Premier League club Southampton FC has continued its ongoing social spoof engagement strategy with the launch of a series of short comic videos that leverage the release of of the new season of Netflix’s teen sci-fi smash hit Stranger Things 2.
The aim behind the initiative is to showcase the success of the Southampton Academy: which has developed more young talent than almost any other club.
The campaign is fronted by comedian David Earl: who stars as a fake paranormal investigator called Robert Crust.
Crust takes fans into the heart of Southampton’s Staplewood campus and reveals the inner workings of the football club as never seen before.
Thus far the club has rolled out three episodes in the series,
The films, which were all created by Dark Horses (the sports marketing agency co-owned by Lucky Generals) aim to engage fans and drive the club’s social lists and boost its social channel support.
The spoof spots also come immediately before the club’s fresh ‘half season’ ticket sales drive,
Be #InThatNumber with #SaintsFC!
Half Season Tickets go on sale from 9am GMT tomorrow: https://t.co/CcKdVB8UIF
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) October 29, 2017
and the launch of the Christmas product range.
#SaintsFC's Christmas range is now available in store and online! Check it out here: https://t.co/CNDeidsptj
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) October 27, 2017
The Dark Horses team which developed the campaign for Southampton’s head of marketing James Kennedy included creatives Steve Munachen, Daniel Brooke-Taylor, Lewis Mooney and Ed Cole, managing director Simon Dent, account director Dan Cunningham, account executive Kitty Hall and agency producer Andy Walsh.
The project’s production company was Mindseye, the director Jim Archer, the executive producer Jonny Knight. Editing was handled by Azimuth, post by Coffee & TV and sound by 750mph and PR by Mischief.
Comment:
We love this silly social series.
It follows hot on the heels of Southampton’s hugely successful signing spoof social spot earlier in the summer,
Are we doing this right? #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/TaByabGqci
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 13, 2017
and its inventive and committed community cause work (like its season opening tie-up with The Big Issue – see case study), plus its ‘Made For Heroes’ kit launch campaign with shirt supplier Under Armour (see case study).
Is there a Premier League club with a more impressive recent creative track record than Southampton?
Links:
Southampton FC
http://www.southamptonfc.com
http://www.twitter.com/southamptonfc
http://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc
http://www.instagram.com/southamptonfc
https://www.youtube.com/user/theofficialsaints
Dark Horses
