ESPN ad sparks debate about 'best league' in the world

By Teresa Fitzherbert, campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 18 January 2013 09:29AM

ESPN is launching the next phase of its marketing campaign, 'We Speak Your Sport', by instigating a debate that asks, which is the best domestic football league in the world?

Kevin Keegan: appears in ESPN campaign

The ad, called "best league", is part of the wider ‘We Speak Your Sport’ push. It reveals how passionate the network and its presenters are about sport and will run on ESPN's TV channels and websites from tomorrow.

The ad features ESPN presenters Ray Stubbs, Chris Waddle and Kevin Keegan, arguing about their favourite sports. It ends by asking the audience what they think.

ESPN rugby presenters Ben Kay and Mark Durden-Smith also appear.

The broadcaster wants to initiate debates about topical sporting topics such as "who is the best rugby fly-half in the world?".

The creative was produced and conceived in-house by ESPN’s on-air promos team, led by Sam Murphy, ESPN promos manager, and the marketing team, led by Alex Lowe, associate marketing director at ESPN.

Lowe said: "Sports fans aren’t passive viewers, and at ESPN we are just as passionate about sport. We want to demonstrate our understanding of sports fans, their passion and insight. We want to communicate the message that we are sports fans just like our audience."

The latest stage of ‘We Speak Your Sport’ follows the launch of the network’s 2012/13 cross-media advertising and promotional campaign, ‘Cup Of Dreams’, in support of its live televised coverage of the 2012/13 FA Cup.

ESPN will no longer broadcast coverage of the Barclays Premier League from the 2013/14 season, following BT's surprise swoop for the broadcast rights.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk