Oh Brother! Rhodri Giggs says ‘loyalty is dead’ in the latest Paddy Power campaign

The Background

Ryan Giggs is best known for football (obviously) but the thing you probably know him for most beyond football is his eight-year affair with his brother’s wife, Natasha. The story blew up in 2011 and has bubbled under the surface ever since with his brother Rhodri appearing in tabloid media now and again and the odd jibe at Ryan by comedians.

In the incredibly competitive gambling (they like to call it gaming) industry, promoting loyalty is no easy feat. New customer bonuses are heavily advertised and for the modern, particularly infrequent gambler who enjoys an accumulator, there’s no incentive to be loyal.

And so Paddy Power, in need of a way to communicate Paddy’s Rewards Club, recruits none other than Rhodri Giggs.

Cue a very well executed campaign.

What They Did

This TV spot, titled “loyalty is dead”, sees Rhodri take centre stage as the Paddy Rewards Club ambassador. Giggs goes through an average day knocking back references to the feud with his brother.

When asked in the pub by the bar person – “Bitter, Rhodri?” – his response is “not any more Pam – champagne please” delivered with a knowing smile. The smile returns when TV commentary of a Wales match being watched by Rhodri in the pub says, “questions will be asked of the manager”, of course brother Ryan is the current manager.

The ad was released last weekend and placed across key sporting broadcasts for the Six Nations and Premier League as well as social with most news outlets picking up on the new spot too.

The Review

Paddy Power has had its ups and downs.

Its pre-World Cup bear hoax didn’t do much for it whilst its effort to support LGBT causes at the same World Cup hit the mark. For the in-house team it’s probably a case of the occasional turkey being no bad thing if the good ones are industry leading, and Paddy Power certainly is an industry leader that others aspire to emulate.

I’m a big fan of the choice of personality here.

Whilst agencies often seek bigger budgets to get mainstream celeb talent, it’s good to see proper thought going into the face of this campaign. It would have been easy for Chime and Paddy Power to sign up a one-club man like a Tony Adams or Paul Scholes (or even Ryan Giggs… ) but the ad is all the more smart and witty for the team taking a moment to flip loyalty on its head and seek talent on the periphery of sport.

I like the application of PR here too, rather than simply sharing the ad with media it has taken the step to set up the release of the spot ahead of time. Rhodri’s not been in the national consciousness for a while, so a number of interviews and comments appeared the weekend before the ad began to hit screens.

These centred on Rhodri saying his feud could be ended if Ryan simply picked up the phone. The stories appeared in the likes of The Sun and Daily Star with only a tiny mention of the upcoming ad spot – their primary role being to bring Rhodri back into people’s minds.