I know where I'll be next St George's Day (or at least the day after)

St George’s Day has taken on a depressingly repetitive pattern.

Each year, almost everyone I know is in full agreement that as a country we should do more to celebrate St George’s Day. ‘We should be more like the Irish’, someone will say and everyone will agree.

Someone like Fullers or Marston’s will raise our spirits with a patriotic campaign and a few of us in the office will trot down to Latymers (our excellent local) for a free pint or two. But that’s about it.

Next year, sees the launch of the St Georges Day Game at Twickenham, a league fixture between London Wasps and Bath Rugby, finally giving us a celebration worthy of our patron saint.

The game takes place on 24 April, the day after St George’s Day, and will raise money for the armed forces which is, I hope you’ll, agree another good reason to come along.

Wasps are hoping brands will share their sense of patriotism and have hired Bamboo Marketing Communications to source sponsors to the event which aims to sell out Twickenham and will be repeated annually.

Thierry Henry is world's best, says Castrol Performance Index. But is football that measurable?

Thierry Henry is the world’s best footballer.

At least that is the case according to FIFA World Cup 2010 sponsor Castrol through its Castrol Performance Index, ‘the world’s first truly objective football rankings system’.

The French international is followed by clubmate Leo Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (isn’t it lovely not having him in the Premier League anymore btw?).

The list looks fairly credible, until you scroll down the list to number 10 and find Claudio Pizarro.

Pizarro, who wasn’t even the 10^th best player in the Chelsea squad during him time in England, has either undergone a phenomenal transformation during his return to Germany or the Bundesliga is, well, crap. It’s the latter, isn’t it?

That said, I find Pizarro’s baffling inclusion reassuring. While it makes interesting reading – and fair play to Castrol for sparking the debate – it just goes to show that not everything in sport in quantifiable, which for me is part of its magic.

Here’s the list in full;

1. Thierry Henry (Barcelona)
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
4. Garard Pique (Barcelona)
5. Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
6. Samuel Eto’o (Internazionale)
7. Rafael Marquez (Barcelona)
8. Luca Toni (Bayern Munchen)
9. Carlos Puyol (Barcelona)
10. Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen)

Great band, Great brand: Kasabian Football Hero with Umbro

Umbro has done a great job reinventing itself recently - the launch of the new England football kit has, in my opinion, been a great success.

This tie up with Kasabian, for the launch of their new single Underdog, is another great piece of marketing for the football brand.

Check out the making of the video here: Umbro

I should say that I didn't find this video myself but pinched it from Jonathan Hume's excellent blog, so thanks to him.

Newcastle's relegation was quite funny, but selling the naming rights to St James' is one kick in the groin too far

I have little sympathy for Newcastle United. 

It's not that I particularly have anything against the club, but like many I'm bored of being told that Newcastle fans are the most loyal and best in the land. And the club is rivalled only by Tottenham Hotspur for its delusions of grandeur.

Losing its shirt sponsor Northern Rock, the depature of club favourite Kevin Keegan as manager and then being relegated made the 2008/09 season one to forget. News that the club is considering selling the naming rights for St James Park is another blow for the club's fans in my opinion.

In an ideal world few fans would want their sacred ground renamed after a consumer brand, but in some cases fans can accept the club selling naming rights when it makes commercial sense. When Arsenal moved from Highbury it made sense to sell the naming rights to its new ground to Emirates. Firstly, the airline is paying around £100m for the priviledge and secondly, Arsenal's spiritual home was Highbury, not Ashburton Grove.

When it comes to naming rights there appear to be two simple rules. Only bring on a naming rights partner for a new stadium and keep the name short. So, buying the naming right to St James is not a great deal for brand owners and I doubt any will be daft enough to pay the vast sums of money that will justify the decision to Newcastle's fans.

The Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium and The BT Cellnet Riverside Stadium were always destined to fail as branding excercises. Emirates, The O2 and The Ricoh Arena are far better and effective naming rights properties.

When changing the brand name just isn't enough

Once upon a time the England rugby team was called the England rugby team. The reserves were called 'England B', just like we had at school.

Then they became 'England A', which I guess was a promotion of sorts and then they became the truely terrifying 'England Saxons'.

