Walkers leveraged Gary Lineker's humorous pledge to present Match of the Day in his underwear if Leicester City won the Premier League, launching the #wesupportyougary campaign. By partnering with The Sun for a tactical ad featuring the 'news in briefs' concept, Walkers aimed to engage the 16-34 demographic and boost brand visibility. The campaign achieved significant social media interaction, making Walkers one of the most talked-about brands during the event, surpassing engagement benchmarks and reaching millions.

1.
Walkers
bringing
back
News
in
Briefs
We
all
remember
Gary
Lineker’s
infamous
pants
pledge.
Lineker
promised
to
present
the
first
Match
of
the
Day
(MOTD)
of
the
season
in
his
underwear
if
Leicester
City
did
the
unthinkable
and
won
the
Premier
League
title.
Walkers
supported
Gary
throughout
the
season
with
the
#wesupportyougary
campaign
which
ran
across
social
and
outdoor.
Continuing
the
#wesupportyougary
message,
we
teamed
up
with
The
Sun
to
bring
back
the
famous
“News
in
Briefs”
for
one
very
special
day
to
further
reinforce
the
message
and
show
our
final
support
for
Gary
that
evening.
The
tactical
ad
helped
Walkers
become
the
most
prominent
brand
in
this
overall
conversation
–
with
the
second
most
tweeted
hashtag
and
fifth
most
featured
@mention.
Leicester
started
the
2015/16
football
season
as
5,000-­‐1
outsiders
for
the
title
after
almost
being
relegated
the
previous
season.
Bookies
thought
anything
else
was
possible,
including
finding
Elvis
alive
(2500-­‐1)
or
seeing
Dean
Gaffney
win
an
Oscar
(1500-­‐1).
Lifelong
Leicester
fan
Gary
Lineker
was
also
sceptical
but
as
Leicester
kept
on
winning,
he
made
a
pledge
to
present
the
first
Match
of
the
Day
of
the
next
season
in
his
underwear
if
Leicester
actually
managed
to
win
the
league.
After
they
won
the
title
and
nearing
the
first
MOTD
of
this
season,
during
a
last
minute
brainstorm
with
AMV
BBDO,
AMV
Pulse
and
Social
Listening,
we
decided
the
addition
of
a
high
impact
site
within
a
newsbrand
would
be
the
perfect
platform
to
add
fame
and
stature
to
our
campaign.
By
running
a
tactical
ad
on
the
actual
day
of
the
first
MOTD,
it
would
show
readers
how
Walkers
were
a
relevant
and
fun
brand,
while
generating
conversation
ahead
of
the
programme.
Communication
Objective:
Get
16-­‐34s
to
think
“That’s
brilliant
from
Walkers!”,
and
feel
warm
about
the
brand
ahead
of
the
first
MOTD
by
leveraging
Gary’s
pledge
in
Walkers’
tongue-­‐in-­‐cheek
tone
of
voice.
Marketing
Objective:
To
be
the
most
talked
about
brand
in
the
build-­‐up
to
the
first
MOTD
of
the
season.
Walkers
and
Gary
Lineker
are
synonymous
with
each
other
–
he’s
been
their
brand
ambassador
for
over
20
years
–
and
by
aligning
our
campaign
with
Gary’s
support
of
Leicester
City
and
their
league
win
in
May,
we
had
the
perfect
base
to
launch
an
awareness
execution.
The
story
gave
Walkers
content
to
start
a
national
conversation
from
the
offset.
Newsworks’
‘Battle
for
Attention
research’
shows
that
newspapers
create
a
real
personal
connection
with
readers,
they
give
people
something
to
talk
about
and
readers
feel
trust
in
the
content.
This,
Insight
Background & Objectives
Executive Summary

