Why England is my Lovemark

Last Wednesday, when England lost to Argentina, felt like a proper full circle moment.

I was sat with my 12 year old daughter, who watched the whole game. (Not clips, not half watching while scrolling on a phone, the whole game. She stayed with it through all of it!) The tension, the swings, the hope, the heartbreak.

And as I watched her, I found myself right back in 1990 – July 4th (Turin) in Italia ‘90

That semi-final against West Germany was the tournament that really started my relationship with England. I cried when Gazza cried. I cried again when we lost on penalties. But more than that, I remember feeling a connection. A connection to the way Bobby Robson marshalled the team. A connection to Paul Parker charging down the ball, only for it to loop into the goal. A connection with Waddle and Pearce as they sank having missed penalties despite being amongst the best to take them.

Something started there. England became more than a team I watched. It became something I was part of and it was part of me.

A year later I first watched my first England game at Wembley (the old one!). It was a schoolboy’s game which I had won tickets for in a Tesco competition with Smith’s Crisps. (The proper old ones with the little blue packet of extra salt inside, for those old enough to remember) It was not the senior team, obviously, but it all added to it. The ritual. The feeling. The sense that England was a thing that was shared by so many.

On paper, there were plenty of reasons for that interest not to last. Euro 92 was hardly magical. Failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA should have cooled things down a bit more. But by then I was already hooked, thanks in no small part to Paul Gascoigne, who was still completely magnetic whenever he was playing.

Then came Euro 96 – football was coming “home” (I know that grates many people now but it felt right at the time)

I was 17. I could drive. Pubs were accessible if you knew where to go. And for the first time I felt that proper tournament buzz that comes from watching football not just in a crowd but as a nation that’s united. I still haven’t forgiven my brother-in-law for taking my sister to England v Scotland and seeing that Gazza goal and “that” celebration instead of me, but my own live England trips were coming.

Then France ‘98. The Owen goal. The disallowed Campbell goal which I celebrated for far too long before realising. Euro 2000 came and went with very little to celebrate. Then World Cup 2002, being in a pub at 8am watching England lose to Brazil and then going into work afterwards – it was every bit as bad as it sounds.

Then 2004…this time surely…

That was my first overseas trip with England. Me and some mates headed off to Portugal with a tent and plenty of hope, all pinned on this new kid on the block called Wayne Rooney. We were there when he more or less won the game against Croatia on his own with two goals and took us into a quarter-final with the hosts.

When Rooney went off injured early (27mins) against Portugal, that was the game really. Ricardo saving penalties without gloves is one of those football memories that seems to have lasted well beyond England fans. Even if for us it was another painful one.

Then came World Cup in Germany in 2006 and Ukraine in 2012 – both trips I made with mates. (I’m ignoring failure to qualify in 2008 for Switzerland where I was living!) and the 2010 – Capello car crash..

One of the things I remember most from those trips was not just the football. It was the people. The welcome. The sense that locals were proud to show their country and their hospitality. I will probably never go back to Kaiserslautern but for a week it was home. At the England v Italy quarter-final in Kyiv in 2012 we gave a spare ticket to a local. I still occasionally wonder what they are doing now, all these years later given how much has happened there since.

So when I became Marketing Director at the FA in 2014, this was never just a job.

This was a 24 year probation finally realised.

My first tournament in the role was Brazil 2014, which was pretty torrid. No wins, out at the group stage, and my own flight to Rio for a second round match basically evaporated by the end of game two. Sat next to me at home was my four month old daughter, the same one who turned 12 this year and was sat next to me this week.

Around that time I found myself thinking back to my years at P&G, and in particular the idea of the Lovemarks from Kevin Roberts, the then CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. The basic thought was that the strongest brands go beyond being respected or recognised. They become loved. They build loyalty that is emotional, not just rational.

Whether you agree with every part of his theory or not, the central point is hard to argue with. The best brands are not just chosen. They are felt.

That was always the opportunity with England.

Working with the team and with the support of Matta, who were really born with this campaign, we developed a position around England called Together for England. The idea was simple enough. Players and fans were equals in their shared connection to the badge. Shared pride. Shared purpose. Shared emotion.

I still look back on that campaign with mixed emotions.

