By Becky Reid, Marketing Manager
I don’t think anyone can have missed the massive amounts of sport happening not just in London but around the world at the moment. The Euro 2012 footie, now Wimbledon and shortly the Olympic extravaganza. Great for sports fans like me and also great opportunities for marketers to ‘play’ with.
Now, I admire anyone who can cleverly connect their products, services or brand with the sport of the moment (of course being careful not to do any ‘ambush marketing’) but I have to say I was a little surprised by London Fire Brigade’s latest campaign.
Aimed at dissuading footie fans from drunk cooking during Euro 2012 I commend the campaign for its intentions and also for being translated into seven languages so as to reach Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Portuguese residents. There’s just a couple of things that I noticed upon closer inspection…
The posters, as featured on BBC News’ website, feature a burger with the word ‘Goal!’ above it. The aim is to get fans who are watching the game in the pub to get a takeaway on the way home rather than try to tackle the frying pan when plastered. According to LFB stats ‘three quarters of alcohol related fires are caused by cooking under the influence’. O-kay…
But is the headline ‘Play Away from Home and Eat Out’ the best they could come up with? Not sure RELATE would agree with this!
Also, the French version features the word ‘But!’ above the burger…erm, do they mean ‘Goal!’ or the French electrical chain BUT. Is the LFB branching out into the electrical goods business now?!
It’s ok, LFB, I’m only teasing. It’s good to see them using some initiative at getting their message out there; I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the Olympics!
Anyway, the England team have done their bit for fire safety by losing in the quarter finals, safely ensuring that no one will be watching any more Euro 2012 games. Instead we can all get on with cheering on another underdog in British sport – it is Pimms O’Clock after all!
fireindustry 