Brief

Our client, Specsavers, approached us to help promote its second ‘Best Worst Team’ campaign, where it sought to change the fortunes of the UK’s ‘worst’ amateur football team, Swansea-based Cwm Albion.

Specsavers received thousands of responses to its nationwide callout for the UK’s worst amateur football team, but Cwm Albion was picked as the ‘winner’, having lost all 22 of its games the prior season, with a minus 191 goal difference and a team comprising a goalkeeper who had not kept a clean sheet for a decade.

With the team picked, we worked in tandem with Specsavers to provide media relations support in Wales, generating broadcast, online and print coverage. This would provide a groundswell of Welsh interest that would, in turn, boost wider social media performance and UK-wide media attention of the campaign.

Delivery

The campaign was centred around a YouTube mini-series, with eight monthly episodes being released throughout the football 2023/24 football season. As a result, both the UK and Welsh media strategy was planned with these touchpoints in mind, ensuring key journalists were given advanced notice of upcoming announcements and episodes through the use of embargoed press releases.

The biggest reveal of the campaign was the announcement of former Premier League manager, Harry Redknapp, as the new coach of Cwm Albion. Working closely with ITV Wales and Wales Online, we arranged press interviews with Redknapp and the Cwm Albion team.

In addition to developing media releases ahead of each episode, we worked with Specsavers to identify other opportunities for local press coverage, such as training sessions with Swansea City legend, Garry Monk, and a visit from the Cwm Albion team to Specsavers’ Swansea store.

Results

The campaign secured high quality coverage across print, online and broadcast titles in Wales. This included a feature in the Western Mail and on Wales Online, two ITV News Wales broadcast pieces and dozens of pieces of coverage in other Welsh regional and local titles.

As a result of this groundswell of interest within Wales, there was more than 40 pieces of coverage in major UK national titles and 23 broadcast hits – including a slot on This Morning. In total, the campaign secured 269 pieces of coverage across the UK.

The campaign as a whole saw 32 million impressions on social, with the videos featuring on these feeds securing 11 million views as well. Brand consideration increased by 35 per cent, while there was a 12 per cent growth in incremental reach and brand recognition vs Specsavers’ existing brand recall score.

In addition to raising brand awareness of Specsavers and showcasing the campaign, the team’s fortunes improved drastically too – finishing the season in a commendable 7^th place, which led to Cwm Albion receiving a once-in-a-lifetime open top bus parade to commemorate their successful season.

Lisa Hale, Head of Consumer PR, Social & Brand Activation, said: ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers has very much become part of British culture, so we are always looking at how we can leverage how it naturally lives and breathes in everyday life. Best Worst Team has proved an incredibly popular manifestation of that and has allowed us to take our commitment to celebrating those human moments to the next level.

‘Once we knew our brilliant Best Worst Team for this year was based in Wales, we called upon Freshwater’s expertise to help it come to life. Their strong local connections have proved invaluable in supporting BWT’s success.’