Exclusive: William Hill unleashes global marketing relaunch
Sportsbook operator's new “brotherhood” campaign targets returning sports fans while unifying retail and online divisions
William Hill is to relaunch its brand identity with a new global marketing drive targeting returning sports fans.
Beginning this weekend with the UEFA Champions League Final, the UK bookmaker will unveil a new above-the-line (ATL) marketing campaign, known as “brotherhood”, consisting of TV, radio and social media advertising.
Current William Hill brand ambassadors including jockey Tony McCoy, ex-footballer Robbie Savage and newly recruited pundits Rio Ferdinand and Jermaine Jenas feature in the UK version of the campaign, which utilises the Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline.
EGR can reveal localised and fully compliant versions of the advert will be released in Hills’ respective global operational markets.
“William Hill operates across a number of territories and this is the first time that we’ve pulled together with one international campaign, so it all sits within under one umbrella,” Hills chief brand officer Charlotte Emery told EGR.
“Obviously, there are some nuances between the final films for each market to reflect different regulations, and some of the different insights that we need to work against.
“For the first time, we’ve brought together brand, trading, sportsbook, gaming, UK and International into one campaign, and supporting it with our safer gambling communications as well,” she added.
The campaign aims to showcase connectivity between groups of friends around sports and is the brainchild of advertising agency Merman, which has previously orchestrated marketing campaigns for Sky Sports, the BBC, Mercedes and Seat.
“As we’re coming out of lockdown, the mood of all of our customers across the globe has got this real sense of positivity and optimism,” Emery explained.
“We originally put this brand positioning in place two years ago and with the European championships coming up it gave us a real opportunity to lay out what we wanted with the brand.
“We’re constantly moving pushing forward into digital and this is a great opportunity for us to make that sort of push. Spectators are on the verge of coming back into sports, we’ve got a new big Vegas relaunch for our gaming verticals. It felt like a really good time to make a big push for our customers,” Emery added.
On 1 June, Hills will launch an update of the visual identity of its below-the-line (BTL) marketing, aiming to unify the brand under a single identity to global audiences, while accommodating the different verticals of sports betting and online gambling.
The cost of the relaunch has not been confirmed, however sources at Hills said the operator had “strongly” invested in the endeavour.
A central cog of the campaign revolves around the unification of the firm’s retail identity with its online footprint, something which has been underway in the UK since June 2020 with the merger of the two departments at a physical level.
The UK campaign aims to leverage Hills’ retail brand capital to attract traditional betting shop patrons to its online offering.
“Hills operates one of the most well-known and trusted brands in the UK and traditionally our heartland came from retail, where we had this real sense of community,” said Emery. “We wanted to bring that same feeling for our digital communications and unify that part of the brand with this identity.
“We want people to see us as a trusted brand in online and to be at the forefront of people’s thoughts when they think about online betting and gaming. It’s about taking the heart and soul of our retail business and bringing that to life online,” she added.
EGR has learned the success of the campaign will be measured against three key metrics: increases in spontaneous awareness, consideration and trust.
Emery said: “In the UK, we’re one of the most well-known and recognised brands, partly because of our retail heritage and customers familiarity with it.
“In some of our other markets, we’ve been operating for less time, and therefore we want to create a very consistent look and feel that builds that sense of familiarity.
“Spontaneous awareness aims to measure if customers think about a betting or gaming brand, how quickly do we come to the fore?
“Then the consideration element is we putting out messages relating to our brand that make customers feel that we are a brand they want to bet with,” Emery added.