How Brands Plan to Activate Around England v Spain Euro Championships Final

With the England men's team on the verge of glory at the European Championships and Spain the last team standing in their way, brands are clamouring to get in on the occasion, with over 10 million people alone set to watch the game live in the UK.

Media outlets across the UK will be rubbing their hands with glee at the potential last-ditch spend they are set to see come in as brands get in on celebrating the potential victory of Gareth Southgate’s team with the country.

Official sponsors of England include major brand names such as Walkers, EE, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Nike. Meanwhile other brands have been advertising around the team including Adidas' athemic 'Hey Jude', Paddy Power and Domino’s.

Anecdotally, Creative Salon is aware that agencies have begun pitching last-minute ideas to clients to tap into the country's positive sentiment.

Across all media platforms: online, social media, print and radio; the build-up to the final is set to be England fuelled for advertisers.

Kieren Mills, head of broadcast for Total Media explains that even with TV ad spots already assigned for the final, brands can still leverage England’s football success primarily through digital placements and newsprint.

"The goal is to align your brand with the positive sentiment surrounding England’s achievements, exceeding typical advertising impact," he adds.

And many were already sitting waiting for their moment. Within minutes of the final whistle being blown - pre-prepared brand-owned social media posts were shared to celebrate the team's victory and look towards Sunday's event.

Xbox posted the latest installment of its 'Dreamland' campaign with social media post featuring a split screen image of the England players alongside one of the demons from the fantasy title Diablo IV with the phrase 'Jump in.' placed in the middle of the two composites. The campaign is being produced by Edelman owned agency Assembly (see main image.)

The next post will be released at 3pm on Saturday on Xbox channels and then Sunday at 10am on @433, Instagram's largest football channel worldwide.

Budweiser, another official partner, has released a video featuring World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst calling on an official bank holiday should they be victorious on Sunday. It is the continuation of a campaign devised by Revolt.

Weber Shandwick is running the PR for the #BudBankHoliday drive too.

EE, which has been communicating its anti-racism 'Hate, Not in My Shirt' campaign involving both the England and Scotland teams, continued its theme posting 'Bring on Berlin' soon after the final whistle. It also included the message 'To the finals @England' and included the campaign hashtag #EEProudSupporter

The brand, through its exclusive access to the national sides' players, will continue sharing content involving the England team. Speaking to players and fans, it has been producing content around what it's like to be a supporter across its owned TikTok account.

And crisp-maker Walkers, through VCCP, has been running its 'No Walkers, No Game' TV campaign fronted by Thierry Henry and David Beckham.

Supporting that campaign through social media, it has been releasing seemingly simple message posts featuring its crisps alongside a relevant pun.

The most recent, following the semi-final victory for England, saw it release an image of a packet of Cheese and Onion and the statement 'In the Bag'.

The Unofficial Brand Activations

The ambush marketing of major sporting events by brands is always plentiful and there have been many examples over recent weeks from advertisers who are not officially affiliated with the tournament or the England team.

Much of that, as you would expect, has run through social media.

VCCP client Domino's has been consistent in putting out humour-led messages during game times, especially the England games with posts that have garnered tens of thousands of responses collectively.

One of the highest-profile unofficial campaigns has come through bookmaker Paddy Power, which stuck to its typically cheeky way of communicating. This time its messaging focused on the other UK nations that generally hope for England to fail with various sketches, as well as an imitation of manager Gareth Southgate explaining his controversial (but successful) tactics through out the competition.

Meanwhile, Ogilvy UK's client Sainsbury's has been releasing Instagram videos and images to inspire England-centric meals, including the recipes and ingredients needed to prepare meals to go alongside a game. The latest, posted ahead of the Netherlands semi-final included a bunch of oranges in a 4-4-2 formation accompanied by the message 'Let's squash them'. Further posts are due.

Inevitably, many more brands will now attempt to do the same at the last minute, however, those messages are likely to ring hollow, explains Ogilvy UK chief executive Fiona Gordon.

"It's always a really special moment if a brand has a relevant role in culture that enables them to respond. What doesn't work is if you just piggyback on a moment when you have nothing to do with the moment of celebration," she explains. "The messages that resonate are the ones that offer such a great insight that only that brand could say."

Kieren Mills takes the point of relevancy further for any brands planning to tap into England's current success - without a traditional football background they should offer value or entertainment to be received credibly.

"A great example of this is Greene King's latest campaign, turned around within days for the semi-final. Our digital team delivered highly targeted placements to potential customers promoting the opportunity to get a free pint in their pubs whenever England scored by saying 'England scored, please pour' at a Greene King pub," he continues.

The objective of the campaign was to drive traffic to pubs while delivering an uplift in measured mobile data and responsive decision-making.

And in many ways, England has already won this weekend as the spike in consumer spend (and ad spend) will only further benefit the British economy which is in urgent need of growth. All eyes are now on Sunday to see if history is made.