Will the need to be more accountable affect Paddy Power’s future marketing?

Where do we stand on Paddy Power? The betting brand attracts a full gamut of views ranging from ‘cheekily irreverent and fun marketer’ to ‘tasteless troublemaker’. If you fall into the latter bracket, it would be tempting to badge Paddy Power as the betting equivalent of Ryanair – two punk outfits with Irish provenance that delight in cocking a snook at the authorities.
Paddy Power is, like its compatriot brand, fulfilling a customer need that generates notable financial success. The betting group sawa 28%
increase in revenuesand a 40% increasing in online customers in the first half of 2012. And a la Ryanair, Paddy Power’s advertising is driven by stunts, some of them in poor taste. The 2010 TV ad featuring visually impaired footballers kicking a cat was that year’s most complained about advert.
But that’s where the comparisons end. For since then Paddy Power has shown serious marketing intent, as it attempts torealise its global ambitionswith aggressive marketing that retains the craicat its heart. The first statement of that intent came last year with thehiring of agency Crispin Porter & Boguskywith its suitably disruptive creative track record. We’re told the agency is being driven hard, turning around the brand’s ads almost overnight, with ideas geared to what’s going on in the world.