Unless you harbour a vicious streak, the idea of scratching somebody’s car for a win is unlikely to be top of your to-do list.
Allwyn and McLaren have attempted to steer us in a different direction by producing the world’s first Scratch Car, a novel concept which made its bow in Las Vegas ahead of the weekend’s Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Allwyn is an official partner of the Mclaren F1 Team and the multi-national lottery and gaming company has come up with a way of engaging not just motorsport fans but anybody with access to social media, with the chance to win some cool McLaren goodies from scratch.
It’s a clever idea to introduce something that is embracing a well-worn gambling concept like a scratch card, and making it free to play for some money-can’t-buy prizes and experiences while operators in the UK are promoting Safer Gambling Week.
And where better to launch this unique promotional push than Las Vegas Strip, the home of US gambling?
McLaren And Allwyn’s Scratch Car
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was in pole position this week at the LINQ promenade on Las Vegas Strip to help launch the world’s first Scratch Car.
It featured 970 scratchable panels printed in the team’s papaya orange and was open for visitors to satisfy their itch and see if they could land one of the McLaren-themed prizes such as signed driver helmets.
The life-size model of a McLaren F1 car was designed and hand-built by paper artist and sculptor Florian Weber.
For the majority of motorsport fans unable to fly into Vegas, there is also an online Scratch Car experience accessible on Allwyn Global’s Instagram account, running until November 25.
Top prize is a day out at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking where the winner will be kitted out with their own driving suit which will be signed by either Piastri or McLaren team-mate team-mate Lando Norris, the present leader of the F1 drivers’ championship.
Allwyn has strong ties with F1 through its sponsorships and recently merged with OPAP to create a £16 billion lottery and gaming giant.
All of this left me scratching my head, wondering what have been best PR stunts pulled by some of the heavyweights and up-coming wannabes in the gambling industry?
Whether it’s innovative genius, a spectacular flop or just downright cheeky – yes Paddy Power I’m looking at you – there have been some pretty bold attempts to grab attention over the years.
Paddy Power’s Lucky Pants
Paddy Power’s pants obsession began with Arsenal and Denmark’s Nicklas Bendtner at Euro 2012.
The UK & Ireland betting giant convinced Bendtner to celebrate scoring a goal at the Euros by dropping his shorts, to reveal a pair of lucky green underpants bearing the Paddy Power logo on the waistband.
The striker duly found the net against Portugal and the shorts came down, but then so did UEFA, really hard, slapping the player with a €100,000 fine and a one-match ban for violating advertising rules.
Paddy Power paid up as you would expect and probably filed the episode under ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’, especially as that just seemed to spur them on to bigger and better pants ideas.
Just one year later, the 2013 Cheltenham Festival was run under the shadow of a 63ft high hot air balloon in the shape of, yep you guessed it, green Y-fronts.
Paddy Power had run a competition where winners could enjoy viewing racing’s premier jump racing event from “the best seats in the house” in the basket hanging from the blimp, named Paddy Pant 1.
Festival organisers had to call in the Civil Aviation Authority to pull Paddy’s pants down.
Golden Palace Head Tattoo
Some PR campaigns call for ambitious and forward-thinking businesses to ally themselves with the finest minds in advertising.
Others just blag an opportunity when they see one.
In 2005, Salt Lake City resident Karolyne ‘Kari’ Smith decide to sell off some prime advertising real estate: Her forehead.
Smith said that she needed around $10,000 to pay for her son’s education and put her untarnished brow on eBay.
Golden Palace Casino hit Buy It Now first and Kari’s top became permanently tattooed with the web address GoldenPalace.com, which over subsequent years went through various stages of not linking to anything.
Golden Palace developed a flair for bagging flesh for sale on eBay, paying £422 for a temporary tattoo across the “assets” (I’ll leave that up to your imagination) of 27-year-old Glaswegian Angela Brammer and a hefty $15,199 for a 33-year-old in the US to change her name from Terri Iligan to Mrs GoldenPalace.com.
Fair play to Golden Palace though, their forehead thinking was a move ahead of its time.
GNUF Roll The Dice
Maltese-based casino games operator GNUF was searching for the right location to make a name for itself in 2007, and along with Swedish ad agency Acne came up with the perfect spot.
Announcing “the world’s greatest dice roll,” GNUF created two huge dice weighing over half a ton each and standing around seven feet tall, with the intention of rolling them down a snow-packed mountain outside Nuuk, capital of Greenland.
GNUF commissioned an extreme weather helicopter to carry the precious cargo into position for a unique drop and invited customers to wager on what numbers would be showing once the high rollers had come to a halt.
Hat tip to helicopter pilot Goran Marklund, who declared: “Conditions in Greenland’s mountains can be dicey.”
Despite the snowy conditions, it was good weather for snakes as the dice revealed a pair of 1s.
Having reached the mountainous peak of its promotional powers, GNUF merged with Betway in 2014.
Betfred’s Early Payouts
Fred Done is co-founder and owner of one of the most popular UK high street bookies, Betfred.
He is also a Manchester United fan and a confident one at that, so when Sir Alex Ferguson’s team topped the Premier League in March 1998 with a 12-point lead, he declared that the title race was over and that Betfred would pay out on United being champions.
It was the first time a bookie had ever paid out early on the league winners, and it was also the kiss of death for his favourite team’s championship hopes.
Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford that same month became part of a 10-game winning run in the League for the Gunners who eventually went on to claim the title by one point.
1️⃣ | Fred was the first ever bookmaker to pay out early in 1998 when he paid out on his beloved United to win the league.
— Betfred (@Betfred) December 11, 2017
Ironically the Red Devils were also 11 points clear then, only for Arsenal to win the league by one point. pic.twitter.com/1l7wErll4H
That generous move cost Betfred £500,000 and you would have thought that the rule of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ would have come into play.
Not for our Fred.
With eight games of the 2011-12 season remaining, Manchester United were again top of the tree, five points clear of local rivals Manchester City.
Done called time on title betting and again ordered Betfred to pay out on ‘winning’ bets for Manchester United.
“Back in 1998 Fergie told me to never pay out early again but Sir Alex need not worry, I’ve not got it wrong this time,” he said confidently.
“United are past the post for a record 20th title.
“Even with the derby to come a five-point lead is just too much for City.”
You can guess the rest.
City won the Manchester derby 1-0 at the Etihad and secured a dramatic title with a stoppage time goal from Serio Aguero in a final-day win over QPR that kept them level with United on points and clinched the championship on goal difference.
Done was dusted once again.
Jackpot Joy’s Giant Duck
Back in the world of inflatables and oversized props, bingo site Jackpot Joy turned to Fever PR in 2012 hoping for something that would make them stand out from the crowd.
Fever floated the idea of sending a 50-foot-tall yellow duck down the Thames to promote the launch of Jackpot Joy’s FUNdation campaign.
One bright December morning, after three months of planning and 800 hours of hard labour, the JackpotJoy Duck emerged from the shadow of the O2 Arena in Greenwich, southeast London.
Taller than a two-storey house, the unbranded yellow behemoth enjoyed a one-hour 40 minute JackpotJoy ride past Canary Wharf, under the saluting arms of Tower Bridge and on to London Bridge before being turned around for the return paddle.
Mystified Londoners flocked to the riverside to catch sight of the duck with no name or an apparent owner to fund its odyssey.
It was only later in the day that Jackpot Joy revealed that they were picking up the bill.