Not because I did not believe in it. I did, and I still do. But football is still a results business. Sport is still a results business. There is only so far many fans will go with you on promise alone. (Robert’s would call this “Respect” – the rational part of the relationship) You can build the story, create the feeling, set the tone, but in the end results shape how much people are willing to buy into it.

It was not really until 2018, when Gareth Southgate became manager, that you could properly see that idea come to life. The team felt more open, more human, more connected. The distance between players and fans seemed to shrink. That was the point where it stopped being just a campaign thought and became something people could actually see and feel.

And again, it took me back to where all this had started for me.

Russia World Cup. Semi-final. Defeat after extra time. Thankfully no penalties, but heartbreak all the same.

Getting close became getting even closer - the Euros final at Wembley in 2021. I stood behind the goal at Wembley still believing that somehow we might finally turn the penalties story around. It was not to be.

Qatar felt like a distant campaign. The Euros in Germany two years ago, again so close… semi-final high, final disappointment.

And now this campaign. The highlight was undoubtedly the Mexico game. Watching any sport at 3am and celebrating in silence is a bit like a silent disco. It is fun, but not as much fun as the real thing. Sport is better when it is shared. That’s what makes it powerful.

And that is why England has been and always will be my lovemark.

Not because it always wins. Clearly not. But because the relationship survives disappointment. It survives time. It survives near misses, frustration and heartbreak. In some ways those things deepen it. The songs matter. The rituals matter. The memories matter. The people you watch with matter. The badge matters.

That’s what brands should pay attention to.

Not in some vague brand purpose sort of way. In a practical way. In how they actually show up in sport.

Because if sport at its best gives people belonging, ritual, memory and identity, then brands need to treat that with care. Too often they still approach sports partnerships like media deals with a few extras thrown in. A logo. Some tickets. A bit of content. Job done.

That misses the point.

If you are lucky enough to partner with a team, club or sport that people genuinely love, your role is not just to take attention from it. It is to add to the experience. To make the relationship better, not just more commercial.

A few thoughts from what I have seen.

First, be generous.

If you support a sport that people love, give proper fans better access to it. There are so many unused tickets and hospitality places that end up with corporate bookers who do not really value them, while real fans would savour the experience forever. That always feels like such a waste to me.

The best partnerships create stories people tell for years. Access can do that better than almost anything. Not because it is expensive, but because it means something. A seat at the right game, in the right hands, can create more feeling than a lot of polished advertising ever will.

Second, if you are making content, work with the people who really know the audience.

Spend time with the team who run the club, team or sport’s social channels. They are usually far closer to the audience and the players than almost any agency. They know the tone. They know what fans care about. They know what will feel right and what will feel like a brand trying too hard.

In 2018 the FA created Lion’s Den, a behind the scenes diary around the England team. It felt fresh at the time and it still runs today. Some brands were hesitant. The ones who got involved properly benefited from that closeness because they were near something people actually wanted to watch.

That is often the trade-off. The closer you get to the real thing, the better the content tends to be and yes the less of your brand messaging that gets shoe-horned in…but that’s not why you are there!

Third, spend time with the super fans.

Brands do this all the time when testing concepts, products or ads. They look at the people who care most. Sport should be no different.

If you want to understand what matters, spend time with the people who love it and understand why they love it. The answers are usually there. Not in trying to water everything down to please everyone, but in understanding what the people at the heart of it really value.

Super fans will tell you what matters. What feels true. What has been overdone. What feels lazy. What feels authentic. What feels like a brand has earned its place and what feels like it has just turned up for a bit of borrowed interest.

That matters because the best sports partnerships are not built by flattening fandom into a generic audience. They work when brands understand the strength of feeling at the centre and find ways to respect it, support it and build on it.

It's not really about football results. It is about memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. It's about my identity, belonging to something that last over generations giving people from all backgrounds a shared feeling. All the things that make people come back even when they know there is every chance it ends in disappointment.

And for brands, that is the bit worth understanding.

Not just awareness. Not just visibility. Not just having your logo in the right place at the right time.

Something people feel.

Something people remember.

Something that adds to what they already love.

Russell James

Founder of Bazballers. Formerly Marketing Director at The FA, Sales and Marketing Director at the ECB, and ten years at P&G.

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