Offside Studio
Coca-Cola Middle East
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
J. Walter Thompson Dubai
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Paul Banham Creative Directors Alaa Demachkie, Alex Murray Senior Creative Director Tytus Klepacz
Production Team
Senior Producer Julia Schmutzler Production consultant Dolly Saidy Production House Film Pudding
Other Credits
JWT Gulf CEO Sasan Saeidi Account Manager Elie Abi Akar Planning Director Emirhan Arat Community Builder Farida Nassar Community Builder & Junior Animator Omar Al Ani Client Marketing Communications Manager Ibrahim Wagdy Head of Integrated Marketing Communications & Content Marketing Islam ElDessouky Director Integrated Marketing Communications Wasim Basir Marketing Director Juan Carlos Mallet Cortina
Date
January 2019
Background
Women in the Middle East are currently battling for equal rights across several fronts. Despite some progress, certain areas of Arab society remain off limits to women. One of these is football. Though female fans number in the millions, they are patronisingly regarded as being ‘social’ fans, without serious interest or game knowledge. In fact, prior to this tournament, no females had ever even been allowed in an Arab-language broadcast booth.
Idea
Despite being excluded, data showed that female fans across the region were increasingly interested in football, 56% up on previous figures. They clearly wanted to be a part of the big tournaments so when it came to the Asian Cup, Coca-Cola decided to help.
The brand brought together female influencers from football and pop culture to create a new kind of broadcast - more engaging, more human and more inclusive than traditional football broadcasts. During the match between Saudi Arabia and Japan, the team provided live play-by- play analysis, stats and storylines for a full 90-minutes of live game coverage The broadcast was live-streamed simultaneously across five platforms, so people could choose either to watch the live-stream or use it as an audio simulcast for the televised match.
A studio identical to those of other high-end live sports production facilities was built. Each of the influencers was assigned a role in the broadcast based on her area of expertise. Their pro-athlete provided colour to the commentary. Their Saudi footballer called the match play by play. Their social influencer provided personal player details.
Results
Reach; over 4.4 million views, over 1.3 million engagements. Female Share of Voice in the AFC online increased 85% during the live stream broadcast. The live comment section of the broadcast was sadly predictable. Women were thrilled to finally have a voice; men were not so happy.
Our Thoughts
This is how you really bring about change, by reaching mass audiences at moments of peak interest. And how typical of our times that it is a brand rather than one of the big media institutions that was behind the initiative. Also interesting that like VMLY&R Poland’s initiative (pages 74-75) brands have to become media owners in order to challenge the patriarchal cultures in which they find themselves.
Please, Coca-Cola, don’t make this a one- off, but get the all-female broadcast team together every time there is a match in the region.