Not to be outdone, the bigger boys chosen for the first team were rebranded as the Elite Player Squad which means that they must be jolly good.

Except they're not. Despite all the rest given to the players to guard against injury and basically being a bit knackered out, poor old Martin Johnson has had to unveil his latest squad unable to call upon no fewer than 21 injured players. The unfortunate situation has seen the likes of uncapped 35 year-old prop forward Duncan Bell called into the squad; a wonderful blend of age and inexperience.

It may be a long winter.

If you want you're own cool nickname in order to appear much better than you actually are The National Basketball Association (NBA) may have the solution. The NBA offers its fans the chance to generate their own nicknames through its online nickname generator, mine is Ed 'The Human Doormat' Kemp. Ouch.

Smutty viral campaign: Shame on you England for agreeing to this

If the aim of a viral campaign is simply to get people talking about your brand while keeping costs to a minimum then this campaign by BMI to promote its association with England rugby does the job. But it can't do much for the brand.

The tacky clips are preceded with inuendos such as 'Watch BMI stewardess perform with a hooker' and 'BMI stewardesses perform with England rugby studs'. Needless to say the videos aren't as saucy as some viewers may have hoped but are rather tame gags.

Don't take my word for it. Check them out at: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/News/945875/

As a rugby fan I'm glad BMI are supporting into the sport, but surely they can do better than this. Principle England sponsor O2, for example, has leveraged its assocation with England though activity such as 'Scrum in the Park' and an excellent viral campaign called 'stare out'.

Guilt free boozing right through til Christmas

At Marketing our first agency Christmas party took place a fortnight ago. And for many of us the next month or two the liver will take more of a pounding than the running shoes, but it's all just part of the training...

Next May sees the sixth annual Marathon de Blaye Cote de Bordeaux. Like any marathon its 42km of hurt, but en-route you stop at 20 wine stations for a glass of red or white. I doubt your doctor would agree but in order to beat the 6 hour time limit you'll need to get some boozing in shapish to build up enough resistance.

We've got some great events in the UK, but do we have any that can match this one!?

We should find out shortly as the Sport Industry Awards has announced its revamped awards ceremony with three new award categories, including Sport Participation Event of the Year.

My vote would go to the Marketing Industry Triathlon. You've got until 11 December to get your entries in. Last year's event saw appearances from Joe Calzaghe, Jenson Button and James DeGale among others. Next years event on 13 May should prove even more spectacular.

Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham and Chelsea become London United

London's top football clubs have launched a viral campaign today to promote England's bid to host the FIFA 2018 World Cup.

Most major cities have two significant football teams - AC Milan/Inter Milan, Liverpool/Everton, Celtic/Rangers and so on. But London is exceptional.

The Premiership is usually made up of at least 5 London clubs - ie. 25%, while another eight or nine clubs populate the Championship and Leagues One and Two.

I've always thought London United would hammer anyone in Europe. But who would be in the first 11?

For me it would be:

Green, Sagna, Terry, Carvahlo, Cole, Lampard, Fabregas, Arshavin, Essien, Van Persie, Drogba.

Sorry Spurs fans.

Anyway, check out the video on marketingmagazine.co.uk

Fragmented telly market sees England U21s punted out to Chelsea TV... or have overexposure finally made us lose interest?

Following football is becoming an increasingly difficult past-time. It seems that at every turn there an additional cost or subscribtion to get a piece of the action.

Putting aside the fact that ticket prices in the UK are well above anywhere else in Europe, watching football on the telly used to be straight forward; pop on the telly or head down the local. Then Sky came along, which was an expenditure I could afford and then Setanta which was irritating and didn't seem worth the £12.99 extra cost to my Sky bill.

They came and went, and were replaced by ESPN - which given the other sports on offer seems like a reasonable offer at £10 a month. But then we find out England are to play online and in cinemas which is a little odd but I guess I could stump up another £4.99 or £11.99 if I really wanted to.

Now I find out that England U21s are playing on Chelsea TV. That'll be another £5.87. Sadly, I used to have Chelsea TV but watching the Youth Team, the Ressies and the couple of exclusive interviews that end up on Sky Sports News ten minutes later lost its appeal pretty quickly.

