Dr Marwan Koukash, multimillionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and the new owner of Salford City reds, came to K2L with a lifelong dream of making The Reds the most successful Club in the UK, not only on the pitch, but by making them the most talked about Rugby Super League Club in Europe, with a record breaking fan base.
With this in mind, the K2L team have been hard at work producing a campaign that encompasses the rebranding of Salford City Reds to the Salford Red Devils, a name they had previously been known by in 1934.
Our objective was to create a dynamic brand that fans would want to follow and feel passionate about but more importantly, to raise the profile of the club and put The Salford Red Devils back on the map.
K2L aimed to increase the club fan base by encouraging the people of Salford to feel passionate about supporting the club and play a part in the Dawn of a New Era for the Devils. We wanted the club, players, and fans alike to feel involved in the Clubs evolution and work together to make the club the best in the UK.
‘The Red Devilution’ brand was spawned. K2L created ‘The Red Devilution’ brand by transforming players into devils, the stadium into hell and painted the city of Salford red, whilst on a rampage to recruit fans to join ‘The Red Devilution’.
Our campaign has involved using a variety of channels from directing and managing a photoshoot with the players where the captured images were photoshopped to create the ‘Delivised’ player personas; to the design of a multitude of collateral for the stadium, and assisting with the press day launch which was held in September 2013 with some of the biggest media names within the industry, including Sky Sports, BBC, ITV, radio, national and local press (see uploaded video) in attendance.
‘The Red Devilution’ campaign has been one Hell of a success. Marwan commented ‘Absolutely fantastic, the whole campaign fits in with our vision for the future of the club.’
With the first season now well underway we have been able to gather some campaign statistics to showcase our campaigns success:
• Season ticket sales increased by 300%
• Achieved a record attendance of over 7,100 for the first home game of 2014 (Previous record was 6,100 in 2013).
• The campaign resulted in 130 pieces of media coverage in the UK, including air-time on the BBC, Sky Sports, ITV, radio and articles in local and national newspapers.
• Facebook likes are up by 1800 in February 2014 compared to 4 months ago.
• Currently have 11,400 twitter followers and counting.
• Merchandise sales are up by 400% and Merchandise sold out within 12 weeks.
