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THE FRAGMENTED NATURE of the internet means that an ad for a US sports prediction market might have been all over the algorithm for some people, such as young American men, while many others would never have laid eyes on it.

Not so when it’s a hyper-sexualised campaign starring actor Sydney Sweeney, naked or barely dressed and posing with various sports equipment. The Euphoria star is already no stranger to controversy after her role in a jeans campaign last year that prompted accusations of white supremacy.

An image from Sydney Sweeney and Novig's campaign on Instagram. @sydney_sweeney and @novig @sydney_sweeney and @novig

The backlash against Novig’s campaign extended its reach far and wide, garnering extensive global media coverage and social media reaction: nothing drives engagement online like anger. 

An audience vastly wider than a straightforward ad could have reached has become aware of Novig in the week since the campaign launched. The platform, which started trading last month, allows users to trade on game outcomes against other platform users. Sweeney is a financial backer.

The ad has been condemned by female athletes and feminists. Four-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ariarne Titmus has described the ad as a “kick in the face” not only to sportswomen who have spent their lives perfecting their craft, but to every woman who enjoys sport for “what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity”.

British sprinter Amy Hunt called Sweeney out after a race this week, saying: “This is what women in sport look like.”

So what does the marketing world make of it?

Caitríona Ní Laoire, managing director of Core Creative, said she felt overwhelming disappointment when she first saw the campaign, which transparently aimed to capitalise on controversy and outrage in a way that feeds into narratives that help to push girls away from sport.

She noted that market research by American advertising company System1 found the ad scored incredibly well with men (obviously the target market) but very poorly with women. Women reported feeling contempt, disgust, anger and sadness.

Novig chief executive Jacob Fortinsky has been upfront about what the company set out to do with the ad, Ní Laoire added.

Speaking at a Front Office Sports event in New York this week, Fortinsky said he wanted to “close the gap” in brand awareness between Novig and prediction-market leaders such as Kalshi and Polymarket, ahead of the American football season.

“We asked ourselves who would be the best person to grab the attention of the public to make Novig a household name. Sydney approached us, but from there it was a very obvious decision,” Fortinsky said.

For Paul Ruane, head of brand at Irish marketing firm Fuzion, the initial reaction on seeing the ad was that it was “outdated” and “salacious for the sake of being controversial”. Ruane felt that the campaign’s creators were demonstrating a mindset from the 1970s, that “sex sells”, when this is a perspective from which the world has moved on.

This type of marketing is “all about getting talked about”, a grab for attention in a world drowning in over-hyped marketing, Ruane says.

Like Ruane, Stephen Murphy, an assistant professor in marketing at Trinity College Dublin’s business school, had an initial gut reaction that Novig may have failed to read the room.

Using the female body to grab attention is arguably the oldest ploy in the advertiser’s playbook, but the context has changed, Murphy says. He believes Novig has “overlooked something important about this moment in time”.

“The Novig campaign has resonated not because the tactic is new but because it collided with a moment when women’s sport has real cultural momentum and female athletes have a public voice they did not have a few decades ago.”

Did it work?

Novig took a gamble with this ad. Has it paid off? Many consumers who had not heard of the company before are now familiar with who it is and what it does.

“Controversy is a cheap way to buy visibility that would otherwise cost significantly more,” says Murphy.

He believes Novig’s status as a relative newcomer is crucial to understanding why it has adopted this approach.

“An established brand has equity to protect and a relationship with consumers that shock tactics can undermine. Novig has none of that yet. For them the calculus is simpler: get the name out there, worry about what it means later,” Murphy says.

Some brands have made shock or controversial marketing work. Murphy gives the example of Irish gambling giant Paddy Power, which has built its identity on being provocative and irreverent. 

In other cases, the strategy can backfire. Ruane gives the example of American fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which had to pivot 10 years ago from using topless young men to sell clothes.

Ní Laoire, of Core Creative, believes Novig’s strategy too is likely to have a shelf life.

Murphy agrees that Novig must now perform a difficult follow-up act of sustaining the edgy brand identity it tried to create here with consistency and wit. If it doesn’t, this will just be a “one-off that leaves them with attention but no story”.

The amount of new subscribers Novig gains in the near future, and whether it can retain them, will ultimately be the measures of whether its gamble on a controversial ad will pay off. The Sweeney campaign could have damaged the brand in the longer term, but only time will tell. Women have obviously been alienated; women also gamble.

Either way, this isn’t likely to be the last time a brand reaches for shock value when it wants to grab the limelight.

“At the moment, everyone is talking about this, whether positively or negatively. And many brands see that as a good thing,” Ruane says.

He says he would not recommend purposely provocative campaigns to his clients, and would always argue that there are other creative and clever ways to have an impact without sullying a brand’s reputation.

“It is worrying to think that brands might think ‘this is what works’,” he says.

Murphy agrees that brands will keep reaching for shock when they need attention – but the question will always be whether they have read the room.