Could it be that finally we are getting a little bored of non-stop football coverage? That no broadcaster (not even Five) was willing to make a decent bid to show Ukraine vs. England, or that the U21s are no longer a draw suggest that could be the case.

Sky has for years now overhyped football - Super Sunday!... is West Ham vs. Birmingham City super in anyones book? - and the tabloids sports pages talk of little else. But sometimes less is more...

For me it's getting too expensive and I'm losing the will to work out whose playing where and when... or even why! I'm going to get a life.

England's women are enjoying unprecedented success, not that you'd know it

Beyond tennis and athletics, women’s sport never gets much of a showing in the national media which is a shame, especially as England’s teams are performing well.  

UK marketer heading for Kona IronMan World Champs

Alex Brooks, senior brand manager at For Goodness Shakes, jets out next week to contest the 2009 IronMan World Championship’s in Kona, Hawaii.

Those of you who gamely dragged yourselves around the Marketing Industry Triathlon should appreciate what a feat this is. Olympic Triathlon is - 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and a 10k run... IronMan is a 6km swim, 180km cycle and then a marathon. And Kona is hilly and hot!

Brooks trains for up to 25 hours a week, dragging himself out of bed at 4.45am. A half-marathon and 4km swim later he arrives at work for his second breakfast at 9am. After a full day in the office, he hits the roads for 2-3 hour cycle usually around Richmond Park. I feel tired just typing that out.

Weekends are more gruelling – a six hour bike ride, followed by three hour runs. All of which has resulted in him wearing out three pairs of trainers this year.

I'd like to wish Alex the best of luck and you can follow his progress on Twitter @alexdgbrooks prior to and during the event on 10 October. But not after as he’s finally taking his honeymoon.

‘You're not signing any more!' or are they? Chelsea FC find loophole to escape 18-month transfer ban

Chelsea, clearly bored with not being allowed to register new players for 18-months, have launched a clever viral campaign called ‘be the 12^th man' in which you the fan take the role of a new Chelsea FC player... and it features some of the worst acting you're ever likely to witness.

It's been noted by some (wrongly) that Chelsea will struggle due to an ageing squad and their 18-month transfer ban. However, if any of Chelsea's more experienced players, especially Michael Ballack, are considering an acting career after they hang up their boots they should think again.

But then again - if Vinny Jones can become a Hollywood star...

The campaign is pretty cool, but doesn't make a whole lot of sense - you get stopped at security, it appears none of your new teammates have the faintest idea who you are and although Chelsea have got up to some pretty tricksy business in recent years I can't recall them ever trying to field 12 players at one time.

Anyway, try it for yourself...

http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/chelsea12thman/content/index.aspx?section=Video

FA apes Nike ad to increase participation

Seems this ad may be a tad old but I only saw it over the weekend and think it's worth a look.

The FA is running a viral and TV campaign urging players to get back into the game 'whatever your level'.

It apes Nikes award winning 'Take it to the next level' ad, directed by Guy Ritchie, which tracks the progress of a young player through the Arsenal youth team, first team and finally into the Dutch national team.

Watch the campaign here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qknteb8Klo

Rugby legend Jonah Lomu turns pro bodybuilder: But is it a sport?

All Black wing legend Jonah Lomu is back in action, but this time he's competing in bodybuilding.

Lomu's outstanding rugby career was railroaded by kidney problems but he is set to return to the field soon with Marseille Vitrolles in November.

Lomu, now 34, piled on the pounds following his kidney transplant in 2004 and says he's has worked extremely hard to get in shape.

While bodybuilders train like professional athletes, they do not enter the event in peak physical form but as weak as kittens.

Is bodybuilding a sport?

England's new rugby shirt unveiled... but over-priced

The only thing more embarrassing than some of Englands rugby performances in recent years has been their horrendous kit. No longer.

Today the RFU has launched the 2009/10 shirt, a massive improvement. The shirt carries a nice bit of latin 'Rugbeia Floreat Ubique', which means 'Rugby Flourishes Everywhere'... although I'm surprised the Romans had a word for rugby.

England's rolly-polly front rowers will be disappointed to hear that the shirt is once again skin tight. The O2 logo includes PU Grippers which it says assist with grip.

I'm sure Nike have put a lot of time, effort and resources into to developing this shirt - but £90 seems an outrageous mark up to me.

Here it is...