The campaign is fronted by a TV ad created by agency Creature and which uses the strapline "Make Every Moment Matter". It seeks to enter the mind's eye of football-betting fans and to "put the punter first".
William Hill said the purpose of its campaign was "to reflect its number-one position in the market" as well as getting behind the England football team "as far as they go in the tournament".
The 30-second ad will air today during England’s pre-World Cup friendly match against Ecuador on ITV. The ad promotes the idea that all aspects of a match, such as corners and penalties, offer a chance to bet rather than just the final result.
A French production unit called Caviar filmed the ad in the Czech Republic city of Brno.
Two more television ads will follow; one during the World Cup and another ahead of the start of the domestic football season in August.
They will be accompanied by print and online display ads, which will run from the start of the World Cup on 12 June, as well as accompanying messages on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The bookmaker said it eschewed the traditional approach to creating an ad in which an agency is given a brief and asked to come up with a creative solution.
Alex O'Shaughnessy, director of marketing for William Hill Online, said: "We worked with Creature at every stage and we had input into the creative work. We saw Creature as partners in the creation of this ad."
The ads follow the rival bookmaker Ladbrokes’ repositioning through its own ad campaign by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which seek to characterise the different kinds of punters who place bets.
When questioned about similarities between the two campaigns, O'Shaughnessy said: "Our ad focuses less on the character of the punter, but on what the punter needs."
Ladbrokes’ ad has attracted complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority about glamorising gambling, but O'Shaughnessy said William Hill was not concerned that it would attract negative publicity for the same reasons.
O'Shaughnessy said: "We are a FTSE 100 business with a keen eye on corporate social responsibility and we adhere to every possible guideline on responsible gambling, whether from the ASA or other bodies.
"We are absolutely sure the ads contain everything needed to promote the responsible gambling message."
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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