Specsavers Levels up ‘Best Worst’ Team with Gary Neville and Ella Toone

The latest episode of Specsavers’ award-winning YouTube series, Best Worst Team sees the introduction of Gary Neville and Ella Toone as the latest celebrity talent providing their support to the nation’s worst performing football team.

The campaign, created by PR and Social agency Tangerine, brings the renowned 'Should’ve gone to Specsavers' campaign to life for new audiences via a six-part YouTube docuseries. Now in its third season, the campaign, a growing entertainment property, follows the inspiring journey of Somerset’s Tunley Athletic on their journey from rags to riches with elite levels of sponsorship from Specsavers.

Episode five tasks Gary Neville with providing his unmistakable expert opinions on the team’s performance, whilst Episode Four of the series which went live in April welcomed decorated Lioness and Manchester United midfielder, Ella Toone, as the latest celebrity coach to provide guidance to the nation’s Best Worst Team.

Season Two of the award-winning campaign drove a 70% increase in brand consideration and 10% uplift in awareness amongst the target gen z audience. Season Three is already tracking higher than the previous season, with metrics such as ‘brand love’ and ‘dwell propensity’ peaking at new highs, boosted by celebrity talent including Luke Littler, and the return of fan-favourite Harry Redknapp, plus cross-channel amplification via Goalhanger and Spotify’s The Rest Is Football podcast.

​Lisa Hale, head of brand activation, pr and social at Specsavers said, “ Season two evidenced the success of bringing Should have Gone to Specsavers to life in a conceptual way, as entertainment, to reach new audiences. In order to keep their attention ,this season, we knew we had to go bigger; with the average watch time increasing by over 30% YOY, up from five mins to nearly seven; the campaign is already on track to be as impactful, if not more successful than last year.

Creative director, Martin Kevill at Tangerine adds, “After the incredible success in Season Two with Swansea’s Cwm Albion and growing such a huge following across YouTube and beyond, we had to go big this year to build on the gen z’s obsession with the concept. We promised more excitement, bigger surprises and a higher production value... the positive impact on audience engagement has already been significant.

Golin supported on PR amplification and MG on media.