HECK! X Bedale
Food brand sponsorship:
It doesn't matter if it's a credit card, a sugary drink or a razor, the majority of football sponsorships rely on forcing members of a top team to stand together holding a product, in the hope that a large media spend will get the image into the public's memory.
So how could HECK!, a young upstart in the largely forgotten world of sausages, score big without resorting to such mid-table tactics?
We saw how much journalists and fans love the controversy that blows up every year when new team kits are announced... and decided to give them something to talk about with the world's worst football kit.
We sponsored a local non-league Yorkshire football team, and as part of the sponsorship, gave them the world’s worst away kits - a sausage print and pink monstrosity. Over 5 years, we dropped a different sausage kit each year, eventually creating the world’s first see through kits, made entirely from PVC.
Results:
The kits have made been covered in all major newspapers, on TV around the world, radio and all over social media. Vincent Kompany has been seen with one, and they were even featured on QI.
These kits have given the FA a headache, have been banned once or twice, but have generated over one Billion mentions. The best part - proceeds from the kits go to Prostate Cancer.
Pacemaker is a brand-focused business accelerator and incubator fund.
We work with early stage businesses to deliver breakthrough commercial moments, and unlock transformative levels of growth.
Projects are delivered in short sprints, against clearly defined commercial outcomes.
We believe in being true partners to businesses, and this extends to how we structure payments, or in some cases, make investments.
Pacemaker is open for applications.
