GOALS Soccer Centres has appointed ATOM Connect as its agency partner to promote and manage all brand experience opportunities within its 46 football centres around the UK.

ATOM Connect is a newly-formed division of agency ATOM Marketing which focuses on brand and entertainment partnerships, experiential and events.

GOALS is the world’s largest and most successful operator of dedicated small-sided football centres, with 46 FA accredited clubs across the UK and three more in Los Angeles, California.

The GOALS centres offer brands and experiential agencies the opportunity to engage and connect with a highly targeted male audience. Over 140,000 men aged 18-44 enjoy playing at GOALS centres each week and opportunities exist for brand exposure, sampling or experiential events in the spaces available at the centres.

John-Paul Murphy, Head of Marketing at GOALS, says: “Having worked with ATOM before and understanding well their expertise and service, I had no hesitation in appointing ATOM Connect to engage potential brand experience partners on our behalf and manage this activity. We have a fantastically loyal and hard-to-reach audience that offers great opportunities for all sorts of category brands and I look forward to ATOM Connect delivering for both Goals and our partners.”

Andy Duff, founder and MD of ATOM, observes: “GOALS is a unique opportunity for brands to engage with the ‘hard to reach’ male audience by interacting with a large number of a highly targeted audience. Over 97% of players are men aged 18-44. The appointment is a fantastic founding client for this new division, ATOM Connect and it’s great to announce this while the nation is gripped with global football fever and the new league season approaches from August/September.”

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Integrated agency ATOM Marketing has recruited Vinney Ashurst to fill the newly-created role of Business Director.

Ashurst officially joined Cheshire-based ATOM this week and will take up a position on the Board and Leadership Team of the agency, with responsibility for planning, client development and further improving ATOM’s shopper marketing capability.

He has over 20 years’ marketing experience gained from some of the UK’s leading retailers and the country’s top agencies in London, Manchester and Leeds, as well as in client side roles for international brands such as Hallmark Cards, Kellogg’s and, most recently, Spectrum Brands. At Spectrum, Vinney headed up the Shopper Marketing function across Europe for the company’s Remington, Russell Hobbs and George Forman Brands.

Vinney Ashurst says: “I’m extremely excited to be joining such a well-respected agency that consistently produces stand out creative that gets a great reaction from shoppers and consumers alike. I hope my experience will allow me to bring some different thinking to the team and I’m looking forward to learning some new tricks along the way too.”

Andy Duff, Founder and Managing Director of ATOM, observes: “This is a long-term strategic appointment for the agency and it’s fantastic that Vinney is joining the ATOM team as we pursue our growth agenda over the next three years. He has unrivalled shopper marketing expertise and years of industry knowledge across both agency and client-side roles.”

ATOM is an award-winning agency based in the North West of England which creates promotional and shopper marketing campaigns for brands including Müller, Plenty, Crabbies, Butterkist and Chiquita.

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Crabbie’s, the Halewood-owned ginger beer brand, is running a Rugby Rewards on-pack promotion which benefits both consumers and the amateur clubs they support.

The promotion runs until May 31st 2018, and consumers have the chance to win prizes every week, including 55 inch, Sound Bars, Fitness Trackers and Crabbie’s branded merchandise including key rings, mini rugby balls, sunglasses, beanie, canvas bags and bottles and cans.

To enter, consumers need to enter a code found on limited-edition promotional packs of 330ml and 500ml Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer Original and Scottish Raspberry, on the Crabbie’s promotional website, www.crabbiesrugby.co.uk. In addition to allowing entry into the consumer draw, the codes are also worth points to participating rugby clubs.

As part of the entry process, consumers are asked which rugby club they want to give the points they collect to (there is a ‘no club’ option). Amateur rugby clubs which are registered with the rewards programme can use points given to them by consumers to trade in for Crabbie’s-branded equipment including rugby balls, training bibs, contact pads and tackle bags.

The promotion was created for Crabbie’s by integrated agency ATOM Marketing.

Anja Weise-O’Connor, senior marketing manager for Crabbie’s at Halewood Wines & Spirits, said: “Thanks to limited-edition packaging the promotion gives retailers the opportunity to increase sales, as well as maximise opportunities for repeat purchases with the weekly prize draw, which will run for the duration of the season.”

The brand says its previous “Try and Win” promotion saw more than 34,000 entries.

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Confused.com has added two new free toys, Miss Herbert and Stunt Herbert, to the rewards which customers can claim when they take out selected products through the price comparison site.
To support the launch of the two Herbert toys, Confused.com have unveiled a new 30” advertisement, in which Stunt Herbert and Miss Herbert’s sibling rivalry is revealed as they compete.
In addition to the ad, the Herberts are proudly sponsoring the second series of ITV’s popular show Ninja Warrior UK. The show starts in January and features contestants trying to battle their way through one of the world’s toughest obstacle courses in the hope of being crowned the ultimate Ninja Warrior.
Confused.com says it decided to expand its collectable family of toys and give customers more opportunities to claim them after the success of its free BRIAN the Robot toy, which launched in February 2015.
From now on, customers who take out car, home, life, van, motorbike or pet insurance or a credit card through Confused.com can choose between one of the three collectable toys: BRIAN, Miss Herbert and Stunt Herbert.
The toys have been developed in partnership with promotional marketing agency ATOM Marketing.
The Herberts were first seen coming to the aid of BRIAN when he was captured by metal scrapyard dealers last Christmas and have been by BRIAN’s side ever since. And due to popular demand Confused.com have now launched two new toys, Miss Herbert and Stunt Herbert.
The new pull-and-go toys are designed to encapsulate the characters’ personalities. Miss Herbert is sweet, sparkly and as hard as nails. Her toy comes with a set of stickers and an activity wheel that helps you decide what games to play with her. Stunt Herbert is the hardest, most daring and most reckless of the Herberts, and his bobble-headed toy comes with a fun target game.
The Ninja Warrior UK sponsorship is being marked with a series of different idents starring Miss Herbert and Stunt Herbert as their sibling rivalry boils over. These idents range from five to 15 seconds in length and feature Miss and Stunt attempting to outdo each other as they try to capture the audience’s attention.
To further support the toy launch, Confused.com are focusing on social media in a new fully-integrated advertising campaign. Consumers will be able to get involved and pick a team: Team Miss, Team Stunt or Team BRIAN via Confused.com’s social channels.
Fiona Creedon, Head of Advertising at Confused.com, says: “Since the launch of our BRIAN the robot toy we’ve seen his popularity soar and felt it was time to expand his family. The Herberts were introduced last Christmas and since then we’ve seen people’s affections grow for these loveable robots.”
Confused.com, launched in 2002, was the UK’s first price comparison site for car insurance. It has expanded its range of comparison products over the last couple of years to include home insurance, holiday insurance, pet insurance, small van insurance, motorcycle insurance, breakdown cover and gas and electricity, as well as financial services products including credit cards, loans, mortgages and life insurance. Confused.com is owned by the Admiral Group plc.
ATOM Marketing is a promotional marketing agency specialising in creating and managing campaigns for some of the UK and Europe’s biggest brands.

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