Without doubt the ever-growing popularity of darts is connected to its increasing coverage on TV, but according to Unicorn marketing director David Broughton, the real interest is in the professional game, while the possible return of Bullseye will have little impact on the sales of darts products.
“Bullseye was a very popular game show in its day and it certainly helped introduce darts to a new audience, but darts fans and players now prefer to watch the feast of competitive darts available on Sky Sports,” says Broughton.
“The success of the Premier League is a case in point and has encouraged us to introduce a new category of Team Unicorn called Maestro Premier to reflect its success.”
BRANDING
Competitive darts now generates over 4,500 hours of TV coverage globally, which creates unrivalled branding opportunities for Unicorn as all televised PDC events are played on a Unicorn dartboard. Additionally, the domination of Team Unicorn in world darts is a reflection of the brand’s quality. Six world champions with 28 world championships between them cannot be wrong.
Unicorn’s focus is not, however, just at the top level of the sport. The company actively looks to work with younger players and those who encourage them.
Unicorn is proud to be a partner of seven Darts Academies throughout the UK, and Team Unicorn’s Generation 180 category for younger, aspiring world champions of tomorrow now has five players from those academies.
NEW RANGE
The new 2011 range of Unicorn darts can be seen on the company’s industry leading website (www.unicorn-darts.co.uk), with new additions in all categories. Of special note are the new Phase 5 Rosso darts and DB180 dartboard, but a look at the 2011 Unicorn Book of Darts or the company’s website will reveal a host of new products throughout the range to confirm Unicorn’s reputation as the big name in darts.
“Without doubt, darts is on the up and Unicorn, as always, is right at the heart of the action,” concludes Broughton.
