January sees a new activation wave – called ‘Do You Want More’ – in Microsoft’s ‘Passion Powers’ campaign leveraging its partnership with Real Madrid CF.
Continuing a campaign that revolves around how the sponsor’s technology is helping the team – focusing on ‘power’, ‘purpose’ and ‘preparation’ – this latest initiative is spearheaded by an international, multi-language spot featuring several of the team’s star players.
It was first launched on YouTube and is now running across TV,
and social channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
It’s not just fútbol for @RealMadrid players. It’s passion, purpose and preparation. #PassionPowers
https://t.co/zRQiBE3EPj
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) January 25, 2016
This is the latest phase of a partnership that sees the technology and football giants collaborate to transform the club’s internal organisation, improve its ability on the pitch and deepen engagement with fans.
The partnership stretches from player-led programmes such as Marcello and Microsoft’s #EnjoyEveryMoment initiative (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/realmadrid/marcelo), and Microsoft devices empowering the club right across the organisation, to Microsoft technology driving the official Real Madrid fan app (see http://www.realmadridmymadrid.com/index_en.html)
This multi-strand alliance ranges from Microsoft Cloud technology and Microsoft devices changing the way the club does business, transforming players’ lives and offering Real Madrid’s 450 million fans unprecedented access to the club and a more personalised, more relevant, two-way relationship with the players, the stadium and the games.
Microsoft is also working the club on its Real Madrid Foundation projects – such as its ‘Can Passion Improve The Future?’ campaign,
as well as linking the Real Madrid Foundation with Microsoft’s corporate citizenship programs with a focus on social integration and economic empowerment.
Comment
There are team/tech tie-ups everywhere you look across today’s sports landscape, but this major four-year partnership is one of the more interesting and heavyweight current football club/technology giant alliances.
Using the ‘Passion Powers Passion’ tagline, the message is that the company and the club both have a shared belief that passion can move the world and that sport can be more than just a game.
But whilst the cause and community alliances are certainly impressive and praiseworthy, the on-pitch technology alliances are at an early stage and still have some potential pitfalls.
Indeed, sport’s increasing reliance (over-reliance) on technology was illustrated earlier in January in the NFL’s AFC Championship game when the New England Patriot’s Microsoft Surface tablets broke for around half an hour during their defeat to the Denver Broncos.
The fault, attributed to a network failure, prevented the Patriots coaches from using their usual tech-enabled coaching and play-calling tactics.
Microsoft’s five-year partnership with the NFL, worth $400m, was inked in 2013 and sees the tech behemoth provide Surface tablets to all of the league’s teams.
Links
Microsoft Real Madrid Partnership Web Hub:
Microsoft Real Madrid Partnership Web Hub:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/realmadrid/
Microsoft YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Microsoft
Microsoft Twitter:
Microsoft Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft?_rdr=p
Microsoft Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/microsoft/
Real Madrid CF:
