As the European soccer season moves towards its crucial stages, Mid March saw Chelsea Football Club sponsor Carabao launch a player-led GIF series fronted by stars Eden Hazard, Willian and Marcos Alonso.
The energy drink’s exclusive GIF series, which was devised by W Communications, was rolled out ahead of Chelsea’s UEFA Champions’ League clash with Barcelona FC and were created to cater to Chelsea’s global fanbase in general and in particular to Carabao drinkers in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Brazil.
The GIF that keeps on giving
Get your @ChelseaFC GIFs here: https://t.co/ACIRZXN5LV pic.twitter.com/01TYucbfCW
— Carabao (@CarabaoUK) March 14, 2018
Each individual player GIF is been inspired by contemporary emojis and internet memes – from ‘dirt off your shoulder’ to the ‘mic drop’ – and the squad series can be seen on the Giphy platform at CarabaoChelseaGIFs .
The GIFs, which also feature David Luiz, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger. are also being amplified across the brand and the team’s other digital and social channels too.
N'Golo Kante definitely deserves a round of applause. What a signing he's been! #CFC @CarabaoUK pic.twitter.com/0Cw62PyE5o
— Feroze Ali (@feroze17) March 18, 2018
Champions aren’t born, they’re made.
The inaugural winners of the U-18 Premier League Cup… @ChelseaFC!pic.twitter.com/1n9cvxrU3g
— Carabao (@CarabaoUK) March 18, 2018
3rd Round
4th Round
5th Round
Quarter-FinalWaiting to see who @ChelseaFC draw in the Semi-Final…#LEICHE pic.twitter.com/Zuk2AnaJOx
— Carabao (@CarabaoUK) March 18, 2018
It’s time for the big one. Come on @ChelseaFC!
Barcelona
@ChampionsLeague
Camp Nou
7.45pm
#GetGameReady pic.twitter.com/yJLYxwgIut— Carabao (@CarabaoUK) March 14, 2018
“Social media comes alive during any big football match and we wanted to help Chelsea fans celebrate and commemorate every match day moment in a way which is unique to their club,” said Intercarabao chief marketing officer John Luck.
“Working with W we’ve brought to life a series of popular memes and emojis starring the players themselves – hopefully Chelsea fans will get to ‘drop the mic’ on Wednesday after a successful evening in Barcelona.”
Warren Johnson, W’s chief executive officer, added: “Carabao has made great strides since launching in the UK and we are thrilled to work with them to again develop and launch such innovative and exciting work. Our brief was to create content which can connect with fans all over the world while keeping the brand at the core. Once again, we’ve demonstrated the agency’s agility, creativity and ability to amplify across PR, social and digital.”
Comment:
This soccer club and sponsor trend for using player-led social assets to activate in real-time and low latency to leverage event as they happen on the pitch has been one of the current season’s key trends.
Stand-out examples of the tactic this season have come from the likes of Bristol City and Manchester City (see case study).
This particular social activation is the latest in a series of campaigns developed by W working in harness with Chelsea and Carabao.
These initiatives follow on from last year’s cheeky ‘Wins. Not wings’ campaign (with a creative hint of UK Red Bull work) celebrating Chelsea’s Premier League title win.
Energy drink @CarabaoUK runs cheeky campaign to mark @ChelseaFC title win #WinsNotWings @Wcommlondon @prweekuknews https://t.co/cEyZhZ1voQ pic.twitter.com/fNBK0W0RPK
— John Harrington (@John_Harring) May 22, 2017
Launched to leverage Chelsea’s final match of the season – when the formal presentation of the Premier League trophy took place at Stamford Bridge – the campaign ran with a print phase in the club’s match programme and the UK press (appearing in The Sun, Metro, London Evening Standard, Daily Star, Daily Mirror, the Guardian and the Grocer), plus across 20 digital outdoor sites across the UK, plus it spanned both brand and club’s social channels and it ran across Stamford Bridge’s in-stadium digital screens.
Links:
Chelsea FC
https://www.facebook.com/chelseafc
https://www.instagram.com/chelseafc/
https://www.youtube.com/chelseafc
https://www.chelseafc.com/news/blogs/boilerplate-allincfc/allincfc/the-story-on-snapchat.html
Carabao
http://www.carabaoenergy.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/CarabaoUK/
https://www.instagram.com/carabao_uk/
W Communications
https://wcommunications.co.uk/
