Orange's CAN Sponsorship Led With Digital Fan Tools

Sunday Mba’s superb volley for the Super Eagles in Johannesburg on Sunday ensured Nigeria beat Burkina Faso to claim their third African Nations Cup. It also brought to an end the 2013 edition of Orange’s multi-tiered official CAN sponsorship campaign.

This year’s initiative saw Orange offer an array of digital tools and organise several events to enhance the supporter experience throughout the tournament.

This year’s tournament work was led by an ambitious supporter-focused short film, helmed by award-winning director Drake Doremus, which includes a musical reinterpretation of the legendary football fan anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ by Nigerian singer KUKU.

The two-minute and 45-second film, which was edited down into TV ad versions, is a celebration of fan commitment and love for their team and tells a personal fan pilgrimage story whose message is that no distance is too far, no hardship too difficult and no sacrifice is too great to prevent a fan supporting their team on the big day.

It also aims to act as a tribute to the indomitable spirit of African supporters.

As well as its umbrella title sponsorship and its in-stadium/pitch-side presence at all the South African stadiums, the brand offered a variety of digital services on mobile phones (for which it has rights to exclusive content) and on the web via its www.StarAfrica.com portal and on the live Orange blog.

Orange brings action from CAN and its other title-sponsored African tournaments to millions via its dedicated mobile platform service – Football Fan Club (FFC).

FFC is a pan-African football community offering fans content –from news and interviews, to action and highlights – on CAF competitions, European leagues and local African matches. It also offers SMS goal and results alerts, as well as online games and social tools for chatting and sharing.

It is freely available on the USSD portal, the vocal server Foot News, and online at StarAfrica.

Comment

With mobile networks leading the way as primarily communication and content distribution platforms in many parts of the developing world, Orange’s alliance with CAN certainly makes much strategic sense.

The 2013 CAN finals kicked off in South Africa in January and culminated on 10 February in Soccer City (the venue for the last FIFA World Cup in 2010). Orange retransmitted the opening ceremony and each of the 32 matches to an estimated four million people on TV and the web.

CAN’s own data says that the tournament is watched by one billion people over three weeks every two years.

Orange also ran a set of country-specific activations in the six competing team markets in which Orange has its own network: Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tunisia and Morocco.

Orange certainly has a wide and deep partnership with African football that stretches far beyond the continent’s flagship international competition.

The partnership with CAF, signed in 2009 and runs until 2016, also includes title sponsorship of

Orange Africa Youth Championship, Orange/CAF Champions League, Orange/CAF Confederation Cup, Orange CAF Super Cup and Orange African Nations Championship

The mobile brand is the long-term, eight-year title sponsor of The Africa Cup Of Nations (CAN) – probably the most important sporting event in Africa. It is also a partner of The Confederation Of African Football (CAF) and it also has alliances with several national teams (including Ivory Coast, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Botswana).

Another international brand to activative at CAN 2013 was Samsung, who’s Cheil-created campaign also connected it’s CAN work to European football via its sponsorship of Premier League team Chelsea FC.