Real Madrid's superstar Welsh left-winger Gareth Bale has been scooped up by BT Sports to star in the latest campaign to promote its European football rights. The campaign is centred around an ad, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, which features Bale discussing the clubs he's played for throughout his career, including Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, where he made his name before moving to Real Madrid in 2013. A voiceover from current BT Sport presenter and former BBC Sport F1 figurehead, Jake Humphrey then tells us that when football fans are deciding on which broadband provider to use, they should factor in the fact that BT holds all rights to the Champions League from August 2015, owning the rights for three seasons from 2015/2016.
The campaign is centred around an ad, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, which features Bale discussing the clubs he's played for throughout his career
The “Flashback” spot was written by David White, and art directed by Richard Connor. It first broke during the first knock out games of the 2014 World Cup over the weekend with campaign planning and purchasing by Maxus. It was shot on Penarth Pier last week and culminates in the football star performing a number of ball skills before launching the ball into the sea. John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, is “Delighted to work with (Bale) to reinforce the message (that) BT Sport is the (new) home of European football.” He says that Bale is the perfect face for the campaign, as he is simply “One of the world's greatest players,” and that having helped Real Madrid to their Champions League win earlier this year in the final against their close rivals Athletico Madrid, he “Knows what he is talking about,” when it comes to European football.
The spot follows on from BT sport's “Great sport happens here” campaign, which was designed to reveal the exciting and accessible personality of BT Sport's new channels, and to “Illustrate their impressive content offering and showcase a wide cast of sporting talent through a series of spectacular set pieces.” The campaign, also created by AMV BBDO featured Bale alongside Manchester United's Robin van Persie and Daniel Sturridge, as well as rugby players Chris Robshaw, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi, and tennis player Heather Watson.
The spot follows on from BT sport's “Great sport happens here” campaign, which was designed to revealed the exciting and accessible personality of BT Sport's new channels.
This coup for the brand comes less than a month after they received a number of complaints following an ad that (according to the frustrated viewers in question) did not make it sufficiently clear that BT Sports was only available online unless customers were also Sky or BT Infinity subscribers. There was also a complaint that stated the ad implied BT Sport was free to businesses because it involved scenes set in a pub and a barber shop. The ad, which also featured Humphrey and was created by AMV BBDO, was subsequently pulled from the air. It's very unlikely the latest ad will fall under such scrutiny.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer, musician and Manchester United supporter from Kidderminster in the UK. He would say that he finds Gareth Bale to be quite a smug individual, but he's probably just jealous.
