A strategic approach to marketing and communications is vital to the success of any brand. But sometimes a little instinct can pay off.

This weekend, Derby County take on Nottingham Forest at Pride Park.

Exactly six years ago, a few minutes before half-time during a typical blood-and-guts encounter between the bitter local rivals on a blustery Derby day, the Forest keeper was preparing to hack the ball up the field when a Kenco coffee cup blew on to the pitch and landed in its path, spinning the ball in the air…

The bamboozled Forest keeper mis-kicked it straight into the path of Derby striker Paul Peschisolido (Pesch), who pounced and scored – sending Derby on the way to a famous victory.

As Derby’s head of communications, I was watching events from the dugout area. Sensing a PR opportunity, as the half-time whistle blew I ran on to the pitch and collected the cup. After the match I collared Pesch in the players’ tunnel, asked him to sign the cup and took a photograph of him clutching it.

That night we launched a competition on our website for fans to devise a slogan for a t-shirt featuring the image of the player holding his trophy. Forty-eight hours later, the garments – sporting the words ‘This cup beat 11 mugs’ – were on sale online and in the club shop. Mugs and posters followed, with the strapline ‘Vend it like Pesch’. A DVD of the match, called Forest: Gone With The Wind, flew off the shelves. National media coverage of the stunt also drove sales.

Tacky? Perhaps. But we managed to turn coffee into coffers during some dark financial days for the club.

Forest were near the top of the table then – the Rams were fighting relegation. Derby are the bigger club these days, at least on paper.

Then again, paper teams win paper cups and I hope that, this weekend, we won’t be forced to wake up and smell the coffee.

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