Vodafone continues to promote its VIP early tickets loyalty programme through its Vodafone McLaren F1 sponsorship rights with humorous comedy double act web films starring drivers Jenson Button & Lewis Hamilton.
The latest online viral features the two world champion racers pitch up early, very early if the snow on the ground is an indication, for a summer music festival. Complete with tent, single burner gas stove and sleeping bags, the McLaren stars set up camp and then sit down to wait.
This series of online comedies sees the championship winning McLaren line up go out and about in a funky VW camper van and focuses on getting or giving tickets to major music and sports events.
Other films in the series include:
Camper Van Trip To Silverstone
One Car, No Team
The virals are also supported by web-based work, a VIP mobile app, and a mainstream traditional media campaign and events where the stars giving away tickets in person at Vodafone events up and down the country – from petrol stations to shopping centres.
The message is that Vodafone’s VIP initiative enables customers to buy tickets to major events (including concerts and music festivals, as well as sports events) before they go on general sale.
The programme sponsors fashion and festivals – as well as Formula 1 – with early bid ticket purchasing (plus a set of ticket competition initiatives) to some of the seasons’ hottest events.
Initially pitched as a loyalty programme that enables the mobile telco giant to say thank you to its customers with ticket opportunities, the campaign evolved to add additional rewards like signed merchandise and behind the scenes access.
The marketing scheme has also added new customer acquisition to its objectives as it aimed to drive sign-ups and raise interest in switching to the network.
Comment:
Of course, the charm of the ‘matey’ tone of the online creative might suffer if the two drivers ever fall out with one another due to pressure of competition or favouritism within the team.
But thus far, with more than one million YouTube views to date, this self deprecating F1 double act looks like another winner in this series and further builds on one of the few sponsor campaigns that truly stands out in the F1 marketing space.
Indeed, many feel that it doesn’t take too much to seem innovative and original in F1 activation, as so much of the global racing series’ sponsor marketing is a sea of mediocrity.
Perhaps the international platform for brand exposure through the media in mentions and race coverage leads many sponsors to play it safe in F1?
But relying on old school logo appearance through TV broadcasts, coupled with hospitality-driven work, could soon become something of the past in the sponsorship industry.
Surely F1 needs to be more accessible both in terms of its environment and its stars. Indeed, we would argue that its marketers, rights holder partners and team sponsors ought to focus more on value-added amplifying of the content and enhancing its consumers’ experience of the racing.
Links:
Vodafone VIP Website
McLraen FD1
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