Crowdsourcing lies at the core of Vodacom’s Rugby World Cup inspired ‘Virtual Stadium’ TV campaign to push its position as an associate sponsor of South Africa’s official rugby team.
The creative idea revolved around giving the ‘Bokke’ a virtual 3D stadium of fans showing their support for the team ahead of their departure for New Zealand.
The 40-second TVC is the result of 2,000-plus videos uploaded to the vodacom.co.za/rugby and vodacom.mobi/rugby websites after the brand asked South African rugby fans to film themselves singing the ‘Shosholoza’ anthem to show their support for the green and golds. The ad moves from a single fan video, building up through four, eight and then pulling back to reveal an entire stadium packed with video uploaded virtual supporters.
Developed by agency Draftfcb Johannesburg and Riverstone Films, the videos were the result of radio, print and online call to action. And the entries were also considered as entries to the campaign competition which saw the winners presented with a two-person expenses-paid trip to New Zealand to watch the Rugby World Cup.
These are the winners of the Shosholoza Bokke competition, who each win an all expenses paid trip for themselves and a partner to New Zealand in October, valued at R200 000. Vodacom would like to congratulate all the entrants for their fantastic support and for the entertaining video submissions to the Vodacom Shosholoza Bokke competition.
The commercial, which aired in early September as the team departed for New Zealand, was part of telecoms giant’s ‘Shosholoza Bokke’ national campaign which combined on-the-ground activation with advertising work.
As well as keeping fans in touch with players, the campaign also worked the other way round, as Vodacom in partnership with Acer and Vodafone NZ, provided the South African squad with connected technology package. This included Acer Iconia A501 tablets with 3G bandwidth and with Vodafone New Zealand data SIM cards with 5GB of data pre-loaded including the campaign itself.
The campaign quickly generated 25,000-plus YouTube hits and it also received extensive coverage on television, radio and social media.
Comment:
Not only does this campaign cleverly use crowdsourcing to connect fans to their team, it also uses the insight that ‘Shosholoza’ has become a powerful national connector and emotional engager for South African rugby ever since the Springbok’s won thee tournament on home soil in 1995.
Its an innovative approach to demonstrating not only that Vodacome is backing the Bokke, but also that the company and its technology gives South Africans the chance to voice their own support for the team wherever they are in the world. The content was reliant on Vodacom’s data network as individual video clips were uploaded via mobile phone, and webcam to the Vodacom site,as well as at specially-erected booths at rugby and other live events.
A campaign that itself uses and proves a brand’s products and services is something fresh and genuine.
It follows on from previous innovative Vodacom rugby work – such as Player 23 (see www.player23.co.za) – and its sponsorship activation campaigns for Pretoria’s Blue Bulls and Bloemfontien’s Cheetah’s Super Rugby franchises.
It further strengthens the brand’s deep sports sponsorship connection in the country which also includes backing the South African national football team as well as the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and stadium naming rights schemes with Vodacome Park in Bloemfontein and Lotus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5HjGwvdPyU&feature=youtu.be
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