Sports Fans Hum 'Jerusalem' in Support of Team England for npower

Today, FCB Inferno launch a new ATL campaign for npower, supporting their transformed CGE anthem – Jerusalem – to give athletes their first official track as they journey towards the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

As the largest group of English athletes ever prepares to leave British shores, npower has created a campaign built upon the universal truth of ‘home support.’ Identifying that the more vocal fans there are behind the athletes, the better the performance of the whole team; npower’s Team England campaign looks to galvanise the support of the nation by making CGE’s anthem more accessible for a modern-day fan base. 

In 2010, 'Jerusalem' was chosen by fans to replace 'Land of Hope and Glory' over God Save The Queen as the official Commonwealth Games England anthem. However, despite the fanfare around the change, the track has only been used for medal ceremonies. To bring the track up to date and get the entire nation behind Team England, npower and lead sponsorship agency Ear to the Ground and Syco Entertainment to enlist pianist and music producer Tokio Myers - known for his winning performance on Britain’s Got Talent - to modernise the iconic English hymn.

The film shows snippets of people humming a tune in everyday situations – making tea, in a changing room, at work and in the shower, demonstrating the way an earworm spread and highlighting the fact that although the nation knows the song, they don’t necessarily know the words – before the camera drops to reveal a radio playing the official track, and finally cuts to the Abbey Road studio, revealing Commonwealth Silver medallist and star of The Voice UK Jazmin Sawyers singing onstage.

Recorded at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios, the 23-year-old Law graduate, who won silver at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a 6.5m leap, was accompanied by a 54-piece orchestra and full choir. The long jumper was joined by teammates including Max Whitlock, Ellie Robinson, Jack Laugher and Lois Toulson, before they all head down under in advance of the official opening on 4th April. The track was released on the 16th March on radio, VOD and Spotify, Jazmin and Tokio hope the rousing rendition will spur on fellow Team England contestants to glory.

The film will go out across VOD, Radio and OOH and will include social media activity on the ground in Australia as the athletes prepare for the games to start. 

npower’s Head of Marketing, Ed Madden said: “For many of our athletes, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will be their first experience at this level and far away from many of their fans, family and friends when they need them most. By reimagining Jerusalem, we want to give athletes the ultimate power of support whilst competing away from England. We’re extremely proud to be supporting Team England at such an exciting time for the Commonwealth Games. As the only major event to feature able-bodied and para-athlete competitions together and an equal number of medal events for men and women, it particularly resonated with us. It celebrates the best of sport where diversity and equality are embraced and celebrated. That was such an important factor in npower’s support for the Superhero Series and our partnership with Commonwealth Games England raises this to another level.” 

FCB Inferno EVP, Sharon Jiggins, added: “Our creative approach was to bring the power of support to life by featuring people in their homes, in their cars and in their places of work getting behind Team England. They might not know all the words to Jerusalem but that’s not going to stop them being vocal in their support.”