The 200 yard gong
Issue 17 | December 2010
Agency
Saatchi and Saatchi London
Creative Team
Rick Dodds, Steve Howell; Creative Director: Paul Silburn
Production Team
Directors: Rick Dodds, Steve Howell, Ed Sayers; Agency Producer: Ed Sayers; Producer: Jonny Speers (Speers Films); Producer: Charulata Kohli (Tour Productions); Editor: Tony Raffe
Other Credits
Account Director: Peter Lovatt
Date
August 2010
Background
The European Tour features 16 out of the top 20 golf players in the world, playing week-in, week-out at tournaments everywhere except the USA. In golfing circles it’s widely accepted that the European Tour provides the most challenging and diverse courses in the world. However, it is the US PGA Tour that generally gets the plaudits. The aim of this campaign, then, was to get recognition for and engagement with the The European Tour brand that went beyond the usual golf fan.
Idea
To do well on the challenging courses of The European Tour, players need a more inventive and varied range of shots they can play.
To bring this thought to life, the idea was to challenge top golfers to pull of near-impossible shots.
The feats would not only celebrate their extraordinary skills but also highlight the diversity of locations in which the tournaments are held.
The first execution was the ‘200 yard gong’ shot, attempted in the Gap of Dunloe, Ireland. Four top players (Paul,McGinley, David Howell, Marcel Siem and Rhys Davies) took turns to skim a golf ball 200 yards across a mountain lake to try to hit a nine-inch gong suspended a few inches above the water.
Results
The 200 yard gong shot has now had over 1.7 million hits on YouTube and the total uploaded views has topped 2.3 million. This was achieved with zero paid for seeding. Comments from the public included such great quotes as, “Hate golf, love this.”
Amongst the many blogs that picked it up, The Guardian chose it as one of its top five youtube videos of the week.
The 3 minute film was aired by Sky Sports 2 as part of their programming and shown in full on Sky Sports News as part of a report on the new campaign.
Our Thoughts
I gather the agency is planning on making 18 of these virals, one for each hole of a course, and each dramatising a different location. When they’ve finished, they will have a great 60-minute documentary for broadcast TV, let alone many millions of online views. Satisfyingly, given the nature of the brief, there have been some great comments from the USA along the lines of “Those European cats have some serious skills”.