Have you been watching the Beckham documentary on Netflix?
As a football obsessed teen in the late 90’s.
And a United fan, I loved Beckham.
So watching this documentary is massively nostalgic.
I remember some of the key sporting moments like it was yesterday.
But one thing that dawned on me 🤔
How iconic Umbro was in these moments.
👉 That diamond logo.
👉 The bold stretched word mark.
👉 The diamonds down the sleeve.
Okay Beckham had his Adidas predators .
But Umbro was top dog🏅
I always took pride in wearing Umbro.
As I flew up the right wing.
Imagining I could be Beckham.
That of course was never going to happen.
However a few years ago, 2018 I think.
I was able to revisit the boy hood dream.
Not on the field.
But through strategy, creativity and design.
With a global repositioning of Umbro ❤️
It was about taking ownership of real football, in short ‘Our Game’.
To serve as the antidote to the ‘disneyfication’ of the sport.
That Adidas and Nike were portraying.
It was a great strategy.
But here is the thing.
The problem was budget.
There was naff all.
Nadda.
Zilch.
Zero.
Other than a few nice YouTube vids with Madrid midfielder Pepe…
… the strategy lives in beautifully designed brand books.
And now seeing Umbro again in full flow on Netflix.
It reaffirms just how right we were to pursue the strategy.
But I have a big question to the marketing team at Umbro right now.
What the hell are they thinking?
Beckham is at 12m views on Netflix in the UK alone.
Umbro have done zilch again around this epic cultural moment.
Not even a social post.
You see.
When awareness is high.
And cultural perception is high.
What better way to activate the brand again?
And the best thing of all they wouldn’t of needed a whole bunch of media spend.
They’d just need an awesome creative idea.
To ride the wave.
What about some iconic outdoor that shows the classic branding?
A social post with some nods towards golden balls?
A mural of the iconic moments?
The opening of the archives?
Some limited edition clobber in celebration of this hay day?
Now I get image rights and licensing come into play.
But that’s where creativity comes in right?
What would you have done?
Neil Bennett
Founded and Umbro fan-boy
