Paddy Power, one of Ireland’s largest betting brands, had a problem. The Cheltenham Racing Festival is one of horse racing’s biggest events in the UK and Ireland, but horse racing was losing punters and popularity. How could they reach a mass market Irish audience by talking about a relatively niche sport (horse racing) when every other betting brand would be vying for attention?
Instead of just talking about the festival, we needed to find a way to intersect both the sport and culture in order to create mass talkability. Luckily for us, we found an insight that would do just that. The Irish dominate over the Brits on the tracks, which allowed us to start a cultural conversation about our complicated relationship with the English.
Our idea was simple: Cheltenham’s Coming Home. Not only did we blatantly plagiarise their treasured football chant, we created a rally cry for the nation that allowed us to get a few things off our chest about our neighbours.
The film was led by “Ireland’s Dad”, Colm Meaney, who delivered a stirring call to arms, reminding Irish fans of the many, many times the English have wronged us. From claiming Saoirse (Ronan), Katie (Taylor) and Niall (Horan) as their own to the fact we’re delegated the worst parts of their airports, no stone was left unturned as Meaney marched down the Cheltenham track, accompanied by the best of Ireland in tow.
The results? Aside from a lot of arguments in pubs, taxis and living rooms about the acceptability of beans in frys, it achieved:
10m online views
5% volume growth in target consumer base & in brand recall
Paddy Power’’s most successful Irish ad ever based on social engagement with 20k Facebook likes
A huge amount of PR, notably days of debate on popular radio talk shows like The Ryan Tubridy Show and being critically reviewed by Ireland’s top film critic (Donald Clarke of The Irish Times).