Late November saw Vauxhall team up with eight international footballers to give Home Nations fans a FaceTime call to thank them for their support and build excitement ahead of the Russia 2018 World Cup.
The auto giant, the official sponsor of all four UK national teams until 2017, expanded its ongoing #GetIn initiative across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales by surprising lucks supporters on the Vauxhall ‘Fan Hotline’.
For one day only, the home nations players used FaceTime calls to thank fans for their support in a campaign that featured two players from each home nation: England’s Gary Cahill and Jamie Vardy, Northern Ireland’s Josh Magennis and Michael McGovern, Scotland’s Darren Fletcher and Robert Snodgrass and Wales’ Hal Robson-Kanu and James Chester.
The players called fortunate fans who had already entered a competition to win signed national team football shirts as part of Vauxhall Motors’ ongoing #GetIN campaign.
Held during the build-up to the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Vauxhall identified some of Britain’s most dedicated football fans and surprised them with live FaceTime player calls on the brand’s Fan Hotline.
A UK-wide overview film was posted on the Vauxhall YouTube channel and on its bespoke football partnership digital hub at www.vauxhallfootball.co.uk,
While on 28 November individual country team videos were also digitally and socially posted and seeded.
England:
Northern Ireland
Scotland:
Wales:
The call content pieces were also amplified socially across Vauxhall’s own social platforms like Facebook,
and Twitter,
That moment you get a video call from your football idol… #GetIN pic.twitter.com/vkuZo4oZl5
— Vauxhall (@vauxhall) November 29, 2016
and shared by fans across the country.
.@Vauxhall gave me and some other Scotland fans a massive surprise #GetIN lads pic.twitter.com/0uo6trATie
— Chris Iwelumo (@chris_iwelumo) November 29, 2016
Quality, Random surprise from @Vauxhall having top lads @vardy7 and Gary Cahill calling me on FaceTime haha #GetIN #OoshRightBackVards pic.twitter.com/u0SlPLZFsb
— Smithy / FrankyFryer (@SmithySoccerAM) November 29, 2016
Andrew Curley, head of sponsorship and events at Vauxhall Motors, said: ‘As official sponsor of the Home teams we were delighted to surprise these dedicated fans with their national heroes – giving them their own #GetIN moment. #GetIN is about rewarding fans for their unwavering support as we build excitement ahead of Russia 2018. It’s not every day you come face to face with your footballing heroes.’
Comment
#GetIn, launched earlier in the year ahead of the Euro 2016, is essentially an activation that aims to enable fans to show their support, to celebrate the spirit of the game and bring fans closer to the players with one off experiences.
It actually began back in May with a nationwide hunt for the ultimate goal celebration ahead of the French hosted Euro 2016 tournament with the aim of generating celebratory content which would appeal to an audience beyond football fans.
An X Factor/ Britain’s Got Talent style three-part series was created for England, Wales and Northern Ireland called ‘The 2016 #GetIN Goal Celebration’.
The concept saw contestants performing signature and extrovert goal celebrations before a judging panel of football stars and a celebrity host presenter.
For example, players Jamie Vardy and Chris Smalling, plus retired legend Robbie Fowler judged the England strand with Reggie Yates hosting.
The #GetIN celebration content series gained coverage the Daily Mail, Digital Spy, Express, Daily Star, Huffington Post, Evening Standard, as well as engaging a Twitter audience of more than 1 million.
The campaign is being developed by a team working with Vauxhall and The FAs of each nation with agency Kaper and Kamarama PR agency Weber Shandwick (and production company Kream).
Indeed, this latest late November FaceTime Fan Hotline phase of #GetIn also builds on work from the beginning of the month which saw Vauxhall and Twitter link up to send personalised messages from players to fans.
The car company worked with the microblogging site and football stars to send personalised videos to football fans from players in the Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales national teams to thank them for their ongoing support.
These Twitter messages were from a squad of players across the home nations including Scotland’s Matt Richie and Ikechi Anya, Wales’ Wayne Hennessey and Joe Ledley and Northern Ireland’s Conor Washington and Stuart Dallas.
‘In a UK first, we worked with MySocialDatabase to create hyper-targeted audiences of football fans for a personalised campaign from Vauxhall,’ explains Ted Littledale, technical program manager, brand strategy at Twitter.
‘By analysing the follower graphs of Twitter users we were able to find the true football fanatics on the platform. Custom audiences of these fans were then uploaded to the ads platform so Vauxhall could serve them this amazing personalised content from their heroes.’
(The England team was apparently not available to take part in this phase of the campaign).
‘Using this new technology means we can bring this campaign to life and build excitement as we head towards Russia in 2018,’ comments Vauxhall sponsorship boss Curley.
‘This is a UK first for Twitter to give true football fans a unique surprise. So far the feedback has been extremely positive and the amount of engagement we have seen has been fantastic.’
Links:
Vauxhall Football Web:
Vauxhall Web:
Vauxhall Twitter:
Vauxhall Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/vauxhall/
Vauxhall Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/vauxhallmotors/
The FA:
Northern Ireland FA:
Scotland FA:
Wales FA:
