Watch Manchester United stars play football bowling in new Betfair Mobile ad
What happens when you take Manchester United stars Dimitar Berbatov, Ashley Young and Patrice Evra and tell them to kick footballs down a bowling alley? Find out in Betfair Mobile's new ad campaign.
The Stars and Strikes campaign, which you can watch below, sees the trio and their teammates Anders Lindegaard and Darren Fletcher compete to see who can knock down the most pins with a football.
Created by Karmarama, the YouTube spot then challenges viewers to place a virtual bet on which United player has the deadliest aim.
The Drum caught up with Betfair's global sports marketing director, Stephen Mault, on the day of the shoot in a bowling alley in Warrington.
He said: "What we thought would be quite clever is if we took Manchester United out of their normal habitat and into an anytime, anywhere scenario such as a bowling alley where people go for a bit of fun with their mates at the weekend. Then we can really showcase live odds and how people can bet anywhere on their mobile phone.
"From working with the club they’ve told us that if the players enjoy themselves they’ll give you a lot more and it will really come across. We’ve got two hours with the players. We could easily have settled for doing something quite simple, filming them doing some interviews, talking about mobile for example. But we wanted to do something that was fun and something that really pushed Mobile as a brand and that you can bet anywhere."
Mault believes asking viewers to bet on the outcome at the end of the ad will help spread the campaign through social media.
He said: "The challenge element is quite fun. Rather than just film a TV-style advert for online where it has got a funny scenario, adding a challenge encourages people to share it as well. It turns into much more of a multi-channel campaign rather than just a video that you put online to try and get some brand recognition."
Betfair will be pushing the spot through its digital channels in the UK and Europe. It will also be running it as a TV ad in Germany.