‘Sean’s Quick Pick’ – Launching Tipp24 in Ireland
Cullen Communications launched the online lotto betting brand Tipp24 in Ireland in March 2017. To explain the concept and convey the brand’s Irish credentials, we recruited the Ireland rugby international Sean O’Brien to be the face of our launch. Central to our strategy was the creation of a high-value piece of video content that showed Sean ‘picking his lotto numbers’ by doing what he does best – smashing people on a rugby pitch.
Strategy
Tipp24, an online lotto betting brand hugely popular in Germany but virtually unknown in Ireland in 2017 partnered with us to launch its services here. The brand, part of the UK-based myLotto24 stable, needed to cut through the competition and attract the attention of its target audience: young, social-savvy, gaming-friendly males and females.
Our launch strategy needed to explain the concept of lotto betting. It also needed to underline the brand’s Irish credentials and establishing trust, given some negative press around online gaming and gambling.
After a few brainstorming sessions, our creative team approached the launch by focusing on a rugby theme.
As a sport, rugby would provide a playing/gaming backdrop with numbers (on shirts) prominently featured.
Rugby enjoys an incredibly high profile in Ireland, and is popular among both male and female demographics.
Because of the ‘tough but fair’ nature of the game, rugby players are seen as very trustworthy and respectable.
Execution
Through our agency’s vast sporting connections, we have many high-profile contacts in the world of rugby.
One of these is Sean O’Brien, one of the most recognisable faces in Irish sport. Sean is an Irish international who has played for his country 49 times. He toured Australia with the British & Irish Lions in 2013, and was a safe bet (sorry!) to be picked for the 2017 tour to New Zealand. We negotiated a deal for Sean O’Brien to become the face of Tipp24 in Ireland.
To actually launch the brand, we proposed creating a high-value piece of video content that would address our key objectives: explain Tipp24; establish the brand’s Irish-ness; reassure potential customers.
Our idea was based on the old schoolyard game of ‘British Bulldog’ or ‘Last Man Standing’. In the game, one person stands in the middle trying to catch others who are running past – anyone who gets caught by the ‘bulldog’ is out.
We gave the game a rugby twist and a lotto twist by having Sean as our bulldog, trying to rugby-tackle a group of 39 players (the amount of numbers on a lotto game). Each player had a number, so whoever was tackled became a lotto pick – one of Sean’s numbers.
The promotional video was shot on a cold, wet February night in Tullow Rugby Club in the heart of the Irish countryside. The pitch was a quagmire (perfect!) so at every turn we had a ‘whoomph’ impact and players slipping and sliding in the mud. Once shot, we packaged the video into a 30-second teaser and full 60-second version, to be pushed out to media in the days following our launch announcement.
Final Result
We announced the launch of Tipp24 in March 2017. Within a month, the video amassed over 250,000 views through organic reach ONLY. In addition, the video gained more than 500,000 views as a direct paid placement with the Irish Times, Entertainment.ie and Maximum media.
For the official launch, we held a round table interview session with Sean and sports media which secured blanket sports media coverage with branded interviews.
Update 2020: Since launching, Tipp24 has re-branded to myLotto24 in Ireland. The company has deleted all references to its former brand name, including our video.
