Bovril is a part of Football tradition in the UK. Known as a ‘Proper Football Brew’, Bovril has been warming the terraces since 1886.

When COVID forced matches behind closed doors, fans were missing out on watching the sport and Bovril sales were down. There were no fans, no songs, no banter, no pies and no Bovril.

We wanted to Save The Season for the grass roots supporters and give them back the songs, the banter and the Bovril they missed so very much.

When live matches were being played once again, a fan told us that Bovril was no longer being offered in the concourse at the Manchester City Football Stadium. So we created a sister campaign to get Bovril reinstated.

Save The Season is a socially led campaign ensuring Bovril has a presence with the UK’s most beloved sport when there was no way to attend live football. The Save The Season campaign got the Twitter terraces talking and the fans drinking Bovril again at home.

And then, we took the idea further creating the ‘Bring Back Bovril’ campaign, when a Manchester City supporter complained they had removed it from the concession stand once live attended matches were being played again.

Next Bovril actually went to a home game against Leeds and demonstrated outside the stadium.

Bovril has been authentically linked to football in the UK since 1886. But the brand was in severe decline. With the football season taking place behind closed doors during the Covid 19 pandemic, the brand suffered alongside the grass roots supporters. We wanted to save our brand and save their season.

To do that we created a new positioning for the brand called More Beef Less Bull. This gave the brand an authentic voice in football culture. We also used our proprietary live data, Cultural Eye, to identify relevant conversations before they trended allowing us to react to every big moment in the football season.

This is how we also picked up complaints from Man City supporters when Bovril had been removed from the stadium concourse concessions. We helped make a stand for the traditions of our national game which included a drink of hot tasty Bovril.

This was a socially led campaign that gave Bovril a voice in UK’s football. Reacting to key moments within the football calendar. We created a Bovril tone in which to respond – More Beef Less Bull which got the twitter terraces talking.

We also created a new design system for the brand and hit the sports section of UK’s main newspapers with reactive printed ads.

When a Manchester City supporter asked us to help get Bovril back at their stadium, we reached out to fans and players with a simple rallying cry: #BRINGBACKBOVRIL

We deployed our Bovril squad at the Manchester City home game against Leeds. A real-life demonstration – their mission to make our message heard; to serve up the good stuff (steaming hot Bovril) + hand out branded merch to supporters outside the stadium in the hoped to get Bovril reinstated... and it worked!

With Save the Season - Bovril grew +15% sales value in the 12 weeks following the campaign vs the same time the previous year, driven by new users coming into the brand.

Our follow up "Bring Back Bovril" was a real hit too.

- Fans loved it! The campaign created real impact with positive sentiment and fans getting behind us with support and engagement on social.

- The stunt drummed up some PR and featured in national + local press.

- Bovril was even reinstated in Manchester City Stadium!

- PR Impressions: 975K

- ROI 2:1