Coral has launched a new advertising campaign for its horse racing and gaming offering ahead of the Cheltenham Festival next month.
The campaign, titled ‘We’re Here For It’, features different types of racing, sports and gaming fans. It is produced by Coral’s lead creative agency Wonderhood Studios,
One advert is a 30-second horse racing spot – ‘We’re Here For It – Racing Fan Derby’ – filmed at Newbury racecourse, promoting the Cheltenham Festival taking place next month on March 12.
The advert showcases a race with riders going past, revealing the jockeys to be a variety of horse racing fans, including “dapper gents, glamorous ladies, a ‘stag do’ and even a glorious gran”, all racing towards the finish line.
The other advert shows a person playing a Coral free-to-play game on his phone with his friends at a Chinese takeaway, in addition to introducing the operator’s in-play proposition, Rewards Grabber, as well as its Coral Coins product.
Commenting on the campaign, Entain interim Chief Marketing Officer, Jeremy Hemmings, said: “Coral is a brand with an incredible heritage and with legions of fans. Our new ‘We’re here for it’ campaign platform is in recognition of this strong customer relationship and serves as a reiteration of our rock-solid market position.
“This first work in the new campaign represents a gear change for the brand as we project a richer, more entertaining personality, establishing a distinctive new territory within the category.”
Planned and bought by the7stars, the campaign will take place across TV, video-on-demand and radio, with additional support for the Cheltenham Festival through out-of-home media, print advertising and broadcast sponsorships with Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing.
Coral will also have a branded takeover for four days at Cheltenham Spa station, where many horse racing fans will pass through on their way to the festival.
“We’re super excited to be delivering this fresh brand platform to inject some energy into an iconic British brand,” noted Guy Hobbs, Joint Executive Creative Director at Wonderhood Studios.
“While the category often lacks authenticity, we set out to celebrate the real racing and gaming lovers of the UK. So to all the fans out there, whether you’re an armchair expert or a stag do legend, we hope you see yourselves in the work.”
The ads were directed by Keith McCarthy from Object & Animal who has previously worked with brands including Aviva, Boots, BT, Google and Subaru.
McCarthy said: “I loved the scripts the moment I read them. It was Mad Max meets Martin Parr. Portraiture powered chaos. The audience wasn’t just observing the action. They WERE the action.”
