Mr Porky Becomes ITV's Football Sponsor With 'Scratch Day Analysis'
Updated: Sep 1
TL;DR: Pork-scratchings brand Mr Porky has bought season-long sponsorship of ITV's 2026/27 football coverage, using a fan's match-day snacking to spoof punditry — a low-cost, high-visibility route for a niche FMCG to reach a mass audience.
A niche snack buys a mainstream stage
Mr Porky, the pork-scratchings brand, has signed a season-long sponsorship of ITV's football coverage for 2026/27, created by agency Bray Leino. The idea spoofs the seriousness of televised punditry, reframing one fan's snacking as expert "Scratch Day Analysis."
The deal is bigger than it sounds. It covers 19 live matches — 10 EFL fixtures and nine Carabao Cup games including both semi-finals and the final — plus more than 60 highlights shows across ITV1, STV, ITV4 and ITVX. That's serious reach for a category most people never think about.
Building on a sports-marketing pattern
The move extends a broadcast strategy the brand has been testing, following its PDC Darts partnership with Sky Sports. Managing director Matt Smith framed the ambition plainly: "As the market leaders, we want to grow the category." Note the language — not just the brand, the whole category.
Broadcast sponsorship is one of the few affordable ways a challenger FMCG can borrow the credibility and scale of premium sport. The snacking-while-watching behaviour Mr Porky is dramatising is one its audience already performs, which makes the association feel natural rather than forced.
Marketing Minute's read: own the moment, not the match
Our take: Mr Porky isn't trying to out-shout beer or crisps for the football audience head-on. It's colonising a specific behaviour — the ritual of snacking through a match — and turning it into brand territory. That's a shrewd way to punch above your weight.
Category-growth framing also signals confidence. When a market leader invests in growing the whole pie rather than fighting for share, it usually believes it will capture a disproportionate slice of any new demand it creates.
What businesses should take from it
Sponsorship value isn't only about audience size; it's about behavioural fit. The best partnerships attach your brand to something your customers already do, reinforcing an existing habit rather than asking for a new one.
For smaller brands, broadcast sponsorship can be more efficient than spot advertising: you get repeated, low-clutter exposure wrapped around premium content, often at a fraction of a full campaign's production cost.
Quick FAQ
What is Mr Porky's ITV football sponsorship?
Mr Porky is the season-long sponsor of ITV's 2026/27 football coverage, created by Bray Leino. It spoofs TV punditry as 'Scratch Day Analysis' built around a fan's match-day snacking.
How many matches does the deal cover?
It covers 19 live matches — 10 EFL fixtures and nine Carabao Cup games including the semi-finals and final — plus more than 60 highlights shows across ITV1, STV, ITV4 and ITVX.
Why is a pork-scratchings brand sponsoring football?
Broadcast sponsorship lets a niche FMCG borrow the scale and credibility of premium sport affordably, attaching the brand to the snacking-while-watching behaviour its audience already performs.
The clever part of the Mr Porky deal isn't the media weight — it's the behavioural fit. They've attached the brand to a habit fans already have rather than inventing one. And when a market leader talks about growing the category, not just its share, it's usually because it expects to win most of what it creates. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The strongest sponsorships don't buy attention — they attach your brand to something your customers already do.
Which existing customer ritual could your brand credibly own?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Talking Retail, Decision Marketing, Asian Trader.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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