It pays to experiment
The Sun / News UK
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
Wunderman UK Part of Pulse Creative
Creative Team
Copywriters Rob Pritchard-Jones Nigel Webb Art Director Sam Mellis Artworker Michael Tredway
Production Team
Account Directors Keith Drewrey Alex Parr Senior Project Manager Natalie Pickering Business Director Mat Thomas Strategist Yannis Fairfield Digital Strategist Mike Maxwell
Other Credits
News UK Head of Social and Platforms Greg Halfacre Partnerships Manager Alex Carapiet Head of Video Mark Hudson Senior Social Media Manager Josh Clarke Marketing Manager Will Martin CRM Manager Charlotte Pike Marketing Director Kate Bird Director of Betting and Gaming David Robinson Marketer Claire Gribben Campaign Lead Parjeev Kalirai Joanna Niemiec Robbie Williams Harry Haydon Mark Wake
Date
July 2016
Background
Dream Team was one of the UK's favourite fantasy football games. But other games were about to launch. The task was to not only convince previous Dream Teamers to stay with the game but also to acquire new players. Fantasy managers usually picked famous names from big teams and watched the points roll in. But the 2015-16 season was different. Outsiders Leicester City had lifted the League trophy, turning all assumptions upside down. And if the new season was anything like the last, fortune would favour the brave.
Idea
This thought was given a cheeky Sun-like spin: It pays to experiment. And the audience was encouraged to consider experimenting with their footballers. Using well-known nicknames of Premier League clubs, some innuendo-laden scenarios were devised, including "SLIP A TOFFEE IN THERE" (ie, pick an Everton player) and "TRY IT WITH A SWAN" (ie, select a Swansea player). A fully integrated campaign was devised to convey the new season message. Print ads were developed in national newspapers, banners were developed for major sports sites while a series of emails drove sign-ups. Social channels were deployed to magnify reach and engagement. At the heart of it all was a personalised video sent to 200,000 of their most important audience, managers of the previous year's fantasy league. The video was filled out with details completely unique to them, including their surname, their team and league names and overall score. Then they were challenged to do better in the new season.
On social media, heaps of content was created with videos of YouTube stars such as F2, The Burnt Chip and JMX showing their take on experimentation, plus must-read articles on the DreamTeamFC site. Fans also started producing their own content – not all of it safe for work.
Results
The target of over 1 million sign ups was surpassed. In social media, two million people were reached organically in their own channels, and a further ten million via their influencers and partners and through content seeding. And although the basic game was free to play, 170,000 players were so taken with the new season concept that they signed up to the £250K Season League at £2 a head.
Our Thoughts
The really smart part of this is that it is a campaign with a digital centre and what has really made it work so successfully, I suspect is social media. People will be more open to your message if it comes through trusted influencers and content creators like F2, with 4.82 million subscribers to their YouTube channel or The Burnt Chip with nearly one million.
On top of that, though, what would really have got people chatting to each other was the personalised video. I remember being told ten years ago that one-day advertising would be bespoke ads delivered to individuals at the right time and the place and now here it all is.