Overview

As the Official Betting Partner of the Grand National Festival, we wanted to help William Hill create a show-stopping activation in Liverpool city centre in the days leading up to the event that builds anticipation, celebrates an iconic race, and promotes William Hill’s partnership in a truly memorable way.

What?

William Hill are the Official Betting Partner of the Grand National Festival – but rather than use this to aggressively push this for customer acquisition, we wanted to create a statement activation in the race’s home city that would excite racing fans and casuals alike of the upcoming race.

Working with a projection partner, we created a powerful 4-minute film projected onto St Johns Beacon in Liverpool city centre – complete with audio and 3D elements – with assets captured on-site distributed for PR, Social and Influencer use to build the biggest splash ahead of the event.

The Deliverables

Heritage bookmaker William Hill has a long-standing reputation as a trusted racing brand and this ties in perfectly with the storied history of the Grand National. We wanted to celebrate this using a nod to the past and present day, combining historic legends such as Red Rum and modern day greats with footage of wins from William Hill ambassadors Lucinda Russell, AP McCoy and more – using the course’s iconic elements that make the race so unique to tie it all together.

Our showpiece film helped to build anticipation for the Grand National, create an atmosphere of celebration, reflect on the heritage and prestige of the great event, while promoting William Hill’s association with the Grand National Festival.

Interviews with attending ambassadors AP McCoy and Leonna Mayor were conducted on-site, with stunning video and photography captured sent out to press alongside William Hill’s social channels in the 72 hours prior to the flag dropping.

Our hard-working press office and social strategy encompassing paid social and influencer / celeb support ensured strong engagement and coverage of the visual art project at a key moment for the brand.

The Results

We reached 1.4m users across three social platforms while receiving 79k engagements.

Through a combination of paid spend, influencer collaborations and the onboarding of celebrity sporting names, we were able to make a substantial splash across both the @WilliamHill and @WillHillRacing channels on the week of the event.

Our video and image assets were also featured in a collection of top-tier racing, national and industry media including Racing Post, At The Races, Racing TV, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Independent, Yahoo, MSN and PR Week.

🏇Liverpool is officially #GrandNationalReady…

…are you? 👀 pic.twitter.com/4g43mM1UJj

— William Hill (@WilliamHill) April 11, 2024