ESPN talks fans' language as Premier League kicks off

By Maisie McCabe, campaignlive.co.uk, Monday, 20 August 2012 01:11PM

ESPN, the Disney-owned sports broadcaster, has launched a new campaign taking a light-hearted approach to well-known sports phrases, to coincide with the beginning of the football season.

The 'We Speak Your Sport' ad campaign was devised by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam and shows comedic dramatisations of sports phrases such as "sin bin", "hit the woodwork" and "hat-trick".

The TV ad shows scenes such as a man toppling a precariously put together chair ("hit the woodwork"), a magician pulling a rabbit out of a top hat ("hat-trick") and seven people representing the deadly sins crammed into a bin ("sin bin").

It was conceived by copywriter Simone Moessinger and art director Sanne van Hecke, produced by Radical Media and directed by Rosey. The executive creative directors at W&K Amsterdam are Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy.

The campaign, which was planned and bought by Arena Media, will use TV, online and outdoor media across August and September to promote the idea of a shared joke between the broadcaster and sports fans.

The TV ad will run on ESPN and Sky Sports channels and as a pre-roll against video-on-demand content on the Sky and YouTube platforms, as well as the Base79 video network.

Outdoor media, which was bought with Posterscope, will include large-format roadside in London and London Underground sites.

Digital display ads will run in on the websites of a range of national newspapers including The Sun, the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph, as well as on the Sky Sports and TalkSport platforms, and selected networks.

ESPN currently broadcasts 23 games from the Barclays Premier League, which kicked off again on Saturday, but the broadcaster missed out on the rights from the 2013/4 season after being outbid by BT.

Other live sport on ESPN in the UK includes the FA Cup, Europa League, Scottish Premier League, Serie A, Premiership Rugby, French rugby union league Top 14, golf, darts, UFC and NBA.

The campaign began on Saturday (18 August).

Follow @MaisieMcCabe

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk