It’s Coming Home: How The Bourne Consultancy Brought Danny Dyer onto the Pitch for Paddy Power’s Euros Spot

Overall, the success of Paddy Power’s Danny Dyer-fronted Euros campaign demonstrates the importance of carefully selecting the right celebrity, timing, and creative in a brand partnership. When these elements align, they can create a powerful and effective marketing campaign that resonates with audiences.

In this campaign, the BBH associate creative directors Luke Till and Lawrence Bushel’s choice of Danny Dyer as the featured talent was crucial. As an English actor known for his humour and energy, he was the perfect fit for the tone of the campaign. The timing and the theme of the partnership, just ahead of the Euros, allowed the ad to tap into the excitement and conversation surrounding the tournament. 

The creative obviously played a vital role in its success too. The campaign leveraged humour to poke fun at England fans in a lighthearted way, effectively capturing attention and generating positive reviews. The combination of Danny Dyer's comedic talent, engaging storytelling, and clever messaging contributed to the commercial's impact and memorability.

Charlie Phillips, founder and executive producer at production company MindsEye, states, “Having Danny Dyer, who is essentially a man of the people, suited the Paddy Power campaign perfectly and helped galvanise the country to get behind England. The self-deprecating tone is a great way to show that we don’t take ourselves too seriously as a country, even if we do desperately want England to finally deliver us the success we crave!”

The campaign received overwhelmingly positive reviews across the board. Sports advertising typically receives an average of 2.4 stars on System1’s rankings, with the 2021 and 2024 Euro adverts achieving an average of 3.0 stars. This year, Danny Dyer’s Paddy Power ad took top spot, reaching a maximum 5.9 star rating, something typically done by just 1% of all adverts. The campaign was David Reviews ‘Pick of the Day’, also picking up a five-star rating. According to data from market research company Kantar, the ad achieved a score of 84 out of 100, putting it in the top 17% of ads in their database. The advert is the most searched for on Paddy Power’s YouTube channel and has become their most successful campaign in the last eight years.

Leah Spears, Paddy Power’s head of brand strategy, remarks, “Paddy Power is a brand that likes to stay topical and on the pulse, so more often than not we’re working to some pretty tight timings, but the Bourne Consultancy rose to the challenge for us and turned it around in record time.” She adds that “working with Danny meant we were able to perfectly capture the huge sense of anticipation going into this year’s Euros – not just for English supporters but for football fans from all corners of the continent. ‘Everyone’s Favourites’ really has been everyone’s favourite this summer thanks to the amazing collaboration we had with Melsie and the whole team behind this.”  

By considering all these key factors, the Danny Dyer x Paddy Power commercial was able to create a powerful and successful brand partnership that resonated with audiences and certainly achieved its marketing objectives. Now, let’s hope that same success is replicated today when the England team takes on The Netherlands in the semi-finals.