When George Ford steps onto the pitch for England, millions see the athlete. What they do not see is the business owner behind the scenes.
That was the story Tide wanted to tell during the Six Nations. Tide came to us with a clear challenge: create a campaign that positioned Tide as the business account for people who take their business seriously, to reflect Tide's product maturity and future ambitions.
The Six Nations is one of the most competitive advertising windows in UK sport. Every brand with a sporting connection is fighting for attention, which meant this campaign needed to feel authentic, not opportunistic.
Tide wanted a campaign grounded in a genuine connection between product and person. Alongside his rugby career, George Ford runs a cafe and restaurant business in Manchester with his partner and brother. The same qualities that define elite athletes; discipline, consistency, resilience and accountability are the same qualities shared by the small business owners Tide exists to support. That became the foundation of the campaign.
George Ford is not simply an England rugby player endorsing a financial product. He is someone balancing performance, pressure and entrepreneurship in parallel. That overlap between elite sport and business ownership gave the campaign credibility from the start. Instead of focusing on match day moments, we focused on the side of his life most people never see, the small details, the early mornings and the commitment to building something beyond the game.
That is where the campaign found its emotional weight 'there's big business in the small details'.
We produced a national TV and outdoor campaign running across broadcast and digital channels, and outdoor spots across the UK, throughout the Six Nations tournament. The creative centred on Ford telling his own story, not as a rugby player promoting a brand, but as someone building a business alongside a professional sporting career.
The production timeline was tight, with delivery scheduled within the tournament window itself. That meant every stage of the process had to move efficiently, from planning through to final delivery. No room for delays, reshoots or extended post-production. The result was a campaign delivered on schedule during one of the busiest sporting periods of the year.
Tide’s proposition is built around supporting people who put in the work to build something of their own. George Ford embodies that mindset naturally. It reflected a real relationship between ambition in sport and ambition in business. That is the difference between using a celebrity and finding the right person for the right reason.
