DIRECTV needed a way to promote and differentiate its exclusive, premium NFL SUNDAY TICKET product in a new and exciting way beyond its traditional TV campaign. NFL SUNDAY TICKET is the only way consumers can watch every single second of every single NFL game, from start to finish at home and on their mobile device.

To win the consumer’s attention, DIRECTV cleverly disguised a commercial for NFL SUNDAY TICKET as entertainment consumers wanted to watch and share with their friends over and over. DIRECTV got two of the most iconic NFL players, Peyton and Eli Manning, to star in a 90’s era-style hip hop video rapping about the ability to watch football on your phone with NFL SUNDAY TICKET.

DIRECTV launched the video during the first week of pre-season, in August, when NFL fans’ anticipation was first piqued for the upcoming season. To drive buzz and momentum, key PR tactics were used:

• Paid celebrity tweeters sent out a link of the video to their millions of followers,

• Seeded the video with various sports-focused blogs and influencers to get the word out on launch day,

• Secured 600 unique PR placements.

Since NFL SUNDAY TICKET is DIRECTV’s signature and most significant product offering, the bar for KPIs was set very high. Growing sales, adding upgrades, generating buzz and increasing overall app downloads were critical.

DIRECTV worked to achieve these goals by creating an entertaining piece of content the target audience, 25-55 year old avid NFL fans, would love so much they couldn’t help themselves from sharing and talking about online across social media platforms.

We didn’t just launch DIRECTV’s new feature, we launched one of the most popular music videos of the year – it was an epic hit, of digital, social, PR and pop culture proportions. And the DIRECTV business benefited greatly.

1. Dominated digital conversation and created buzz

• 6.5MM views in less than a week

• Most-watched YouTube video in the world the day it launched

• #footballonyourphone – top trend worldwide

• 600 unique PR hits with 1 billion impressions

• $10,555,593 in ad value

• Extensive coverage in sports/entertainment media: CNN, Today Show, Extra, E! Entertainment, USA Today, ESPN and Wall Street Journal

2. Increased sales

• NFL SUNDAY TICKET MAX sales +30% YOY in August

3. Increased upgrades

• Upgrades to MAX +50% YOY in August

• NFL SUNDAY TICKET additions +30% vs. prior week

4. Increase in mobile phone app downloads

• Total downloads +30% YOY

• Total unique streamers +70% YOY

• +158% app usage

For maximum impact and buzzworthiness, Football On Your Phone was kept secret until its official launch. To make a social media splash, we seeded the video with celebrity tweeters who are popular among our target, to tweet out our video to their millions of followers. We also sent Football On Your Phone to key bloggers and influencers who are known to dominate the football enthusiast online environment. In total, we secured 600 unique PR placements and the video went viral instantly.

This creative was devised for DIRECTV and their NFL SUNDAY TICKET product. Although NFL SUNDAY TICKET is the premium NFL product in the market, the cable and telco competitors offer a similar, but far inferior product, NFL Red Zone, for a fraction of the price. DIRECTV needed to generate more buzz and create a bigger, bolder idea to promote NFL SUNDAY TICKET than ever before.

The communication and PR strategy was twofold:

1. Cleverly disguise a commercial for NFL SUNDAY TICKET as entertainment that consumers would want to watch, talk about and share with their friends over and over.

2. Leverage the inherent buzzworthiness of Peyton and Eli Manning and work with celebrities on Twitter, sports blogs and key influencers to get the word out.