With the UEFA European Football Championship well under way, the international gaming company Tonybet, this week launched a unique and innovative billboard in Dundrum, Dublin as part of its Euro 2024 campaign.
The large advertisement is a throwback to tournament sticker albums which were popularised in the 80s and 90s and feature Tonybet’s brand ambassador and Ireland football legend Tony Cascarino kitted out as a player for each respective side.
With a slogan that reads “There are still 23 teams you can support”, the hoarding will be changed each day of the tournament with a different sticker of Cascarino to encourage Irish football fans to support everyone bar England in the Euros.
Each sticker sees the former Ireland frontman reimagined to represent each nation with his name cheekily changed to reflect each nationality. For example, the Euro 88 star will be renamed ‘McCascarino’ for Scotland and ‘Cascarinez’ for Spain’s stickers at the same time playing on the halcyon days of swapsies and tournament hype.
The billboard is the latest execution in Tonybet’s Euros campaign which kicked off last week with a television commercial starring Cascarino and will air throughout the tournament. The advert plays on the contrasting fortunes of the Ireland and England teams with England perennially reaching the latter stages of tournaments while qualification for the Boys in Green has become a rare sight.
According to Ross Cunningham, client director for Talon:“Ahead of the Euros, we knew we needed to leverage Tonybet’s humour to build awareness of the brand during a busy sports calendar. Working with Eclipse and JCDecaux, we used OOH to deliver multiple humorous messages on one lightbox in Dundrum, creating a point of difference for the brand”
“This brought back memories for me from my time featuring in various tournament sticker albums and I’m sure I won’t be the only one who’s struck with the nostalgia of it. We have a good-natured rivalry with England but that doesn’t mean we’ll be supporting them during the tournament, so we had to have a bit of craic with it,” adds Tony Cascarino.
