A fresh fan initiative from Chelsea FC leveraging the Premier League’s first Winter Break and providing content for supporters missing their weekly football fix sees the club invite fans into the players’ group chat.
To bring supporters closer to the stars and offer an insider perspective on the team’s break, the club launched ‘Chels Chat’ – a two-minute video that invites the audience into a fun and fast-paced group chat between Callum Hudson-Odoi, N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount and Toni Rudiger.
The film’s narrative arc begins with the viewer being added to the group by club captain Cesar Azpilicueta and then sees Mason Mount ask everyone what they’ve been up to on the winter break. What follows is a skills showcase as Callum Hudson-Odoi demonstrates one of his signature skills before the other players show off progressively more unreal skills as they compete against one another remotely.
The highlights range from Rudiger breakdancing and Willian’s rainbow flick in FIFA Volta, to Kante being in two places at once and Mount managing to kick two balls into a pair of target bins simultaneously.
The initiative was developed in harness with sports agency Dark Horses and was directed by Tom Day from Outsider.
The spot was filmed in 9:16 format and was primarily created to be viewed mobile-first – with messages and videos posted in messaging app style in order to recreate the intimate feel of a group chat between the players on their smartphones.
‘Chels Chat’ launched across all of Chelsea’s channels: including the club website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels as well as in the official app, as well as players’ social channels.
According to club and agency, the two-minute film intends to give football fans around the world ‘further proof that Chelsea are the The Pride of London.
“We all have a million WhatsApp groups these days, and with the first-ever winter break happening for English clubs, we thought it would be interesting to drop fans into the players’ group to see what they’re getting up to away from football. Of course, the answer is more football, but with some banter and lols thrown in for good measure,” explained Dark Horses Creative Partner Steve Howell.
Comment:
As the Premier League’s first-ever winter break comes to a close the team behind this campaign clearly believe that while players might need a break, fanatical football fans don’t and appetite for club content – even in a week off – remains high.
‘Chels Chat’ is the second in the series of brand films Dark Horses has created for Chelsea FC and follows on from ‘All Eyes On London’ work promoting the club’s festive games in the UK capital (see case study).
It also comes after the club teamed up with Duracell in December when the battery giant become the first brand to sign-up to one of Chelsea FC’s trial, short-term brand partnerships (see case study).
Links:
Chelsea FC
https://www.youtube.com/user/chelseafc
https://www.facebook.com/ChelseaFC/
https://www.instagram.com/chelseafc/
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-5th-stand/id1353142218?ls=1
Dark Horses
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