Betfair may have just given Paddy Power a taste of its own medicine with its latest advertising coup at the Cheltenham Festival.
The UK-based online betting firm set up a billboard (pictured left) at the Cheltenham festival with a cheeky message towards its rival, saying that “Paddy Power Bets at Betfair”.
The ad, which also features a suited-up horse – don’t ask us why – with its arms crossed and underneath it was another line that says “Meet Mr Patrick Power in Disguise, a Betfair customer”.
According to the Drum, Betfair actually has six registered accounts under the name Patrick Power. And that’s not including a few William Hills and apparently, a Victor Chandler among its ranks, too.
To make the whole campaign more effective, Betfair had some pretty impressive brand ambassadors at the festival – Spencer Matthews and Rosie Fortescue from the hit reality show, Made in Chelsea – dressed in Betfair scarves and walking around the grounds tweeting and posting pictures at Betfair’s Twitter account.
To Paddy Power’s credit, the company is probably getting a good laugh about getting one-upped by Betfair in its own game at the Cheltenham Festival. After all, it’s as much an online betting company itself as it is a stunt-generating machine that lives off of the mainstream attention it gets, sometimes even for the wrong reasons.
But its not like Paddy had a tough going at Cheltenham. According to the Independent, Paddy power executive Jack Massey was able to offload around €3.3 million worth of shares last week, selling 55,000 shares at €59.75 on the opening day of the festival.
So it wasn’t all bad for Paddy Power at the Cheltenham Festival, even if Betfair did a pretty hilarious job turning the tables on Paddy’s penchant for sophomoric humor.
