Samsung Electronics Australia kicked-off a campaign built on its endorser partnership with Socceroos star Tim Cahill called ‘ TIMVITE’: an interactive digital initiative campaign that encourages Australian football fans to invite their friends over to watch Russia 2018 matches via a personalised invite from Cahill himself.
The television promotion, developed in harness with agency Leo Burnett Sydney (Starcom handled the media work and Edelman the PR), leverages the world’s biggest sports event through the Korean conglomerates athlete ambassador deal with the iconic (albeit ageing) Aussie football star.
A ‘TIMVITE’ is a customisable online video invite from Cahill that enables Australian fans to personally invite friends and family members to come over and watch the World Cup.
Launched on 6 June, a week ahead of the start of Russia 2018, the activity promotes Samsung’s QLED TV range (which includes 75″ and 85″ large screen television sets) as, according to the brand, ‘sports most historic moments deserve to be seen on big screens’.
The initiative is promoted by an explanatory video (in 47- and 15-second versions),
and supporting social content,
Let me help get your crew together to watch the big game. Send me a message at https://t.co/rEZQd4ZnO2 to get your personalised #Timvite thanks to @SamsungAU All you have to do is click the link in my Bio for the details pic.twitter.com/f75zzAxL3C
— TIM CAHILL (@Tim_Cahill) May 30, 2018
that encourage viewers to create their own TIMVITE at http://bit.ly/Timvite.
The interactive online campaign is built through a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks the user a set of questions about who they want to be reunited with and then creates the socially sharable TIMVITE (and a matching diary reminder).
The campaign runs through the tournament up to the final game on 15 July.
“Momentous sporting occasions bring people together all over the world and there’s no better way to be immersed in the on-field action than on a Samsung QLED TV,” explained Samsung Electronics Australia chief marketing officer Josh Grace.
“TIMVITE gives sports fans a unique way to reconnect with new and old friends. Tim Cahill is an Australian sporting legend and receiving a personalised message from him is a sure way to get your mate’s attention and lock in the next catch up.”
Nigel Clark, creative group head at Leo Burnett Sydney, added: “A lot of us are so busy being busy these days that we’re seeing less and less of our friends. The Timvite campaign is all about reuniting you with your friends so you can share the important things in life… like watching sport.
“Tim Cahill, the legend that he is created a horde of personalised videos for the campaign we which we hope will reunite mates all over Australia through our love of sport and watching historic moments together.”
Comment:
Cahill himself might not even get on the pitch at this tournament, nevertheless, the campaign concept is smart and sensible – not least because Cahill is by far the most famous player in the Australian squad.
Another notable Australian Russia 2018 campaign that recognises Cahill’s profile worth checking out is an initiative from petroleum giant Caltex (a naming rights sponsor of the Australian national Socceroos side) that saw the rebranding five Caltex petrol station sites across Australia as ‘Cahilltex’ (see case study).
Plus, this campaign is considerable more inventive, engaging and participatory than the standard promotional approach to using the World Cup to drive television sales – eg the UK Currys / PC World ‘TV For Free’ campaign from (see case study).
Links:
Samsung Australia
https://www.youtube.com/user/Samsungtvaustralia
https://www.instagram.com/samsungau/
https://www.facebook.com/Samsung
Leo Burnett Sydney
https://www.leoburnett.com.au/sydney
