Standard Life Investments Activates Ryder Cup With ‘The Story Of World Class’

As The Ryder Cup 2016 edges closer, worldwide partner Standard Life Investments (SLI) has released the final film in its ‘World Class as Standard’ online spot series.

This last video, ‘The Unseen Hours’, stars team captains and brand ambassadors Darren Clarke and Davis Love III and sports science performance expert, author of Bounce and Black Box Thinking and former table tennis player Matthew Syed.

The film explores how elite sports stars build on natural talent to overcome adversity and become truly world class.

Opening with the famous Gary Player line ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’, The Unseen Hours is a 3-minute, 20-second online spot posted on the brand’s YouTube channel in mid July (and has thus far notched up around 100,000 views).

The creative is also amplified across the brand’s social channels, with asset pieces featuring both team captains,

The 2016 #RyderCup captains & @matthewsyed on how hard work off the course is rewarded on it https://t.co/z3meA7vAgS pic.twitter.com/FWer70sg4B

— Standard Life Invest (@SLI_Global) July 20, 2016

The 2016 #RyderCup captains & @matthewsyed on how hard work off the course is rewarded on it https://t.co/z3meA7vAgS pic.twitter.com/V0WXkZY8CT

— Standard Life Invest (@SLI_Global) July 20, 2016

as well as Matthew Syed discussing the subject of ‘practice’.

“Talent is only a starting point” 2016 #RyderCup captains & Matthew Syed talk performance https://t.co/Cyho6erRkm pic.twitter.com/FEP5CYcmc5

— Standard Life Invest (@SLI_Global) July 22, 2016

The Unseen Hours – @matthewsyed & The 2016 #RyderCup captains on the importance of practice https://t.co/5osW0gtmsN pic.twitter.com/UdM0rpM8AZ

— Standard Life Invest (@SLI_Global) July 21, 2016

This is one of several spots in the ‘World Class As Standard’ campaign featuring the two player/captain ambassadors, Syed, sports psychologist Bob Rotella and sports data analyst Mark Broadie).

It follows on from ‘State Of Mind’ (which features and has reached 300,000 YouTube thus far).

SLI’s Ryder Cup pre competition activation, which is being developed with sponsorship agency Synergy, revolves around the umbrella theme of ‘world class performance as standard’.

The idea is to demonstrate shared attributes: connecting that the tournament (which it argues is ‘simply the greatest competition in the world’) and the themes of individual excellence, superb teamwork and delivering world class performance to SLI’s professional expertise, approach and skill set and ability to delivering returns across all asset classes.

The work is based around a bespoke event partnership web hub (at http://www.standardlifeinvestments.com/html/rydercup2016/index.html)

This site include a of property relevant features and content; including a section on the competition’s history, a showcase of the host Hazeltine course, silos on points and standings, a live social media web wall and themed films such as ‘Analysis’ (214,950 views),

‘Performance & Team’ (61,787 views),

‘Luck’ (6,279 views),

‘Winning and Losing’ (11,281 views),

‘Young Potential’ (22,681 views),

‘Amateur Mistakes’ (11,485 views),

‘What Makes A Truly Great Golfer’ (20,121 views).

and ‘What Makes A Great Champion’ (20,121 views).

In addition to player ambassadors and golf support experts, Standard Life Investment is also working with several partners on its worldwide Ryder Cup sponsorship, including The PGA of America, The European Tour / Ryder Cup Europe and The Telegraph.

Comment

For a B2B brand operating primarily across digital and social channels well ahead of a sponsored property, the engagement levels are fairly impressive when measured by social statistics ( for example, YouTube views alone combine to more than half a million).

The campaign today illustrates an effective and economic approach to creating multiple content assets from a core base.

This activation phase follows on from the brand’s 2014 Ryder Cup work – which was also based around world class positioning (see case study), as well as its recent campaigns around its ambassador deal with Wimbledon Champion Andy Murray via the ‘master Your Dreams’ campaign (see case study), and its marketing around the launch of its new British Lions partnership (see case study).

For further Ryder Cup activation insights, see our previous 2014 tournament activation strategy summary (click here).

Links

Standard Life Investments Ryder Cup Web:

http://www.standardlifeinvestments.com/html/rydercup2016/index.html

Standard Life Investments YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/StandardLifeInvest

Standard Life Investments Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SLI_Global

@SLI_Global

Standard Life Investments Web:

http://www.standardlifeinvestments.com/

Synergy:

http://www.synergy-sponsorship.com/