Creative Corner: Liverpool FC goes retro, HP prints a billboard and Uber makes an Irish exit

This week’s Creative Corner celebrates two content-rich campaigns that prove that long-form content is alive and kicking, and a St. Patrick’s Day campaign that steps away from the cliches.

Step forward: Liverpool FC who rewind the ‘90s with Fowler’s Sports, a 4 minute sitcom-style short brimming with nostalgia; HP which transforms printing into performance with a live billboard built sheet by A4 sheet, proving slow content can still captivate; and Uber as it toasts St. Patrick’s Day with IrishXit, fronted by Maura Higgins, reframing the “ghost goodbye” as the smarter way to top off the revelry.

Liverpool FC steps into sitcoms with Fowler’s Sports

Liverpool Football Club has turned back the clock with a throwback short film that reimagines the ‘90s football golden age through the lens of a classic sitcom - complete with laugh tracks, retro aesthetics, and legendary cameos.

Set at the fictional Fowler’s Sports, an Anfield Road shop that feels straight out of 1996, the spot stars club icon Robbie Fowler, joined by Steve McManaman and a lineup of stars old and new, including Virgil van Dijk, Jan Holby, Ian Rush, Florian Wirtz, Mia Enderby, and Grace Fisk.

It’s a perfect blend of US and UK 90s-style sitcoms, stuffed full of nostalgic cues: the sports store that stocks everything from dubbin to dart boards; the ‘open all hours’-esque deadpan shopkeeper and hapless sidekick, played impressively by McManaman and Fowler, through to the analogue clock that charts the passing of time. Throw in the ‘in the know’ corny jokes and the canned applause, alongside laughter for the cameos from legends old and new.

At the heart of it all is the new Liverpool FC collection: a stylish homage to the club’s 1995/96 green, white and black away kit, forever linked to Fowler’s peak form. The icing on the cake is how fans have also been invited to step inside the nostalgia themselves. The kit can be bought at the Fowler’s Sports online store and JD Sports has transformed one of its stores into a real-world “Fowler’s Sports”.

Whether you’re a Liverpool fan or not, in my eyes, Fowler’s Sports is a multigenerational hit.

HP prints a billboard, one A4 sheet at a time

In an intriguing collision of precision, patience, and proof of performance, HP turned the humble printer into a street spectacle this week. In a campaign that demonstrated the long-lasting refillable ink hero feature of the HP Smart Tank, the brand printed an entire billboard live in Clapham, one A4 sheet at a time. In all, 319 sheets were meticulously printed and placed to form a full-size outdoor ad, transforming everyday printing into a public performance piece.

The spectacle created the perfect backdrop for a piece of satisfyingly slow social content, which, rather than tell consumers how efficient and reliable the printer is, showed it in action in a demonstration of endurance, colour consistency, and precision. Through time-lapse footage, the brand captured the hypnotic process of printers churning sheet after sheet, assembling into a cohesive, high-impact billboard that quite literally built itself.

In a side show to the main event, actor/presenter Alexander Armstrong fronted the ‘Rapid Response Print Squad’: a roving, branded Piaggio Ape offering on-the-go printing rescue missions. From forgotten boarding passes to urgent return labels, commuters were treated to instant fixes.

What makes this campaign stand out is its simplicity. An idea so brilliantly obvious that you wonder why it hasn’t been done before. HP took something as familiar as printing and elevated it into shareable moment that connects technology with real human need. Proving as the completed as said: ‘Big or small, this [HP Smart Tank] can print it all (even this billboard)."

Uber’s St. Patrick’s Day “IrishXit” turns the ghost goodbye into the smart way home

It is only fitting that I finish up on a St. Patrick’s moment. Every brand wants a St. Patrick’s Day moment. Most campaigns often dial up the revelry, but this year Uber chose to go down a quieter route by flipping the script on a familiar social move: the “Irish exit,” or the discreet departure from a party without the long round of goodbyes.

Dubbed “Uber IrishXit”, this US campaign was fronted with a perfect dose of Irish charm from the now ever-so-popular stateside, Maura Higgins.

In a 45-second spot, Higgins breaks the fourth wall, explaining the appeal of leaving unannounced; she books an UberX, and glides straight from party to peace. The day ended not in chaos but in a blissful bubble bath. Along the way, a shiny 17% off promo code (IRISHEXIT17) drives the point home: there’s no shame in an early escape, especially when you do it safely.

By pairing humour with a quietly responsible message, Uber sidestepped the St. Patrick’s day clichés. No neon shamrocks, no soggy green hats. Just a cushioned back seat heading home.

That wraps up another edition of Creative Corner.

As always, if you're working on something that deserves the spotlight, or you've seen a campaign worth sharing, drop us a line: paul.lucas@fanclubpr.com