most industries have been trying to make the most of the growing trend with varying success. One industry that has capitalized from social media is the betting industry. In the UK alone, the market was worth more than £2.28bn (€2.69bn) in 2015, an 80% increase since 2014, and this figure is expected to increase significantly. The Irish market is also similar having an overall worth of €2bn, showing the increasing importance of online.

One company that that has really took the digital age in its stride is Paddy Power and they are reaping the rewards as a result. As a result they have recorded a pre-tax profit of around 77 million in the first 6 months of this year. But things were not always that way. Post 2012 Paddy Powers social media presents was almost non-existent, their Facebook page was boring and not very memorable. But when 2012 came the bosses in Paddy Power came with a new approach, the aim was to shock and stand out from other competitors and also put a greater focus on humour and imagery. Paddy Power placed a number of call-to-actions in its posts to drive up its conversation rate, asking people to like or share. When this was accompanied with imagery, post engagement increased significantly. With this, the company grew its audience to 1.06 million fans by following this approach – eventually dropping the call-to-actions – and this is reflected in the company’s overall profits. They started this off with the ‘WE HEAR YOU’ campaign at 3 sporting events of 2012, Cheltenham, the Euros and the Ryder cup.

Cheltenham (March) – Paddy Power employed Facebook and Twitter to post offensive content about supposed ‘unclassy chavs’ taking away from the glamour of the Cheltenham Races. They got this idea from a fan that had complained ‘chavs’ on the Facebook page. This generated huge publicity for the company.

The Euros (June)- Paddy Power out-did those brands that paid millions to gain some exposure during this massive sporting event with use of The VUVUTRUCK. This idea was had as a result of a Paddy Power fan expressing his anger on the Facebook page over the vuvuzuela –the plastic horn- being banned from The Euros. A whole over the top media campaign was devised. Promoted trends, live blogs and social media content were communicated every day of the euros.

The Ryder Cup (September)- The 39th Ryder Cup was held in Illinois. Paddy Power saw an opportunity to be the first to launch a ‘sky tweet’ campaign. To remind the European professionals playing in the Ryder Cup how much support was behind them, the company flew planes over the golf course at intervals over 2 days and managed to display 40 of their punters tweets, all with the hashtag #GoEurope.

As results of this campaign Paddy Power saw huge success and is now one of the leading firms when it comes to new inventive marketing campaigns. Paddy Power’s personality is purely all about mischief making and this is what the fans love. By integrating engagement from the public on social media into their PR stunts, they have managed to generate an overwhelming amount of hype for the brand.

Evaluation of the campaign.

Paddy Power is the longest standing bookmakers in Ireland but yet they still seem to come up with the freshest and most eye catching marketing campaigns time after time and due to this they are also the most successful bookmakers in Ireland and the UK and are breaking into the Australian market which is quite a safe bet due the massive Irish influence on that market.

Paddy Power is a very consumer focused company and really listen to what there consumers have to say and try cater to their needs and demands this was very evident in the 'We Hear You Campaign'. the reason the company has such strong consumer satisfaction is because they have their target market identified and they tailor their marketing campaigns and strategies to amuse the target market and keep them loyal and have very little regard for how people outside the target market will react.

Guerrilla marketing has been a huge part of the success of Paddy Powers marketing campaigns and continuously amuses their target market while annoying and angering the rest of the general public. Their campaigns often cross the line at an emotional or personal level for some people but Paddy Power believe that trough the power of social media and the stunts they pull and going viral that all press is good press for them even if there seems to be a lot of negative reactions for them public.

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