This article was published on September 17, 2012

Gillette and YouTube strike a sporting deal for football highlights and new shows on a dedicated channel


Gillette and YouTube strike a sporting deal for football highlights and new shows on a dedicated channel

Gillette, best known for its razors, and Google, you’ll know who that is, have announced a partnership to launch Gillette Football Club, a YouTube channel with a focus on football and fans.

The channel will provide goals and highlights as well as original programming created by production company, Big Balls. The new shows include The Euro Fan, a series where comedian and UK Radio 1 DJ Tom Deacon visits each of the host Champion’s League cities and lives as a fan in those locations. In each place he will be trying to buy a ticket to the game and if that doesn’t pan out, he’ll be watching live from a fan’s home.

Another offering to come is Copa 90 Allstars where freestyle footballers will be performing tricks and delivering tutorials from many EU locations as well as pulling off larger stunts that are bound to be a viral element for this form of marketing.

The videos on the site so far are unsurprisingly interspersed with Gillette ads as well as the usual page branding and links to P&G products.

Gillette will become the main sponsor of football content on YouTube in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The new channel will bring together HD quality video from YouTube partners which cover top leagues like Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A; over 50 different clubs, including Manchester City FC, Chelsea FC, Paris Saint-Germain, and Olympique de Marseille; and news from sports content providers such as TalkSport and ESPN.

The service is also customisable. At sign up, viewers have the option to select their favourite leagues and clubs so that the latest videos turn up on their pages and that the content is relevant. Being YouTube, the whole offering will be accessible via all devices anywhere there is a signal, so it’s a pretty good way to shake up sports broadcasting.

Gillette has been heavily involved with sports for around a century. In the 80s many sports fans were tuning in to Gillette Sports Special to get their fix and the brand has sponsored the FIFA World Cup for more than 30 years.

Also integrated into Gillette Football Club is a partnership with Squawka, which has created a player-performance index. Analysing over 2,500,000 on-ball actions it gives fans an overview of Europe’s best players and teams. These interactive statistics provide an insight into the players and teams making the biggest impact in the season, allowing the fans to become the pundit.

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