Manchester City FC partner OKX worked with Yahoo to roll out a metaverse campaign on the Ready Player Me platform revolving around interactive avatars and featuring leading players to inspire fans to ‘Play For the City’.
The Web3 tech and crypto exchange company and official club training kit partner’s augmented reality (AI) experience, hubbed on playforthecity.com enables Sky Blue supporters to their own create custom avatars (in brand-sponsored official City training and warm-up apparel) which can be used across an ecosystem of more than 4,000 games and apps
The activation’s multi-channel promotional campaign kicked off to leverage the crucial top of the table Premier League game between Manchester City vs Arsenal on 26 April.
It was spearheaded by a hero ‘Play For The City’ video featuring a line-up of current City stars appearing as giant avatars exploring Manchester as the fans make their way to the Etihad Stadium.
Participation and amplification is incentivised and those fans who share their avatars on social media using the campaign’s #playforthecity hashtag are also entered into a prize draw for a chance to win club and sponsor linked prizes.
Plus, in May, fans will also be invited into the metaverse for exclusive experiences with City stars Jack Grealish and Alex Greenwood.
The AR experience was created by a joint team with members drawn from Manchester City, OKX, Yahoo (including its premium content creation team and bespoke tech to bring the experience to life and spread the word to fans), Ready Player Me and Edelman (which handled PR).
The Yahoo teams created the hero video and distribute it alongside supporting content through digital Out of Home (DOOH) locations and video, display and native formats across mobile, tablet and TV screens.
“The metaverse experiences we’ve been developing with Manchester City represent a whole world of exciting new opportunities, and your avatar grants you access to these,” said OKX Global Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique. “This campaign is another example of how Manchester City and OKX are delivering on the promise of Web3 to enhance the fan experience and help people get closer to what OKX considers ‘a new way to internet’.”
City Football Group Media Director Gavin Johnson added: “We’re pleased to launch this exciting campaign with OKX and Yahoo today. Bringing together expertise from all three collaborators, we’re able to offer Manchester City fans across the world the ability to connect and engage with the club in a unique and interesting new way and we hope fans enjoy the experience on offer.”
Yahoo EMEA Head Josh Partridge commented: “We had a clear brief – to offer fans a fun, engaging and immersive experience that gives them new ways to interact with the team and players through digital touchpoints in the stadium, the city, and even the virtual world. Using Yahoo’s experience in producing premium quality digital content and distributing it at scale directly to the club’s target audience means we can help in forging deeper connections on digital platforms with their fans through new, interactive ways on match day and beyond.”
Comment
This is the latest quasi metaverse experience OKX has created for City fans and follows the launch of a training course with Rúben Dias and a tactical masterclass with İlkay Gündoğan in the ‘OKX Collective’ metaverse.
It also follows on from the 2022 ‘What Is OKX?’ campaign featuring City boss Pep Guardiola which also featured other strands of the brand’s sports sponsor stable such as former McLaren F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and Aussie snowboarder Scotty James, as well as OKX’s first Manchester City, cyberpunk-style activation with street artist Akse P19 and Global Street Art Agency from July 2022.
OKX is the official training kit partner for Manchester City FC for the 2022/23 season and also boasts partnerships with a number of other leading sports brands, teams and stars including McLaren Formula 1, F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, golfer Ian Poulter and Olympian Scotty James.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.