Unknown, unpronounceable and unlikely to succeed, Setanta Sport was David to Sky Sport’s Goliath. But we love an underdog at Big Al’s so we enlisted the help of Des Lynam to lend credibility, and gave him a Minxy side-kick to add some attitude. Then, to help people pronounce the name, we set about mispronouncing it. And it worked. The cabbies loved the campaign. And if cabbies love your ads, you’ve got a fighting chance. In their first season, Setanta signed up 1.3million subscribers from a base of 180k. And with Des integrated digitally, online conversion went up from 11% to 40% and overall CPA came down x12. Result. But football’s an expensive game, and it’s broadcast rights even more so. In 2009, Setanta followed the likes of Leeds, Luton and Portsmouth into administration. Walk on.

TV, press, outdoor, radio, online display, activation.