Paddy Power’s perfect positioning

Paddy Power’s latest campaign is just another in a stream of consistently eye-catching, creative and controversial work the bookmaker has run over the last decade. 

Fronted by Rhodri Giggs, the “Loyalty’s Overrated” campaign looks to leverage the scandalous story of not so brotherly love in the Giggs family. Not quite Cain and Abel. But definitely Willing and Capable. 

This isn’t the first time Paddy has torn Giggs apart. Imogen Thomas fronting a campaign around the UEFA Champions League final following his reported affair with the Welsh glamour model.

The campaign itself is another humdinger. From the cute subliminal touches in the background as Rhodri strides across town to the tongue in cheek nods to camera whenever thoughts of Ryan arise. And Rhodri is surprisingly good. 

The most impressive thing about Paddy Power, however, isn’t the individual campaigns and stunts it keeps churning out, but the consistency of the work it’s delivered for such a long period of time – all born from a clear strategic positioning. 

Positioning has always been a strategic exercise not a communication one. Yet many brands still struggle to occupy unique and defendable positions that last longer than a couple of years – or weeks in some cases. And many brands still mistake propositions, slogans, and campaigns as substitutes for strategic positioning. 

So, what makes Paddy's positioning so great? 

Firstly, the competition either won’t or can’t get anywhere near it. 

Paddy was one of the first brands to see the potential in the online world, both as a destination for gambling but also as a vehicle for communicating with punters and sports fans in a completely new way. 

While the bigger bookmakers were resting on their laurels, Paddy saw an opportunity to challenge the conventional behaviour of the category and aggressively went after recruiting customers by being controversial.  

They understood that while every other brand would see what they said as unacceptable, regular punters and sports fans were far less sensitive. British (& Irish) humour is often darker and more sarcastic than we like to think. 

Suddenly, the topics of conversation which took centre-stage amongst friends in the pub on matchdays were being played back to them by Paddy. 

Paddy realised the advantage of speaking to fans in their own language and built out a position of strength by continually leveraging cultural moments with controversial communications supported by unique bets. 

The slowness of the competition to realise what a strong strategic move this was allowed Paddy time to build its position unchallenged. By the time the competition realised what was happening it was too late. 

Most brands operate within the boundaries of a pre-determined set of rules as to what can and can’t be said. These can often be incredibly restrictive. Freedom of speech doesn’t really exist in brand world. But Paddy didn’t care for these rules, and even now 99% of brands wouldn’t dare communicate the way Paddy does.  

Category competitors are now perpetually locked outside the castle gates vying to get in. Attempting to breach the defences with similar approaches. But mimicking success is always doomed to failure when what makes it so successful isn’t part of your DNA. That's why attempts to be more like Paddy appear so contrived.

So, the space Paddy owns defends itself. 

In turn, this gives Paddy the creative freedom to explore the unexplorable. And who in a creative industry wouldn’t want to work on that brief. 

Secondly, it clearly resonates with the audience.

When sports marketing campaigns first moved beyond a logo on a shirt, brands began to talk about how to integrate fans into work. But the idea of banter, songs, colloquialisms were to be avoided at all costs. This was the world of the hardcore fan.

Brands didn’t feel like they belonged in this space, so they looked to play on generic fan perspectives, which is why the word “Passion” is one of the most overused in the history of sports marketing. 

The explosion of social media, however, started to change everything. It changed the nature of fandom, both in terms of how far reaching it could become and by revealing more of the conversations’ fans would naturally have around the sports, teams and players they followed. And it showed the average fan loved controversy just as much as the hardcore one. 

Paddy saw how creatively fertile this could be and ran with it. And by speaking to fans in their own language Paddy has become an authentic part of the conversation. 

But the shrewdness of the approach doesn’t end there. Paddy is also a continuous source of content for the tabloids. Tabloids have understood the value of controversy since day dot. And in the click-bait culture we now live in, the tabloids are happy to run with Paddy’s work as it feeds their audiences desire for controversy. A shared audience. A shared value.

So, Paddy, now has a unique three-way symbiotic relationship between its brand, its audience, and the media which continually thrives through controversy. Genius! 

Thirdly, Paddy walks the walk.

It’s easy to be controversial with communications and then not live up to the promise. This is the major failing of most positioning work. It promises something the business or brand just can’t live up to when you scratch beneath the surface – hello brand purpose! 

Paddy has always offered a range of promotions directly connected to its communications, which other bookmakers wouldn’t dream of offering. From Trump to Oscar Pistorius to Craig Bellamy’s wayward golf game, Paddy allows punters to make bets on the most controversial topics.

Even if these aren’t profitable markets, they act as gateways into Paddy’s products and larger more profitable markets. 

So, what about the campaign itself?

“Loyalty’s Overrated” could just as easily have been a marketing industry debate fronted by esteemed Professor of Marketing Science Byron Sharp. 

But in this case, it’s a response to the most disloyal customers there are – punters. Most seasoned and even occasional gamblers will have multiple accounts across a number of bookmakers always looking for value. Gambling is the epitome of an industry where customers feel virtually no loyalty whatsoever to who they place their bet with. So, it’s essential to build brand, and work your way into the audiences' long-term memory, so that when instincts kick in, you’re in the consideration set. 

Interestingly, the same could probably be said of Paddy when it comes to loyalty. Anyone who’s worked in the industry knows Paddy often works through agencies looking for the best ideas. And quite frankly, i think that’s great.

Why? Because it's true to positioning.

The trawl across agencies clearly hasn’t had an effect on the output as it’s hard to tell where and when an agency change may have happened. Paddy can tweak or play with its slogans, campaigns, promotions and messages but ultimately positioning is in the mind of the audience. And perceptions of what Paddy stands for are as clear now as they were a decade ago. You certainly couldn’t say that for Ladbrokes, William Hill or Coral. 

So, the only danger Paddy faces is how long it can hold on to its winning position – something you’d expect a bookmaker to be good at, even if marketers aren’t. 

There’s always that moment when a new CMO, brand director or agency strategist boldly states the need for a change, even when there’s not. And that’s the problem with the human element of marketing. People like to own the work, not build on someone else’s. They want the change on their CV even if it makes no sense to the business. 

In this case, i hope Paddy doesn't waver and backs its enduring position to the hilt. 

Godspeed Paddy!