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UKTV Creative wanted to ‘add a bit of Dave’ to the World Cup with a takeover of BOXPARK for the duration of the tournament. This activity ran across the duration of the World Cup from 20 November through to 18 December 2022.

This activation came a few weeks after a complete brand refresh, which allowed us to roll out our new branding for the very first time. Using the World Cup as a great opportunity to introduce our new brand assets, and to help to build renewed brand recognition.

With 25-44 Men watching less TV, we needed to work hard to drive consideration in Q4.
So Dave added fun to the fans experience during the World Cup by ‘finding the funny’ in the everyday and making Dave a prominent media channel throughout the tournament.

With 23 hilarious bespoke copy variations around the venue (which changed around the big stories of the tournament) Dave became a recognisable visual presence.
We branded everything around the space, adding a bit of Dave to billboards, banners, posters and digital screens. Using multiple media opportunities around the venue to broadcast contextual messages (that we updated during the tournament), as well as 32 ‘Dave’ branded flags for each country that was taking part in the World Cup.

We even branded the rubbish bins around the venue to reference well know footballers - such as Cristiano Binaldo and Binnie Jones.

We also opened up our very own Dave bar inside BOXPARK, to offer a place to celebrate (or commiserate) with your mates, right up until the final whistle.
Inside we branded the bar, the benches, the pint glasses and the beer mats, so that Dave was always with you, win or lose.

The fun was amplified with freebies given out to the public, such as Dave bucket hats and stickers which instantly turned any shirt into a football shirt
These were offered nationwide throughout the tournament, spreading the Dave brand across the country.

We even jumped on a trending story during the tournament surrounding ‘Dave’ the lucky cat, by putting out a newspaper advert and a billboard persuading Kyle Walker to adopt ‘Dave’ and bring him home. Which he eventually did.

The campaign had a big impact amongst 25-44 Men:
Awareness +6%, Ad Awareness +39%, WOM +131%, Recommend + 25% and organic social reach +54%.

‘Adding a bit of Dave’ to reactive OOH created the desired impact.  We saw +6% increase in Awareness and Ad Awareness increased +39%. Dave’s Consideration grew by +8.5% against all adults.  
 
But we really needed people talking about Dave, and they did! We grew organic social chatter, increasing WOM by +131% contributing to an impressive +25% shift in positive Recommendation amongst 25-44 Men.  
 
Crucially, on the channel, 25-44 Men impacts rocketed by +56% November to December, whereas all TV only crept up +9%!

Most importantly, Dave the cat made it safely to the UK. After a fiercely fought contest amongst the England Team to keep him Kyle Walker handed him over to England’s Head of Security, a family man with more time to look after him at his Cheshire abode.

This fresh, tongue–in-cheek take on the World Cup had people talking about Dave again, and the brand was back on young men’s radar.

Back of the net!

Credits:
Head of Design and Brand: Peter Allinson
Creative Director: Scott Russell
Designers: Peter Allinson, Callum Parish, Mario Gambardella
Creative Manager: Paul Philpott
Design Producer: Shannon Newton
Senior Producer: Genevieve Sligcher
Campaign Producer: Latoya Collingwoode-Williams
Head of Production: Mary-Claire Seiler
Marketing Manager: Danielle Rice
Marketing Director: Nick Gilmer
Media Agency: Havas Entertainment
Havas Entertainment: Alex Sherr, Jake Powell, Rebecca Hughes, Hamid Hamid, Adam Foster, Havas Jump
Media Partner: BOXPARK