With the Cheltenham festival kicking off on March 15th, and a travelling army of Irish fans returning to Prestbury Park, Paddy Power is dominating Dublin Airport with an array of ads featuring Colm Meaney, Ruby Walsh and Peter Crouch. With 28 races taking place across the 4-day festival, there is plenty for punters to mull over, and the Irish bookmaker is maximising the opportunity to build top of mind awareness surrounding one of the most anticipated events in the sporting calendar for Irish fans. High impact formats such as the Digital T1 Skyscreen and T2 Blue Lifts are among the formats ‘under starters orders’ at the airport.
The T2 Blue lifts features Meaney alongside groups of racing fans, under the playful copy ‘The Irish are Coming’. The creative builds momentum around the event and engages the Irish racegoers as they depart for the festival, a fixture missed by so many in the past few years. The irreverent creative ensures Paddy Power grab the attention of the right people at the right time with an appropriate message in a contextually relevant environment.
In a media first, the campaign is also using the entire length of the Digital Sky Screen in T1 and Paddy Power takes full advantage of its potential be employing video content. The creative plays on the ‘friendly’ sporting rivalry between Ireland and England ahead of the festival. Former Irish Jockey Ruby Walsh and English Footballer Peter Crouch appear to race on screen and it poses the humorous question ‘Will Ireland Reign Supreme? Or Will the Brits spoil the party?’. PML Group’s Creative Elements research shows that the appropriate inclusion of humour in OOH ads can increase memorability and brand effects including advocacy and consideration.
The campaign was planned by Mediaworks and Source out of home, part of PML Group.
Commenting on the campaign, Karl Ellis, Head of Media, Paddy Power said; “When we decided to kick off the Irish invasion of Cheltenham this year, we thought what better place to start than the launch pad of that invasion, Dublin Airport. We worked with our partners at Mediaworks & PML Group to bring the campaign to life in high impact formats throughout both terminals to really make the campaign unmissable for those lucky enough to be make the trip to the festival.”.
