BT Sport: Positive start to the season

For almost 20 years Sky Sports has maintained the ownership of sport viewers, but could this be the season that the ownership is contested? BT Sport's first televised Premier League football match at the weekend, Liverpool versus Stoke City, attracted a peak audience of 764,000 viewers, beating ESPN's opening game last season.

Although the audience figure is far less than Sky Sports 3.1 million viewers, Sky Sports first game last season only raked in 843,000; BT Sport should be considered as serious competition!

In a recent press release BT Sport claims to have acquired 1 million subscribers due to the new sports package offering, indicating that 76% of all subscribers tuned into the game - pretty impressive! That being said, the cost per acquisition is still painful given the £100m+ marketing campaign.

We've been following the campaign since the first day it was executed, commenting on the different creatives, messaging and tactic's used by both brands and early signs appear to be positive for BT Sport. But, there's still a long way to go before seeing a positive ROI.

We have a feeling this will go the full 12 rounds!

#PurePoint

Round 6!

So, it’s time for it to end. Finally.

The posturing, the bad-natured bravado, the poorly disguised dislike and the testosterone-fuelled, territorial circling has swamped our daily lives for the past couple of months.

The ink used in the print ads would have filled the Great Lakes. They’ve had more TV time than Lord Sugar. They’ve even spent more than the entire Premier League combined (yes, including Manchester City)

The two behemoths of British sports broadcasting, Sky Sports and BT Sport, have been obsessed with the quest to become the one that has eaten a bigger slice of the Premiership Pie.

As we have documented, despite the initially considered nature of the rivalry, the contest has descended in to a bare-knuckle brawl. Targeted placements have given way to ubiquity and refreshing messaging has devolved into tale-telling and seemingly contradictory claims.

The season starts tomorrow.

In a final, desperate lunge that reeks of burnt rate cards and smashed sales targets, BT Sport have literally blanketed today's media, with Sky Sports remaining comparatively calm. We've included the examples at the end of the blog - you've no doubt seen them several hundred times in the last two months!

We shall have to see whether the Evening Standard is equally as battered by this crusade (campaign doesn’t seem to do it justice).

The biggest test will be the figures that are recorded over the next few weeks.

Let the chips fall as they may.

All we know is, we’re finally glad that there will be a little more content on the tellybox.

It’s time for it to end. Hopefully….

Let the games begin.

#PurePoint

Pure Quest ... Outdoor Art Bingo

 What do David Hockney, Lucian Freud, John Constable, LS Lowry, Tracey Emin, Sir Christopher Blake and many more artists have in common??

Their works are among over 50 pieces of British art selected by the general public to feature in the World's largest outdoor media 'Art everywhere' campaign that launches today.

The artwork will be shown on 22,000 digital outdoor poster sites across the UK - in a joint collaboration between the art world and the advertising and media industries....with sites donated by major outdoor contractors including CBS Outdoor, ClearChannel UK, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor & Primesight....no hidden agenda, just the opportunity to celebrate 'Art'.

 

At Pure we are always on the look out for interesting outdoor campaigns - as well as a challenge amongst the team, so we have taken it upon ourselves to try and spot all 50+ pieces of artwork in situ.

Our last quest was to capture the 150 names that Coke claimed to have used in personalised products and ads earlier this year, only to have seen very few of them in the outdoor ad campaign due to the fact the reality of the production budget clearly outweighed the creativity of the multi executional delivery.

Dabbers to the ready .... we're hoping the digital nature of this campaign and the promise of over 50 creative exections will enable us to get a collaborative 'full house' over the coming weeks.

 BINGO!!

#PurePoint #PureChallenge #PureAdOfTheWeek

Love it or Hate it??

We're 50:50 here in the office with regards to the latest Marmite 'neglect / rescue' TV ad ... and it seems we are not the only ones.

The commercial went on air c. 24 hours ago and the ASA has already received over 250 complaints.

The campaign uses the well-known Love/Hate strapline, urging users to "Love it. Hate it. Just don't Forget it."


One thing we can say is the ad is true to it's word, like Marmite, you really will either Love it or Hate it.

 

Contender for #PureAdOfTheWeek ... maybe, but not necessarily for all the right reasons?