The loyal supporters of Hertha BSC, a German soccer club competing in the Bundesliga, recently displayed a tremendous choreographed performance in the stands at Olympic Stadium.
Fans seated in a block of fourteen sections (behind one goal) performed a card stunt and created a terrific illusion by raising a giant cutout of a hand holding the team's flag into the sky. The way the choreographed stunt was performed, it appears that the flag is floating in mid-air while thousands in attendance chant the team's anthem.
Alaska Air is leveraging its designation as the Official Airline of the Portland Timbers with a series of hilarious commercials that incorporate team stakeholders. The airline's first commercial features Timbers head coach John Spencer giving seat belt instructions to passengers and the second spot features the team's iconic mascot, Timber Joey, helping a passenger with his luggage.
The ads have been very well received by soccer fans, especially amongst the Timbers' loyal following of fans. Check out the two (2) spots below and consider new ways that you can take team partnerships to the next level with a dose of humor.
Alaska Air Commercial Featuring Timbers Head Coach John Spencer
Alaska Air Commercial Featuring Timber Joey
A special thanks to Alan Cassinelli of UC Santa Barbara Athletics for his insights and contributions to this column!
The Seattle Sounders recently teamed up a local advertising firm named Wexley School for Girls to create a brilliant marketing campaign that is generating a notable amount of buzz around the team's Official Facebook page.
The campaign, entitled "Make a Date with a Sounder", serves as a humorous marketing ploy that introduces fans to the teams' players via mock dating profiles. The campaign features outdoor billboards, TV and radio spots, personal ads in newspapers (under the headline "Sounders Seeking Fans"), video dating profiles on Facebook, and more.
The heart of the "Make a Date with a Sounder" campaign will live on Facebook:
Six (6) Sounders players feature video dating profiles where they discuss their best qualities, hometowns, pets, hobbies, appearances, and more
Several Outtakes
Links to an Ebay site where fans can bid on a "Date with a Sounder", with proceeds benefiting five (5) of the Sounders' charity partners
Facebook ads will provide a list of dates and make-a-date links that drive fans directly to ticket sites
Check out an example of the Sounders players' video dating profiles below:
Check out the "Make a Date with a Sounder" campaign on the Sounders' Facebook page below:
Superstitions have played a significant role in sports for hundreds of years. While some are short-lived, others have been passed on by players and fans from generation to generation. In August 2010, Stockholm's largest soccer club, AIK, capitalized on the craze around superstitions with a tremendous campaign designed to jinx its upcoming opponent, Gothenburg.
AIK developed a "Jinx Gothenburg" initiative that encouraged fans from across Sweden to partake in a psychological experiment to see if it was possible to make Gothenburg unlucky in their upcoming match. The team created a special microsite that enabled fans to choose which bad luck symbols (mirrors, ladders, black cats) they would like to see placed in the town of Gothenburg in the weeks leading up to the game. To help the experiment come to fruition, fans could lend their own bad luck symbol or text in a donation to support the cause.
Two weeks prior to the game, AIK organizers transported a truck with bad luck symbols to Gothenburg and set them up throughout the town. The team videotaped citizens of Gothenburg interacting with the bad luck symbols and offered live streaming for AIK supporters to enjoy the entertainment.
While the campaign didn't end up working in the team's favor (they lost), it did generate a significant amount of media attention throughout Sweden and served as a stimulus for conversation about the AIK club both online and offline.
Sports marketers looking for new outdoor messaging tactics to engage fans should due some diligence researching new advancements in projection technology.
Sony recently celebrated the 2010 Champions League Final by dislaying two (2) unbelievable 3D soccer themed projections on the outside of two buildings in Madrid, Spain. Sony teamed up with NuFormer, an agency based out of the Netherlands, to create 3D projections symbolizing a central theme of "Imagine Football in 3D". The company showcased the projections on the facade of the Plaza Santa Ana and the Colegia San Agustin in front of a few thousand guests.
Sony created the projection footage specifically for this live event and worked hand-in-hand with Madrid's city Council to secure the rights to project the interactive display onto the walls of both buildings.
Check out Sony's soccer projection messaging below:
Are you looking for new, creative ways to promote the game of soccer? Are you looking to feature a non-traditional outdoor campaign in select markets?
Soccer properties looking for new ways to market their organization should consider benchmarking an outdoor marketing tactic Lotto used around the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The company creatively branded the side of an overpass to resemble a soccer goal that fans walked under towards one of the site locations where a World Cup match was being played.
Are you looking for new ways to leverage the passion and emotion of sports without owning rights to marks? Are you looking for new ways to leverage key holidays throughout the calendar year?
Puma has created an outstanding Valentines Day viral campaign that will surely impact the lives of thousands of soccer fans (and their spouses) around the world. Puma created an entertaining viral piece that features a group of soccer hooligans, referred to as the Hardchorus, belting out a sappy Savage Garden Tune.
The viral piece, created in conjunction with Puma's Love=Football campaign, was designed with the avid soccer fan in mind who would like to send a gift to a loved one that knows where their heart really is on Valentines Day if/when their favorite soccer club is playing.
Are you looking to build excitement for an upcoming match against an inferior opponent? Are you looking for creative ways to drive mass media impressions?
In 2008, the Socceroos (the Australian national soccer team) was looking for a creative way to promote their upcoming match against Ghana. To help drive buzz and awareness for the match, the club turned to Lowe Sydney, a notable advertising agency, to devise a unique marketing campaign.
The collaborating parties created a radical grassroots marketing campaign centered around a fake Ghanaian soccer fan club that consisted of four members who spelled out G-A-N-A on their chests. In an effort to recruit people to be their missing "H" (to complete the club and spell out G-H-A-N-A) the fake fan club heads to high-traffic locations to engage with consumers and drive awareness for the match.
The campaign generated a large amount of publicity across Australia and served as an effective means to promote the match. Check out the creative promotional campaign below:
Partnership Activation
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