Euros 2020

In 2021 there was going to be one moment that defined success or failure for all gambling brands at  Euro 2020. On average international football tournaments generate over 50% of football bets. That’s 50% of the market in just 8% of the year.

Our objective was to win market share for William Hill during this make-or-break period.  And in this category, it often comes down to a battle of spend. Those with the deepest pockets are the most visible and salient and capture the most market share.

Our market intelligence told us we wouldn’t win this way. William Hill were being outshouted by the competition on match days, with bet365 and SkyBet achieving 25% and 18% share of voice respectively vs. William Hill’s 15%, meaning that they weren’t the most visible, and wouldn’t be the first choice.

We had two key insights that drove our strategy:

• 47% of the football betting audience actively avoid generic gambling advertising. If we could produce more relevant, more specific and more real time messages than our competitors, we could make our spend work harder than the competition.

• William Hill’s data told us that it’s all about match day. Specifically, that tension and excitement in the action is the key trigger to drive high levels of betting in certain games.

These insights inspired our dynamic framework that enabled us to update and switch messaging in line with what was happening in the tournament and a  media activation to get as close to the action as possible.

The solution – The gambling industry’s first ever fully addressable media plan.

Get as close to the action as possible.

Deliver exciting and enticing live odds.

Two strategic principles that dictated our activation. But in a heavily regulated industry, that’s sometimes easier said than done.

So, we had to create something bespoke. A gambling industry first. Using a suite of proprietary and 3rd party systems, we synchronised TV, radio, digital audio and DOOH investment and used a live API from William Hill to extract the most in demand live odds which dictated creative deployment.

We dominated the moments before kick-off that mattered most. Our messaging was live, real time and responsive. We used the excitement of the tournament to our advantage – activating OOH in and around pubs and other live viewing destinations as well as delivering live odds messages close to kick off on audio and TV coverage ahead of every single match covered on commercial channels. We made sure William Hill odds were top of mind at every conceivable Euros moment.