With the beginning of the NFL season on the horizon, Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners launched a new campaign for fantasy sports site DraftKings, its first since winning creative duties last month, plugging the brand’s 1-week fantasy football game.
Narrated by the recognizable celebrity voice of Edward Norton, the spot posits DraftKings’ fantasy football offering as “a game within the game that requires a different set of skills.” The spot attempts to set DraftKings apart from other daily fantasy sports sites, or as the ad puts it, “fantasy as usual,” through its offerings and the passion of its fans, who it claims aren’t just players but train and win big. It ends with the tagline “Welcome to the Big Time.” It is at its most memorable and entertaining when showing its fans reveling in victory (freaking out, really) against the backdrop of everyday situations like a backyard barbecue or lunch out with friends. The spot, one of a series, will make its debut this Sunday during NFL preseason coverage on Fox. A second wave of ads is set to roll out in the middle of next month.
“DraftKings is the hottest brand in the DFS industry, successfully merging sports, technology and fan reverence in a single unique offering,” explained BSSP managing partner Patrick Kiss. “Our challenge with this new campaign was to explain how DraftKings works and why its platform goes beyond fantasy as usual. We immediately saw leveraging how fans interact with DraftKings as the best way to tell the brand’s story.”
“‘Welcome to the Big Time’ is the perfect anthem for the DraftKings brand on multiple levels,” added DraftKings vice president, marketing, Anthony Pitts. “The ‘big time’ speaks to a level of fan interaction that is engaging and exhilarating, in addition to prizes and money-can’t-buy experiences that only DraftKings can deliver.”