Broadcaster Eurosport, owned by Discovery, has rolled out a set of comic creative animations across its social media channels to engage younger audiences ahead of the Winter Olympic Games.
The film series, which aims to ‘bring together winter sports fanatics and those less instinctively excited about the Games’, features the voices of British comedians Morganna Robinson and Beattie Edmonson and were animated by Julian Frost (the animator behind ‘Dumb Ways To Die’).
The spots revolve around two sisters with contrasting views: fact-fuelled sports fan Emma and disinterested Robyn.
They were launched on Facebook and YouTube and seek to spark younger audience interest in the Winter Games – airing on Eurosport between 9 and 25 February.
The suite of short social spots don’t just promote February’s Games in South Korea, but also use accessibility and humour to broaden and widen viewer knowledge about specific winter sports.
These include Luge,
Downhill, Alpine, Curling and Bobsleigh.
The short films were penned by Hannah Ford of creative agency Red Bee (which developed the campaign alongside client Discovery Creative London and Oscar-winning animation studio Passion Pictures).
“We looked at a variety of ways in which to bring the upcoming Olympic Winter Games to the broadest audience possible especially non-sports aficionados across all platforms through humour, emotion and storytelling,” said Discovery Creative London executive creative director Robin Garnett.
Jim de Zoete, deputy executive creative director at Red Bee added: “The Olympics in all its forms is very close to our hearts here at Red Bee, so it was an absolute privilege to work on this campaign with the teams at Discovery and Eurosport. The Olympic Winter Games can sometimes feel a bit distant and technical, so we hope through humour and quirkiness our animated characters will help explain and make accessible some of the trickier events.”
Comment:
The Olympic Winter Games Warm Ups are short, sweet and funny, intended for sharing in social. Each alludes to the extraordinary feats of endurance, strength and sheer danger involved in many winter sports, but in a witty and knowing way.”
The films are designed to help Discovery achieve its ambition of ensuring that PyeongChang 2018 is the ‘first fully digital Olympic Games’ across Europe.
This objective has also seen Discovery team up with sports marketing firm Wasserman to boost its Winter Olympics social content.
Wasserman subsidiary Cycle Media is producing additional Games-related original content for Eurosport’s social and digital platforms to generate interest and drive knowledge around the Games.
This will include influencer creative and work based around the broadcaster’s Snapchat channels in the UK, Germany, Norway and Sweden that makes use of both new and heritage footage from the Winter Olympics.
Links:
Discovery Creative London
http://discoverycreativelondon.com/
Discovery
https://www.facebook.com/Discovery
https://twitter.com/DiscoveryUK
Red Bee Media
http://www.redbeemedia.com/
