The marketers at Party Poker this week took advantage of
the huge publicity generated by the British general election with
a poster campaign questioning the poker faces of the various political
party leaders headlined 'Got a bad poker face?'.
Featuring Labour's head honchos, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor
of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the campaign, which runs until May
11, includes the Tory Party leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat
chief Charles Kennedy.
The election-themed 96-sheet poster ads will be visible across 32
sites in London, and were developed by copywriter Anthony Smith and
art director Murray Partridge. The first three executions feature
images of party leaders matched with relevant poker straplines the
Michael Howard poster for instance asks: "Good at bluffing?"
while the Charles Kennedy execution observes: "No one to
play with?".
The creative is designed to illustrate the most important part of
playing poker online; that no matter what your skill level is, you
can still play poker and take advantage of the opportunity offered
by the tens of thousands of players simultaneously playing whether
you are playing for free or real money.
Vikrant Bhargava, group marketing director of PartyGaming, parent
company of Partypoker.co.uk, said: "Building on our initial
burst of national print advertising that broke at the beginning of
April, featuring the King, Queen and the Jack playing cards, we're
aiming to consolidate our position as a leading player in the UK,
a fast-growing poker market. The ads are designed to introduce an
element of fun in an otherwise serious election campaign."