Sky Media were approached by Mindshare with a brief: creating a campaign within the sports landscape which offered deal longevity and the ability to showcase the entire Sure Men range (Original; Quantum; Extreme; Active; Invisible Ice; Sensitive; Sport). The property had to exude the Sure Men brand values of top performance and absolute dependability to emphasise that Sure Men won't let you down, no matter what challenges you face or risks you take.
Sure Men's specific target audience were keen Sky Sports News viewers, and those Sports' viewers also indexed highly against statements: "pay attention to the brand of toiletries" and "want to be considered well-groomed". Having identified Sky Sports News as the ideal channel for Sure Men, SkyView was then interrogated further to find the most suitable programming and most effective time-slots. Early morning shows Good Morning Sports Fans and The Morning Report (perfect when getting ready for the day) & Football Tonight stood out - and the work was soon underway.
In addition to broadcast, sponsorship was extended onto online & mobile platforms. There were pre-rolls across 3x daily Sky Sports News reports on Skysports.com, Football365.com & teamtalk.com. Mobile included sole sponsorship (excluding Golf) of commuter hours on the Sky Sports News App for iPhone & iPad. The creative: Sky's in-house experts, Sky Creative, drew upon their knowledge of Sky Sports News and their understanding of the brief to propose filming a series of extreme physical challenges which put Sure's claims to the test.
Sky Media commissioned face-to-face interviews to determine awareness, perceptions, impact and brand fit. One of the latest waves* found that Sure Men remains no.1 in spontaneous sponsorship awareness - ahead of key competitors - with the activity seen as highly compatible with the programming, memorable and positively received. Related qualitative interviews found an exceptionally strong brand fit between Sure Men and Sky Sports News in the eyes of viewers, focused around 'trust', reliability' and 'quality'.
What's more, the deal was renewed for a further 3 years, extending the campaign through to 2014! It is now fully integrated with online and mobile elements to complement both consumer behaviour and Sky Sports News' expanding distribution (pre-rolls on all Sky Sports News online reports, and sponsorship of the Sky Sports News iPhone/iPad app during commuter hours). So in summary, it's a big TICK in the box for a very successful and perspiration-free collaboration between advertiser, media agency, creative agency and Sky Media!