Aiming to get Americans sports fans hyped up for the world’s biggest sports event, US tournament broadcaster Fox Sports has teamed up with creative agency Wieden & Kennedy New York to launch an integrated, fun-filled promotional onslaught to promote its Russia 2018 coverage.
Launched 30-days before kick-off, the campaign is spearheaded by a 90-second, star-studded spot that hypes up the amazing experiences the tournament has in store.
The hero commercial features Argentinian super star Lionel Messias an anime god (complete with team coloured blue hair), while young Manchester United teammates Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial become rivals as avatars in the EA Sports FIFA ’18 video game and even NBA player Joel Embiid shows supporters of other sports love the World Cup too.
Plus there is a surprise cameo leveraging the lead-up to the launch of ‘Deadpool 2’ that sees Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds chide David Beckham, while boxing icon Evander Holyfield gently mocks Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez for his on-pitch biting) and US women’s team star Alex Morgan makes an appearance in the gym (the FIFA Women’s World Cup is in 2019).
As well as debuting in mid May on its YouTube channel,
the lead commercial is amplified across all of Fox’s digital and social platforms,
and on its own TV network programming too.
Indeed, the anthem spot debuted on Fox TV stations – including FOX, FS1, FX and National Geographic – and is also set to air during the NBA Playoffs.
The core commercial was directed by Matt Aselton (via Arts & Sciences) and it is supported by a series of other campaign spots including ‘Mexico’s Curses’,
the ‘Messi/Ronaldo Rivalry’,
a Messi-led ‘Men Become Gods’ ad,
and ‘Ronaldo’s Goals’.
Comment:
While the rest of the planet’s passionate football fanbase ensure that the FIFA World Cup is the world’s biggest sports event (more than 3bn tuned in to watch the last tournament), convincing Americans is a tough challenge.
After all, despite the emergence of the MLS, US sports fans are still largely fixated with domestic US sports which many of them think are world events: after all, there is the MLB’s self proclaimed World Series and the NFL’s Super Bowl World Champions.
Plus, the USA men’s national team failed to qualify for Russia 2018, so they can’t even yell out the ‘USA USA’ sports fan mantra at this year’s soccer bonanza,
But this Fox Sports campaign’s fresh approach and complete creative commitment is giving it a good go by focusing on star players and the domestic support for Mexico, rather than the USA team’s absence.
The hero spot has notched up more than 1m YouTube views in its first 48 hours – showing that there remains solid World Cup soccer interest in the USA despite its own national team not qualifying.
This Wieden & Kennedy sports broadcaster work with Fox follows on from the end of the agency’s long running relationship with rival ESPN – which recently rolled out its first ‘Life Needs Sport’ campaign developed with its agency Droga 5 (see case study) as well as its first in-house work too (see case study).
Links:
Fox Sport
https://www.youtube.com/FoxSports
https://www.facebook.com/foxsports/
https://www.instagram.com/foxsports
Wieden & Kennedy New York
http://www.wk.com/office/newyork/
