Castore x Newcastle United 21/22 Kit Launch
Having achieved great success with their initial kit partnership with Rangers FC, Castore established a new partnership with the Premier League football club Newcastle United. This agreement involved Castore taking charge of retail operations for the club with associated marketing activities. As Creative Lead, my responsibility was to devise a comprehensive launch campaign for Newcastle United and the Castore partnerships. Here is the creative overview of the Newcastle United campaign and the creative process involved for the 2021/22 season.
When developing the art direction for the overarching Castore kit launch campaign 2021/22, I wanted to create a statement for the brand, especially with our introduction to the Premier League.
The concept was to create an emotive connection between the fans and the new Castore Kit for the 2021/22 season. Focusing on Newcastle United’s creativity, football holds a deep-rooted, almost religious, cultural significance within the city, with the stadium’s grandiose architecture acting as a Cathedralesque symbol. I wanted to tap into the passion and nostalgia that the fanbase has for their club and St James Park. It serves as a powerful backdrop for the campaign, creating that emotional narrative around the anticipation of fans returning to the stadiums after COVID.
The art direction for the campaign was to take the popular poster aesthetic trend and infuse it with the fundamentals of cubism, creating more depth for the campaign. Layers of architectural shapes and overlapping planes give a sense of depth, complexity and individuality within the sub-campaigns and a unique style, setting Castore apart from the competition.
The most crutial part of the retail operations was building out and developing the ecom platforms across desktop and mobile. As you can see from the creative, the new kit sits boldly against the iconic St James’s Park backdrop but flexibility within the creative is key.
For flexibility across multiple artboards, you need a strong bank of assets to build the campaign. Working closely with the photographer about the shot lists from creative concepts is imperative. Here, you can see how this variety has worked across mobile and desktop (above) platforms.
With Instagram’s ‘infinite scroll’ feature, the use of carousel creative is the perfect opportunity to tell mini-stories and continually appear within your audience’s feed. The creative allows the viewer to see the product in multiple situations and also be able to focus on a key area.
Having the ability to use motion elevates the campaign to another level. Working with our motion designer, we created fun, creative stories in a cool, on-trend style using glitch and zoom motion.
Castore took over the in-store retail operations at St James’s Park and needed to dress the store. Working with an interior design agency, I was able to execute the campaign creative within the environment, giving an immersed feel to the customer. Conceptual Thinking, Creative and Art Direction, Campaign Design, UX, Print
To create a buzz around the launch of the new shirt and partnership, we have run an OOH campaign around the city’s digital billboards. These are just two examples demonstrating how I’ve adapted for portrait and landscape artboards.
