Wavemaker UK – William Hill
William Hill had a big ambition – to become famous for its love of football.
While William Hill is a heritage brand with 90% total awareness, its association with football is low. However, it had a clear objective for the new 2021/22 football season: to drive growth by getting football bettors to choose William Hill as their preferred bookie.
That meant winning at the Premier League, the most watched league in the world — no mean feat, especially in a competitive category that sees brands with the deepest pockets win out. The brand had to be clever and tactical, using what it already had in its arsenal, print: a cornerstone of the football news cycle.
Trusted by devoted football fans and underutilised by the competition, print plays an integral role on matchdays. It engages with an audience honing-in on pre-match form, line-up, news and in-game action, and is the key trigger to drive high levels of betting in certain games. However simply advertising within a football context would not be enough.
Instead, William Hill decided to get as close to the action as possible through an addressable print campaign, updating and switching the creative in line with the essence of daily news stories from the Premier League. This allowed it to deliver dynamic and reactive messaging with enhanced odds that spoke to real time coverage of the games.
For example, when stories teased Manchester United’s win “boosts top-four hopes”, William Hill responded with the latest odds for the match between rivals Chelsea and Spurs. To do this, the brand created a direct link to the editorial teams to uncover tomorrow’s trending football news.
Copy was then developed at speed and placed with bespoke enhanced odds responding directly to the news. In the matchday moments that mattered most, William Hill dominated the football sections of key news brands.
Print became William Hill’s most profitable channel. The brand enjoyed 158% increase in recall among readers, driving a 35% uplift in consideration (readers vs non-readers).
And importantly, 77% took action after seeing the partnerships and 79% of betters wanted to bet more with William Hill rather than their usual brand. Finally, William Hill climbed four consideration points ahead of its closest competitor.
This entry showed strong effectiveness in the face of headwinds. They had clear insights and an understanding of the moments where their budget would have the greatest impact. It was strongly executed and had really unquestionable results.
Emma Whitford, senior global media manager, Unilever
77%
took action after seeing the partnerships
