‘Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Wembley, Que Sera Sera.’
These lyrics are most recognisable at the grounds of successful English football clubs, but they have also been bellowed out at Connect PR headquarters in recent weeks.
Now when I tell you that amongst the teams supported by us hard-working bunch at Chubb Towers are Everton (account director Richard), West Bromwich Albion (account executive Kirsty) and Wolves (yours truly), it will quickly become clear none of us were gearing up for a trip to the national stadium to watch our beloved club.
Instead, our Wembley adventure was built around the seventh instalment of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final, and bringing another season of memorable PR activity to a climatic crescendo.
The competition has risen in stock year-on-year and is now firmly entrenched as one of the major dates on the domestic football calendar.
And the last nine months have provided another memorable season of relentless brand exposure and fan and customer engagement for Johnstone’s Paint.
A feature campaign throughout the season has been the hugely popular Paint Pot Challenge (go to http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialJPT to see the clubs in action!) which has provided the ultimate test of accuracy to professional footballers and has attracted over 22,000 hits on YouTube.
Thousands of people also attended Trophy Tours in the home towns of the two finalists, Southend United and eventual winners Crewe Alexandra, and readily posed for pictures with the coveted Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (it’s a bigger piece of silverware than you think!) at a variety of venues from club shops, to shopping centres to Johnstone’s Paint Decorating Centres.
Wembley weekend itself, attended by almost 45,000 people, proved a whirlwind experience.
Plenty of nervous energy was expended by all concerned ensuring a major event at such an iconic venue passed smoothly, but personal highlights were endless, not least attending the popular Sky Sports’ show Soccer AM on Saturday to ensure unrivalled national coverage.
As a lifelong football fan, the chance to enjoy access-all-areas around Wembley during the weekend of a cup final was a major privilege and standing pitchside as the team emerged to a cacophony of noise represented a spine-tingling moment.
The full-time whistle was greeted by a huge sense of satisfaction by the entire team working on the tournament at a job well done, tinged with some sadness that a sustained campaign of PR activity had – for the time being at least – reached its conclusion.
In football, however, another game and challenge is always on the horizon.
We will have to wait for a summer (if it ever warms up!) to pass and the new season to dawn before the next Johnstone’s Paint Trophy action on the pitch, although thoughts amongst the Connect team have already turned towards planning next season’s PR activity.
Wembley weekend will be here again before we know it. So all together now, ‘Que Sera, Sera . . .!’
James Garrison
account manager