Witnessing History
Issue 22 | March 2012
Agency
MercerBell
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: David Bell; Digital Creative Director: Carmela Soares; Art Director: Lizl Harner; Copywriter: Shelley Dodd; Head of Copy: Simon Gaffney; Designer: Dan Fowler
Production Team
Producer: Lucy Proffitt; Head of Digital Development: Scott Forrester; Digital Production: The Creative Shop
Other Credits
Group Account Director: Matt Sewell
Date
July 2011
Background
To leverage Rugby World Cup 2011 sponsorship assets and create brand association with MasterCard.
Idea
Rugby fans share a passion for the game that transcends team allegiances – they are unified by the love of the sport. And they love to talk about it, swapping stories and 'I was there' moments at every opportunity.
Tapping into this, the website featured historic Rugby World Cup moments that fans could watch, talk about and get excited about the up-coming Finals. They were encouraged to “tag” themselves in the moments via Facebook Connect, sharing what they felt, or where they were when that happened. They could also register to win a trip to the upcoming Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, to witness history in the making. An emotional, social and promotional experience.
Results
The website proved to be highly engaging with 11.76% registration and people spending around 4 minutes on site. The videos are covered in tags, capturing the emotion of the game under the MasterCard brand.
Our Thoughts
This idea is over six months old and we usually like work straight out of the creative department but we hadn’t seen it and thought it was wonderfully ‘sticky’. A brand like Mastercard means nothing to me. I’m a Visa man. But I happen to be a rugby nut so my antennae were up during the World Cup. It was a good time for any advertiser to get beneath my radar, if they wanted to. And this little idea would have tapped in brilliantly to the rugby nut’s obsession with the past. The tags left by so many other people are fascinating, especially those in the game when Wales lost to Western Samoa. As an Englishman, that was thrilling but as the tags show, less than marvellous if you were Welsh. Which was marvellous in the idea. Well, I was engaged for at least five minutes and that, as they say, could be priceless.