On August 1st 2006, E.ON, the parent company of Powergen became the sponsor of the world's most famous and oldest domestic knockout competition - The FA Cup (until 2010). E.ON wanted to raise awareness of its brand and football sponsorship through it's media campaign, and ultimately increase the number of people switching to Powergen, it's home energy brand, from other energy suppliers.

E.ON wanted to raise awareness of it's brand and football sponsorship... and ultimately to increase the number of people switching to Powergen.

To encapsulate everything that the FA Cup represents and to engage our audiences with the brand through sponsorship. In House qualitative research suggested that the FA Cup meant "nostalgia" to our readers. Therefore the idea of engaging audiences through the "best FA Cup tie ever" competition was pitched to E.ON, focusing around 'call to action' advertorials in the Observer Sport section. Readers were encouraged to write in with descriptions of why their chosen FA Cup tie was so memorable to them, in order to win two tickets to a fourth round tie of their choice.

The FA Cup Best Tie Ever competition generated a huge response, with over 8,000 readers posting their best ever FA cup memory. According to the Observer's commissioning editor, Giles Richards, the FA Cup promotion resulted in the highest number and highest quality of contributions from Observer readers than ever before. As a result this successful campaign, Guardian News and Media will now be the solus newspaper group working with E.ON.

"Collaborative, creative and innovative. They delivered on each specific element and allowed us to reach a unique and engaged audience. All the boxes were ticked and it has convinced us to ensure that we work with the team next season." Simon Breakall, Communications Manager, E.ON