London,
29
July
2016
|
09:35
Europe/London

Kevin Bacon turns football pundit to promote BT Sport offer in latest multi-channel brand campaign from EE

  • Kevin Bacon is joined by football stars including Rio Ferdinand, José Mourinho and Harry Redknapp for new multi-million pound ‘Breaking Sports News’ brand campaign
  • Multi-channel campaign created to launch ground-breaking offer which sees eligible EE pay monthly customers get six month’s free access to the full channel line-up on the BT Sport App
  • Campaign launches today – Friday 29 July – view, share and embed the ad here

EE, the UK’s largest mobile network operator, has launched a multi-million pound, multi-channel brand campaign to launch its ground-breaking new BT Sport App offer. Available to new and existing pay monthly mobile and tablet customers, the offer sees customers get six month’s free access to the full channel line-up on the popular app.

The integrated campaign – entitled ‘Breaking Sports News’ – sees face of EE, Kevin Bacon, return as a football pundit alongside ex-England international and Manchester United player, Rio Ferdinand. Their broadcast is immediately interrupted by the breaking news of EE signing the BT Sport App deal for customers and Kevin quickly cuts to live reactions from some the biggest names in football, including Jürgen Klopp, Claudio Ranieri, José Mourinho and Harry Redknapp.

The enthusiastic reactions to BT Sport – some of which are taken from real post-match interviews – include Klopp saying: “The best word I can say to describe this would be boom!”, and Ranieri exclaiming: “Dilly ding, dilly dong!”. Kevin then asks Rio to “try and sum up this amazing news” to which Rio asks if he can “do it through dance instead”. The ad finishes with an excited Rio showing off his best dance moves as Kevin says: ‘Skills! Bag live sport on the BT Sport App – free for six months.’

The 40 second TV ad will air across all commercial channels from today – Friday 29 July – and can be viewed here. The ‘Breaking Sports News’ creative takes inspiration from how sports news is traditionally covered across media and will also run across print, OOH, retail and social media alongside a unique execution of the TV ad for digital. The Wembley Cup is also returning for a second year and the hugely popular eight-part online series will be used to target the YouTube audience with the BT Sport App offer.

Max Taylor, MD of digital, comms and innovation, EE, said: “This is the one of our biggest integrated brand campaigns to date for one of our most exciting customer offers since we launched EE. We know how much our customers like watching content on the go - particularly sport - and this offer is a fantastic example of the added benefits our customers get now that we're part of BT Group. We are always looking at new ways to showcase the quality of our unrivalled superfast 4G network and providing the best content for our customers is an important part of that.”

The new deal will provide new and existing EE pay monthly customers with six month’s free access to all the live sporting action available on BT Sport channels, via the BT Sport App. As well as live and on-demand catch-up, the BT Sport App provides an array of additional video clips including highlights, interviews, video diaries, fixtures, results and league tables.

From this week, EE customers on consumer and small business pay monthly handset, tablet and SIM only phone plans will be able to access to all the BT Sport channels on their smartphone or tablet*. Sports fans can stream the most anticipated action live, or watch highlights over EE’s award-winning 4G network as well as WiFi whenever they choose.

The BT Sport offer is the first of a series of benefits to be made available to EE customers now that EE is part of BT Group, and the first time that a BT service will be promoted through EE’s retail stores nationwide.

The TV ad was developed by EE’s advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi London. EE’s media buying agency, MEC, has led the multi-million-pound investment in placement.

For more information about EE, please visit ee.co.uk

- ENDS -

For more information, please contact M&C Saatchi PR:

Lucy Keogh / lucy.keogh@mcsaatchi.com / 0207 544 3821

Notes to editors:

* Excludes 4GEE WiFi/Mobile Broadband and Large Business customers. Access to BT Sport App is for personal, non-commercial use only.

Campaign Credits

TITLE: Breaking Sports News

CLIENT: EE

BRIEF: Get the sports world talking about the fact that EE are giving customers the BT Sport App free for six months

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Rob Potts & Andy Jex

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Adam Chiappe

CREATIVE TEAM: Ben Mills & Matt Butterfield

PLANNER: Sam Wise

ACCOUNT HANDLER: Tom McMullen

PRODUCER: Richard Firminger

MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: MEC

MEDIA PLANNER: Richard Bartlett

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Hungry Man

DIRECTOR: Hank Perlman

EDITOR: Alaster Jordan

PRODUCER: Josh Goldstein

POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: MPC

AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Factory

CITY / COUNTRY: UK

EXPOSURE: Nationwide

About EE

EE, part of BT Group, is the largest and most advanced mobile communications company in the UK, delivering mobile and fixed communications services to consumers.

EE runs the UK's biggest and fastest mobile network, having pioneered the UK's first superfast 4G mobile service in October 2012. EE was the first European operator to achieve 14 million 4G customers in December 2015. EE has around 550 shops across the UK. EE's 4G coverage today reaches more than 96% of the UK population, equal to more than 60% of the UK geography. EE plans to extend 4G to 95% geographic coverage by 2020.

EE has received extensive independent recognition, including being ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics®; Best Network at the 2014 and 2015 Mobile News Awards; Best Consumer Network at the 2015 & 2016 Mobile Industry Awards; as well as Fastest Network at the 2014 and 2016 uSwitch Mobile Awards.

Facebook at: facebook.com/ee

Twitter at: twitter.com/ee

YouTube at: youtube.com/ee

LinkedIn at: linkedin.com/company/ee-uk