There are some strong brands within the UK iGaming industry at the moment. Some have decades of history and a large high street presence to thank for that while others have strong marketing teams and a history of creating a buzz around themselves. One company that has arguably created the strongest brand and done all of that and more is Paddy Power.
The offline and online gaming company has been very successful at cultivating a reputation for being the happy go lucky Irish funsters that they are now known as. They’ve pretty much won viral marketing and if you subscribe to the ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ point of view then they’re smashing the word of mouth marketing game as well.
You can see why it’s a good way to position a bookmaking brand. As well as allowing them to create eye-catching marketing materials, the image portrayed of Paddy Power is that they’re like that slightly drunk mate at the pub who is easily peer pressured into doing something for a laugh and because it will be ‘banter’. In Paddy Power’s case this something is accepting a bet and when it comes down to it, while they might lead you to believe otherwise, they’re much savvier than that.
Not that they’d have you believe that. In recent years Paddy Power has sent men dressed as babies into London to publicise their royal baby markets, got Danish footballer Nicklas Bendtner to reveal his Paddy Power ‘lucky pants’ during a celebration and used planes to spell out tweets in the sky above the Ryder Cup.
The company even risked incurring the wrath of the International Olympic Committee in 2012 by posting billboards saying that they were the sponsor of the biggest sporting event in London this year. The sporting event in question turned out to be an egg and spoon race. The London in question turned out to be London in Burgundy, France.
So to the question in hand – for a long time it seemed like there might not be an answer to this. However, recent events suggest that this is no longer the case.
The Big Bang in Pyongyang
For possibly the first time in MODQs, we have a definitive answer as it appears that the Irish bookmaker draws the line at the execution of family members – and understandably so.
This has emerged after Paddy Power pulled their funding (to a certain extent) of the basketball trip organised by Dennis Rodman to North Korea. Rodman’s mission was to create better relations between North Korea and the outside world by organising a match between a North Korean basketball team and a team of NBA players.
Paddy Power had been along for the ride with company spokesman Rory Scott travelling to North Korea to witness a bit of training. The company even sponsored (and still is due to contractual obligations) a documentary about the game which has been dubbed ‘The Big Bang in Pyongyang’.
But rumours surrounding the treatment of Kim Jong-Un’s uncle appeared to be the straw that broke Paddy Power’s camel’s ethical back. The company decided that the killing of Jan Song-Thaek was a step too far with Scott telling The Daily Beast last week that “the very public goings-on with the uncle and the way that was handled did trigger us to reconsider”.
When pushed on why this particular incident had caused them to reconsider when they must have known the situation that they were getting involved in, Scott explained that Paddy Power had been there to support Dennis Rodman and not the regime.
You would think that this sort of conclusion to a sponsorship deal that was obviously fraught with danger from the very beginning might be bad news for the bookmaker. Even The Daily Beast poked fun at the company in the article in which Scott’s comments were included by titling the article ‘Dennis Rodman’s Sponsor for North Korea Trips Decides Working With a Homicidal Tyrant Was a Bad Idea’.
Marketing Magazine and several other blogs have also come down on Paddy Power by denouncing the deal as ludicrous.
The Teflon Marketers
Despite the bad press by marketing industry outlets, this deal could still hardly be described as a marketing disaster by Paddy Power – far from it. As well as showing that they’re kooky and prepared to be a bit risqué on occasion, this stunt has now shown them to have a well-tuned moral compass – even if you might question where that was initially.
Just consider that for a second. Here is a bookmaker who has sponsored an ex-basketball player/raving lunatic (watch Rodman’s chat with CNN’s Chris Cuomo for evidence) on a trip to North Korea – a country with one of the most questionable stances on human rights, nuclear warfare and just about anything else you could imagine. But the chances are that while Paddy Power won’t emerge out of the other side completely clean, they’ll only have slight grass stains in the way that a child who returns home from the park ten minutes late for dinner does.
Sure, it does help that recently they’ve taken ethical stances over prominent issues such as gay footballers with Marketing Magazine reported that 44% of comment on Paddy Power referred to brand preference and that positive perceptions have been particularly high of late. But this just shows how strong the Paddy Power brand is – that they can get into bed with one of the most curious and ridiculed figures on the planet without fear.
You can’t see Ladbrokes striking deals with Robert Mugabe or 888 linking up with Bashar al-Assad yet Paddy Power are able to do these things. They’re able to do so thanks to a combination of their industry, approach and background and it’s mix that few others are going to be able to replicate.
‘But rumours surrounding the treatment of Kim Jong-Un‘s uncle appeared…
