Isuzu & Sky Sports

Isuzu ‘Driving Derbies’ Revel in the Rivalry of English Football

Football is not a matter of life and death. To football fans, it is far more. For English Football League (EFL) club supporters, it can feel like a rough ride, but it’s one that true fans would never turn their backs on.  Isuzu tapped into EFL fandom with Sky Sports, pitting fans of rival EFL Derby clubs against each other in the ultimate driving face off; the Isuzu D-Max ‘Driving Derbies’ challenge. Brand consideration soared to 91%. Not bad for one of the smaller specialist guys.

The pick-up truck market is hugely competitive, with rivalling new pick-up launches from bigger brands like Ford and VW benefitting from the halo effect of their wider range. With a fraction of the budget, how could Isuzu compete with bigger brands in the same vehicle territory and increase consideration amongst their key audience of C1C2DE Males?

Additional objectives were to drive awareness of the specific attributes which make an Isuzu D-Max unique – ruggedness, reliability and dependability. To do this we would secure a KPI of at least 450,000 content views.

We knew that in order to stand out in the market we had to connect Isuzu with a real passion point for their audience. Whilst Isuzu had previously aligned with rugby, we saw a gap in the market for them to associate with the fandom of lower league football in a meaningful and unique way.

As we have the broadcast rights to the EFL, and the specialist knowledge in producing content which resonates with football fans, we were the perfect partner for the campaign.

Tapping into the passion and graft required to succeed in the EFL, Isuzu teamed up with Sky Sports to get real football fans from rival clubs competing head to head. Placing these fans in the driver’s seat, the campaign created an unbeatable content series that demonstrated the toughest attributes of the Isuzu D-Max in pursuit of settling old sporting rivalries and crowning an overall club victor.

With Sky Sports, we produced a branded content series of six videos, which were hosted on Sky’s catch-up platform and featured in the On-Demand EPG (electronic programme guide).

Each piece of content focused on one of the Isuzu D-Max’s key attributes (e.g. strength, capability, durability, etc.), which were put to the test by two rival clubs; for instance, the ‘Deep Dribble’ series pitted an Aston Villa fan against a Birmingham City fan in the Durability contest. Adam Smith from Sky Sports’ Soccer AM and Joe Thomlinson from Football Daily (the UK’s biggest digital and social football platform) were recruited as the presenters so that we could leverage and tap into their existing social and TV audiences.

We created a unique editorial integration with bespoke posts and exclusive additional content for our Sky Sports and Football Daily social platforms. An interactive teaser TVC ran across Sky Media’s wide portfolio to drive awareness of the series by prompting millions of sports fans to click on the red button to discover the full range of content. Finally, using Sky Advance we connected TV and digital elements of the campaign by identifying audiences who had seen the TVC and re-targeting them with display ads, steering more viewers to the custom-built Isuzu D-Max content hub on the Sky Sports website.