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FMBX News
Posted: Jul 19, 2011
Ear to the Ground and Umbro combine for Liam Gallagher’s City projection
Ear to the Ground, the event and live communications agency, is the creative force behind the innovative launch of Manchester City FC’s new 2011/12 home shirt.
The new Manchester City Home shirt, tailored by Umbro, features a soundwave graphic of fans singing the team’s famous anthem, ‘Blue Moon’, which is subtly embedded within the design of the shirt. With this striking design concept from Umbro in mind, Ear to the Ground invited famous City fan Liam Gallagher and his band Beady Eye into the studio to record their own unique rendition of the Manchester City anthem complete with promotional music video.
The collaboration between Ear to the Ground, Umbro and Manchester City, launched on Friday 15th July. Later that evening, Ear to the Ground projected a giant image of rock ‘n’ roll star Liam Gallagher onto the stadium proudly sporting his beloved Manchester City’s new home shirt. This high impact media-friendly moment was just the flashpoint of a campaign that has seen, Umbro and Manchester City FC engage with supporters around the world through a blend of traditional and non-traditional media channels.
In the first twenty four hours of the campaign, lead PR agency Exposure helped to secure widespread news coverage for the shirt launch across UK media including Sky Sports, The Sun, The Daily Mail Online, The Daily Mirror Online, The Daily Star, NME.com, Metro UK, TalkSport, The Scottish Daily Record, Capital FM, XFM and BBC 6 Music.
With the launch, conceived and executed by Ear to the Ground the promotional engines of Beady Eye, Manchester City FC, Umbro and Ear to the Ground were geared up to get this unique content out to fans globally. Key publications and broadcasters have already featured the track and video. In addition the image, sound and video has been seeded to over 500 bloggers passionate about football and music culture.
Steve Smith MD of Ear to the Ground comments:
“Umbro were preparing to launch the new Manchester City home shirt which timed perfectly with the release of Beady Eye’s new single. And Liam Gallagher’s love of City is well known to his fans. Our job was to create a storyline that pulled all these elements together into a cohesive narrative that would engage fans and the media. The sound wave on the shirt was the starting point and everything led from there. The creation of an original track by one of the world's most iconic rock & roll stars represents a new level of partnership for a football club and football culture brands.”
Head of marketing at Manchester City, Julian Pate, said:
“As a brand, Manchester City Football Club continues to explore new ways of engaging with our fans and the wider entertainment audience. Through collaborating with our partners, Ear to the Ground and Umbro, we have attempted to deliver an innovative launch campaign that challenges traditional mechanics.”
