Licensing Link Europe’s Ian Wickham on the potential of the Football’s Coming Home brand.
Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) was originally commissioned by the Football Association in 1996 to mark England hosting its first football tournament in 30 years.
The anthem ‘Football’s Coming Home’ is now a feature at all major football tournaments linked to the aspiration, optimism, passion and joy felt by all fans as their teams progress either on the European or the World stage.
“Arguably, it has turned into the footballing anthem,” says Ian Wickham, director at Licensing Link Europe, the agency chosen to build a licensing programme for Football’s Coming Home 1848.
“Capturing that powerful and emotional essence, then linking it with the year 1848, the date when the modern (Cambridge) rules were devised and introduced, marries together a brand with the footballing heritage and credibility associated with the globally recognised rules of the game and the passion and emotion that that very game structure delivers today.”
UEFA will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the European Championships in 2020 when both semi-finals and the final of the tournament will be played at Wembley Stadium. The last time England hosted a major tournament of this scale was back in 1996 and Ian thinks it seems fitting to be kicking off a licensing programme now.
“Timing doesn’t get better than that and there is room in the market for a neutral football brand where the core mantra is already recognised globally,” he observes.
For licensing, perhaps the most important aspect of Football’s Coming Home 1848 is the neutrality and therefore wider appeal. “This is about the game itself and appeals to anyone who has any level of interest and who wants to engage, however loosely, with it,” Ian continues.
Attendances across the top flight European leagues exceeded 100 million in the 2016-17 season which, with all lower tier, amateur and grass roots involvement, builds a picture of a significant body of people who should be considered as potential consumers. Moreover the brand is not date or time specific, nor is it tournament or team specific. “This will be a brand with mass appeal and aimed any level of follower of the game, whether die-hard fan or one who considers football a guilty pleasure.”
Football has mass orientation and so, therefore, this is a mass retail play, aimed at the total football audience. Core product categories will be apparel, lifestyle, accessories and elements of gifting all year with a spike in novelty, collectables, health and beauty and additional gifting during tournament years. FMCG opportunities and peripheral categories will be available when the timing is right.
Football is an essential part of many people’s lives, meaning there are additional brand fit opportunities outside of these core sector that could be introduced once the core business has settled and has started to deliver at retail.
“What this absolutely isn’t though, is a label slap exercise – there is much more to the overall vision and objective for the brand that will help build this into a strong contender within the total sports space,” concludes Ian.
This feature originally appeared in the autumn 2018 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
