Creative Moment's end of season round-up

With the World Cup fast approaching, there’s one final chance to look back at a season that saw every football-sceptical creative in London seemingly overnight become an Arsenal fan, says Launch's Kevan Barber.

So, to the creatives who only sing when they’re winning, here’s another reason to chirp up – a football-style awards for the season’s best football-related creativity.

Kicking off with...

Player of the Season

This feels like the season Guinness really came to the fore as a football sponsor.

Shaking off its rugby-loving roots, the Lovely Day for a Guinness established the brand as part of football culture. Fans from all 20 Premier League clubs feature, and, given the double-digit growth it’s enjoyed globally, it feels authentic for Guinness to be at the centre of how the ads show the matchday experience.

This is a big campaign that goes beyond the full ads and idents across matchday coverage, with a YouTube series delving into fan stories from across the world, many of which have up to half a million views.

As Prime Mutton might say, it’s an “absolute creamer” of a campaign.

Save of the Season

Coca-Cola wins the creative version of the Golden Glove this season for its work in Argentina.

You Must Love Coke was its campaign in one of the most tribal leagues, using optical illusions to appear in its iconic red without using any red in its pitch-side ads. Why? Because for some clubs, particularly those that have rivalries with the likes of River Plate and Estudiantes, red isn’t welcome anywhere.

Sure, this is probably a campaign that’s worked best within the creative community, but it’s a smart idea even if some fans won’t have noticed it at the time.

Goal of the Season

The best one-off moment of magic has to go to the British Heart Foundation and the EFL for Every Minute Matters.

An incredibly simple idea in shifting kick-off times by one minute to show the importance of quick CPR or defibrillator use, and one that showed the power of organisations really getting behind something.

With every club, broadcaster, the league and the charity all talking about it, this campaign was incredibly effective.

And renaming stands at the EFL play-off games in recent weeks is the perfect added time goal to round off the season for the British Heart Foundation.

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Breakthrough Player

Monzo has sponsored Coventry for a couple of seasons now, but this felt like a real breakthrough season for them on the pitch.

Its 1p shirt pop-up shops were the perfect combination of getting a brand message across (Monzo’s successful 1p saving challenge) and giving fans something they truly want: an incredibly cheap shirt.

Now set to be a Premier League sponsor for the first time, let’s see if they keep up the momentum.

Bargain of the Season

Whilst some claim the £34m signing of Rayan Cherki was a ‘bargain’, this campaign fits the regular description of a bargain.

Wahaca’s response to Arsenal’s league win was the perfect low-cost reactive idea – 22% off your bill if your first name is the same as one of Arsenal’s starting line-up.

Flop of the Season

The Alexander Isak of the 25/26 season has to be Puma’s rolling out of the PR cliché to end all PR clichés – floating something giant down the Thames.

Puma’s up against Nike and Adidas, brands smashing out amazing campaigns one after another. Getting Morgan Rogers to claim “it was great to be involved in something of this magnitude! It was definitely one of the more open goals I’ve scored in my career” tops off how awkward this campaign is.

Bring on the World Cup and dozens more award-worthy footballing creative campaigns.