2.
coupled
with
the
effectiveness
research
shows
that
adding
a
newsbrand
into
a
campaign
improves
ROI,
indicated
that
a
newsbrand
would
be
a
great
platform
to
use.
The
Sun
was
selected
for
a
number
of
reasons,
not
just
because
it
is
the
biggest
newspaper.
The
Sun
is
an
instigator,
an
entertainer,
a
cultural
reference
point,
a
finger
on
the
pulse.
Most
importantly
it
influences
and
starts
conversations.
We
also
knew
that
Sun
readers
like
sport
–
specifically
football.
The
Sun
reaches
3.4
million
football
fans
each
week
and
they
talk
about
it;
on
average,
they
have
8.2
conversations
about
sports
and
hobbies
each
week
-­‐
21%
more
than
the
national
average.
Importantly,
we
also
knew
that
1.58
million
readers
of
the
Sun
on
Saturday
also
watch
MOTD,
so
we
knew
that
our
message
would
immediately
resonate
with
this
audience.
(TGI
Jan-­‐Dec
2016
&
The
Bridge
research
2016).
The
Sun
was
the
perfect
partner.
We
needed
our
message
to
be
fun
and
cheeky
to
resonate
with
the
readers.
A
collaborative
brainstorm
with
AMV
BBDO,
OMD
UK
and
PepsiCo
created
the
idea.
The
big
idea
was
to
bring
back
the
famous
Page
3
“News
in
Briefs”
for
one
very
special
day.
It
was
a
real
challenge
as
we
had
to
land
the
message
whilst
considering
the
restrictions
on
mentioning
MOTD,
BBC
and
Gary
Lineker
directly.
There
was
a
lot
of
cheering
when
The
Sun
and
PepsiCo’s
legal
team
gave
the
green
light
for
this
creative.
So
on
the
actual
day
of
the
first
MOTD,
we
ran
a
DPS
on
the
high
traffic
pages
2
&
3.
The
creative
replicated
the
famous
and
historical
page
3
‘News
in
Briefs’,
and
we
featured
our
very
own
Bobby,
the
Potato
Farmer
from
Leicester,
in
his
pants.
He
showed
his
support
for
Gary
while
the
copy
drove
readers
to
Walkers’
Facebook
page
and
#wesupportyougary.
The
Plan

3.
The
DPS
IFC
in
The
Sun
was
a
great
finale
to
the
#wesupportyougary
campaign
and
showed
the
brilliant
capabilities
and
opportunities
available
when
using
a
newsbrand.
Our
creative
enabled
us
to
be
reactive
and
topical
through
a
high
impact
site
while
echoing
the
famous
editorial
stance
of
the
newsbrand.
The
one
insertion
allowed
us
to
drive
conversation
with
over
4.5
million
people
in
the
UK
and
1.3
million
16-­‐34
year
olds.
Our
main
KPI
was
being
the
most
talked
about
brand
in
the
lead
up
to
MOTD,
prior
to
the
activity
it
was
agreed
we
would
qualify
this
KPI
on
Twitter
as
we
could
use
Social
Listening
to
show
this.
We
were
proud
to
hit
this
KPI
and
be
the
most
talked
about
brand
with
a
total
of
205K
posts
on
Gary’s
pledge
to
present
MOTD
in
his
pants
should
Leicester
win
the
Premier
League
–
33k
of
which
came
on
the
13th
August
when
he
stayed
true
to
his
word.
Conversation
in
the
countdown
to
and
during
the
show
itself
mainly
centred
around
Gary
and
MOTD.
Walkers
was
the
most
prominent
brand
in
this
overall
conversation
–
with
the
second
most
tweeted
hashtag
and
fifth
most
featured
@mention.
• The
Twitter
engagement
exceeded
benchmarks
with
an
overall
engagement
rate
of
18.54%
vs
the
10%
planned
benchmarks.
• The
Facebook
campaign
delivered
84%
reach
of
16-­‐34’s
with
over
6.4m
video
views.
Gordon
Smart,
Deputy
Editor
of
The
Sun,
said:
“We
love
a
laugh
in
The
Sun
and
so
do
our
readers.
When
the
advertising
creates
fun
and
is
topical,
and
on
point,
it
only
adds
to
the
paper.
It
would
be
brilliant
if
all
ads
were
as
relevant
as
Walkers
were
on
page
2
and
3
at
the
start
of
the
football
season.
This
ad
would
have
really
engaged
with
our
readers
and
made
them
think
what
a
great
fun
brand
Walkers
are.”
Gordon
Smart,
Deputy
Editor,
The
Sun
Client
View
“Our
Project
Pants
campaign
was
a
huge
success,
driving
huge
social
media
conversations
and
results.
Our
ad
in
The
Sun
couldn’t
have
happened
anywhere
else,
bringing
back
the
“News
in
Briefs”
was
such
a
unique
and
original
idea.
It
fitted
perfectly
with
the
whole
campaign
and
did
a
fantastic
awareness
and
conversation
starter
role.
The
fact
that
the
content
was
so
relevant
to
both
The
Sun
and
Gary’s
big
reveal
in
MOTD
that
evening
made
it
even
more
sharable
and
impactful.
A
fantastic
way
to
end
a
very
successful
campaign”
John
Savage,
UK
Brand
Manager,
Walkers,
PepsiCo
The
Results