Brand Experience and Activation > Culture & Context

THE OUT OF THIS WORLD MATCH

FP7 McCANN, Dubai / MASTERCARD / 2023

Awards:

Bronze Dubai Lynx
CampaignCampaign(opens in a new tab)
Case Film
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Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

By creating a brand new game, we created a unique way in which football fans could experience the brand. And by breaking a Guinness World Record, we created unprecedented awareness that would leave a lasting impression amongst our consumers.

Our idea was not just for the 7 lucky people who got to play with an international football star in a never-before setting by Mastercard, but to also create an entirely new football experience for our audience watching across the world. Which in turn allowed us to own the experience and the game, before others could.

Background

Mastercard’s purpose is to connect everyone to Priceless Possibilities, and for decades the brand has been doing that in football, connecting millions to the beautiful game in the most memorable of ways. Mastercard is also a long-standing sponsor of football, specifically the UEFA Champion's League. The year 2022 was a busy season for football, with a certain global event taking precedence for football fans worldwide, but with consumer spending forecast to increase it was important for Mastercard to maintain strong levels of association with it.

Our challenge was twofold:

1. As a non-sponsor Mastercard faced restrictions on ground and could not really talk about football on the ground in a specific time period.

2. In a year of 24/7 football, we had to find a new and different way to connect fans to priceless possibilities in football and create something that would stand out.

Describe the creative idea

So to avoid the restrictions on the ground, we took the game above the ground - all the way to the stratosphere - in zero gravity!

We hosted the world’s first football match in zero gravity, a ground-breaking stunt never-before seen or attempted.

We decided that this out-of-the-world match should be played by everyday people, so we used social media to scout and recruit passionate football fans from Qatar, Egypt and Brazil who told us what’s priceless to them about football. Once selected, each was invited, along with Luis Figo (a Mastercard ambassador), to take part in the world’s highest football match in zero gravity, the unlikeliest and most priceless football match of all time.

The idea was to not only create a record-breaking match but as labelled by reporters, "the most entertaining sporting event of the year".

Describe the strategy

Mastercard wanted to celebrate its decades-long football legacy, but in a year when everyone in the world was talking about football, it was difficult to stand out, especially as a non-sponsor. Which made us the challenger.

We spoke to fans around the world and discovered that the magic of football lies in the unexpected: it’s the unlikeliest moments that surprise people the most, and the heroes we never knew existed that stays in the memory long after the whistle has been blown. So, we decided that the best way to celebrate our connection with football was to create the unlikeliest of football matches, played by the unlikeliest of heroes.

And of course, it had to be priceless, so that consumers could experience the brand promise of 'connecting people to priceless possibilities' through this game. We also engaged with Luis Figo to leverage his influence

Describe the execution

For this never-before stunt, we had to plan as intricately as possible. We created a specially-engineered field abode an A310 aircraft which was designed for zero gravity with specially-sourced materials that would work in the environment while being safe and not inflammable. It was almost impossible to have the game continue throughout the flight with the hyper gravity, zero gravity and double gravity phases, so gameplay had to be planned together with Guinness record officials, to have a continuous game on flight. We had a time keeper and a referee as well as specialised camera crew to capture the event uninterrupted.

This feat had to be achieved within a month, in order to go live before other global football events, and the media placements as well as PR were planned strategically so that it could be seen by as many people across the globe and capture headlines in world news.

List the results

The never-before-seen game got us never-before-seen recognition across the world. First, it earned a Guinness World Record for the highest altitude football match and within a month we achieved the following:

- 89m views (VTR rate 77%)

- 233m impressions

- Gross reach of 6.6 billion

- 1500 broadcast clips across news channels like BBC, Fox etc as well as sporting channels like ESPN and SkySports

- Over 5000 hits regionally and globally with coverage in Bloomberg, Reuters, The Guardian etc.

- ROI 44:1 - Earned $33m worth of media coverage with an investment of $750,000

But best of all, in a year of 24/7 football where brands were fighting for attention and cut-through, we owned the conversation before a ball was kicked: we gained 88% share of voice and, more importantly, we increased mentions of “Priceless” by 104%.

When football aimed to reach new heights, Mastercard took it out-of-this-world

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how the work challenged / was different from the brand's competitors

While the competitors were executing football activations and engagements on the ground, as a non-sponsor we worked around the restrictions on ground and elevated the sport to an extraordinary new height - literally!

And while other sponsors focused on the celebrities and the headliners, we involved regular football fans from around the world to play a match of a lifetime with Figo and shone the spotlight on them.

This way, in a year of 24/7 football where the brand was fighting for attention, we owned the conversation before a ball had even been kicked at the world’s biggest football tournament, by gaining 88% share of voice, and positioning Mastercard as the champion of a priceless football experience unlike anything else.

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