TheScore Bet is looking to bring more depth to its marketing platform, and do it in a way that fully leverages brand equity a glut of sports betting competitors can’t match.
“With basketball and hockey cycling back in, this is the busiest season for us,” says Aubrey Levy, SVP of content and marketing for TheScore. “We want to get right back out in front, as all major sports will soon be running.”
TheScore Bet launched the platform, “Get Into Bet Mode,” in March. Featuring celebrity talents promoting the simplicity of its service, the company took a more holistic approach to its brand to introduce what was, at the time, a new proposition for most Canadians just getting familiarized with the recently legalized sports betting market.
For the fall campaign, it is now targeting specific aspects of its betting platform, like its casino offering and integration with TheScore’s media platform covering news from the world of sports. But the campaign once again feature celebrities: comedians Jon Lovitz and Russell Peters, as well as actor Patrick J. Adams.
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But TheScore is conscious of the perceptions and fatigue many Canadians have about sportsbook advertisements, and makes an active effort not just to use celebrities for the sake using them. That is a key point of differentiation for the brand, according to Josh Diamond with Diamond Marketing, which once again developed the effort for TheScore Bet.
It’s also integral to a strategy that anticipated “a glut of competitors” when sportsbooks were first made legal in the spring, Levy notes.
“All of the competitors kind of had the same playbook: insert celebrity here, talk to camera, visual effects, ‘bet with me,'” says Diamond. “We’re trying to use celebrity in a more unexpected way. The personalities we use are fun and we build spots around them. Our playbook is different and hopefully will get around some of that fatigue.”
“The celebrity is not the spot, we’re not trying to leverage the brand equity of the celebrity,” adds Levy. “There’s a message we’re trying to convey, and that celebrity in the spot is the right vehicle to deliver it.”
As a result, Levy says, the message is more “ownable” to TheScore Bet – and, it can also stretch across all of the channels that TheScore Bet wants to be in, according to Diamond. These channels include not only TV, OOH and other areas “where you might see some fatigue,” but also places such as TheScore’s owned channels.
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“Our strategy is not standalone advertising,” Levy says, pointing to the fact that TheScore already had the top sports app in Canada, thanks to its news, scores and stats. We have a powerful brand in the Canadian market, the number one sports app in Canada,” says Levy. “Our strategy is to be comprehensive and multichannel, which means we lean in heavily through our owned and operated channels. We push not just through linear TV or OOH, but also into social, experiential, and through our partnerships.”
This campaign will run across all of those platforms, as well as on radio. It will run through the fall during the busiest sports season for Canadians.