A t-shirt
A little bit more than a t-shirt, Arsenal's promotion of their third jersey is exceptional.
How can you create a buzz around your replica team kits?
Leah Williamson, Arsenal mid-fielder/defender and captain of the Euro cup winning Lionesses
A pretty easy ask if you’re a famous Premier League club like Arsenal that sells approximately 800,000 jerseys a year… a simple announcement and you're off to the races.
Clubs however have more than one jersey; their famous home jersey, the one they’re most known for; and an away jersey - usually a flip of their colours or a nod to the club’s history to ensure they don’t clash with opposing jerseys.
But some clubs are required to have a third jersey - especially if they are involved in the Champions League, a competition played across multiple countries in Europe.
Arsenal and Adidas have collaborated on the team’s third jersey for the 23/24 season drawing inspiration from the team’s 1982/3 season green colourway. It’s a classy and on-trend kit, with detailing influenced by the era such as the button-up collar, deconstructed club logo and iconic 3 stripes across the shoulder.
Martin Ødegaard, William Saliba and Declan Rice
But where the real magic has happened is in the promotion. You can see the film here.
Referencing 60s European cinema the spot takes a glamourous tour around the London suburb of Islington, showcasing one of the area’s famed kebab shops near their home ground all whilst nodding to the dreamy nostalgic styles of French no-wave and Italian filmmaking.
The local chippie looking epic
The spot features players Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz – featured picking up a paella takeaway – alongside Leah Williamson, Declan Rice, William Saliba and Martin Ødegaard.
You can tell the team behind the spot has had immense fun in shooting this and it definitely tells!
Locals on the high street in Islington
Why it works so well is that the campaign picks up on a few trends in fashion for sport, merchandise, and promotion in the world of social media, and brings them together to make a strong moment for the club’s sales and promotions teams:
Vintage Football – With what seems to be a little bit of regularity, the retro or vintage football kit has made a resurgence around World Cup activities. The passion for football is always there, but around the World Cup, it seeps into the mainstream, influencing streetwear and pop culture. Adidas has leant-in hard to this with their vintage-inspired releases around this year’s Women’s World Cup (possibly due to the fact they didn’t have the big-name national team jerseys like the USA, England or the host countries on their roster – thankfully they did have Sweden and Spain which will no doubt see a rise in sales of those kits). Their campaign around the World Cup featured very lifestyle-driven apparel - retro-inspired jerseys styled for the street - in a super fun film that saturated game day.
Lena Oberdorf, Mary Fowler and Alessia Russo, in the Adidas World Cup campaign
Elevated Merchandise, with a little bit of hype - Team kits are a strong revenue stream for football clubs and an obvious one too. This thinking has pervaded brands too. For brands that aren’t sports clubs, merch has turned into a way to advertise without buying media - in fact, the consumer has paid to become the media placement.
Done well merch becomes a mainstream must-have fashion item. Whether that be a vintage beer t-shirt or a slightly ironic (but not ironic, but is, but really isn’t), 7 Eleven golf collection, the amount of effort put in signals the love brands have for their consumers. Throw in a bit of scarcity, a solid influencer campaign and the right amount of hype in the correct channels and you have a powerful piece of advertising that’s not really selling the brand in the normal ways.
7 Eleven’s retro golf range
Media designed for socials - Or if you’re a social agency, Social First. What this means is thinking about how you can add a layer of energy, fun or hype to the promotion of a campaign to help it cut through the usual noise on TikTok & Instagram. The Arsenal campaign is a perfect example of this – promoting a product in a way that’s unexpected, disruptive even, throwing in an aspirational lens and then putting your tongue firmly into your cheek with “easter eggs” designed to get those in the know excited - kebab shops, Chippies and ice cream parlours that the locals only know too well.
Approaching promotion through this lens is about grabbing attention quickly and giving consumers a pay-off that’s just for them - elevated production, humour, fun and a great creative idea. Sounds a little bit like old-school advertising doesn’t it?
All in all, it is a great little campaign and product for something that’s not even the primary part of the team’s product or even promotional agenda for the season. And it could see a lot of sales for a jersey that the team may only wear for 2% of the season (bit of old data on this can be seen here).