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Ladbrokes wanted to launch in the Australian market. The category was crowded, and every competitor was playing in the same sand pit of Aussie bloke humour. Predictable. Ladbrokes number one asset was right under their nose – their very own heritage. They are UK’s oldest and leading betting company.
Print // TV // Digital // Brand Launch
To do this, we created an integrated campaign that centred around a bunch of mates – one genuine cockney actor and four Aussie guys. The main character needed to be savvy, street wise, and a good storyteller. Think Jason Statham and you’re on the money. The ‘lads’ were his mates – tradies, professionals, we’ll never know, they’re just mates. This was the foundation to re-launch this iconic brand back into the Australian psyche.
Ladbrokes very quickly gained character and personality. If you’re not with Ladbrokes, you’re behind the game.
The initial TV campaign was set in a pub, introducing the characters in a Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels style – fast motion, fast cuts, crash zooming, freeze frames.
Along with many retail offers, the brand quickly grew in awareness. Visa came on board, so we created the Shout ad – the mates shouting one another but upping the anti. ‘If you’re shouting lunch, well I’ll shout the limo’, and so the one-upmanship began.
The next stage was to get Ladbrokes into other sporting codes – cricket, league, footy. We came up with the Ladbrokes Lounge – a fictitious place that any sporting fan would die for. The ideal man’s cave. With an actual stable for their race horse, massive tv screens, a bar, footy memorabilia, pool, etc. It was the perfect platform to showcase our lads having fun with any sporting code we’d need to feature.
The final campaign was a mock sports show – think Wide World of Sports meets the Footy Show. The lads were commentators, and somehow ended up interviewing each other as sports stars, jockeys, trainers and coaches.
