Europcar's Arsenal Family 'Face 2 Face' Mockumentary

Arsenal FC sponsor Europcar is rolling out online video content not only featuring players Per Mertesacker, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but also starring members of their’ ‘families’

This video mockumentary is amongst the early Europcar activation celebrating its new status as the Official Car and Van Rental partner to the Premier League club.

‘Face to Face with the Arsenal Family’ is a comedy introducing fictional family members of each of player and simultaneously, yet subtly, showing Europcar vehicles as being integral to the characters’ lives.

Bearing varying degrees of resemblance to their famous footballer relatives, uncle Kenny Wilshere (a poetic plumber), sister Trudy Mertesacker (a legendary baker) and cousin Darren Oxlade-Chamberlain (a plane spotter nicknamed The Shrub) all discuss what life is like when you are related to an Arsenal superstar.

Almost inevitably, the online comedy is accompanied by a behind-the-scenes film.

Genuinely funny, the objective behind the comic online film (and the partnership in general) is to raise awareness of Europcar’s partnership with the club – which was unveiled announced at the start of the season).

As everyone knows, comedy drives content viral like little else and thus far it has racked up well over 1 million YouTube Views – with 1,466 ‘likes’ and just 22 ‘dislikes’ (a releatively low number in the world of partisan football fan rivalry).

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This emphasis on funny fits in with a growing body of comic Arsenal YouTube-led work stretching from the club’s own ‘UnClassic Commentary’ series which in December featured midfielders Arteta & Rosicky,

while in October starred defenders Per Mertesacker & Laurent Koscielny,

to sponsor activations such as 2013’s ‘Simulator Challenge’ from Emirates

and 2012’s ‘Target Practice’ by Citroen (see previous case study).

It was back in August that Arsenal first welcomed car rental giant Europcar as an official club partner and the ‘Face to Face’ film follows previous Europcar Arsenal activation in early November when the car rental outfit invited former Arsenal star Ray Parlour to front the launch of its new travel service at WTM 2014.

This ‘Europcar Golf Buggy Service’, which was available for bookings from the Europcar Mobility Centre at ExCeL London, aimed to make life easier for both exhibitors and visitors to get around industry events.

Along with the title of Arsenal’s official car and van rental partner, Europcar is planning to leverage the team’s international squad credentials to promote its club partnership not only in the UK but to other key and relevant markets– including European nations, South Africa, the USA, and several countries in both Asia and Latin America.

In addition to player access and time, the classic three-year partnership package includes giving Europcar branding at domestic Emirates fixtures, plus digital marketing rights across Arsenal’s online and social media channels.

‘We are delighted to be partnering with Europcar for the next three years. We are already working closely together to develop engaging marketing campaigns targeted at football fans all around the world,’ commented Arsenal sales and marketing director, Vinai Venkatesham at the time the deal was announced.

‘This is a tremendously exciting partnership for Europcar. It gives us fantastic branding opportunities within the UK, and also reaching millions of football fans who follow the Premier League throughout the world,’ added Europcar UK managing director Ken McCall.

‘As well as promoting the Europcar global brand message, ‘Moving Your Way’, the partnership also gives us access to the players and player imagery for our own promotional activity.’

Europcar is working with Sports at SMG, of Starcom MediaVest, to handle its sports sponsorships activation and it was SMG who brokered the deal.

‘The team, embedded alongside our media operation, will work hand-in-hand to drive tangible success for them through several experience based activations,’ said Sports at SMG managing director Robin Clarke.

The deal sees Europcar join Arsenal’s other major brand partners which currently include Emirates, Puma and Citroën.

Links

Europcar UK Website

http://www.europcar.co.uk

Europcar UK YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/EuropcarUK

Arsenal Website

http://www.arsenal.com/home

Arsenal YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/ArsenalTour

Arsenal Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal