Leveraging spiking football interest as the new season gets under way, NFL telecoms partner Verizon has launched a 5G Coverage campaign based around its league rights, a group of player ambassadors and the 13 NFL stadiums it has fitted out with Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband.
The integrated campaign, ‘5G Done Right’, spans national TV, ambassador social spots, consumer creation incentivised through a ticket competition and supporting online and OOH work.
The creative, which all promotes what Verizon claims is ‘the most powerful 5G network in America’, launched 24 hours ahead of the NFL 2019/20 season opener between the Chicago bears and the Green Bay Packers.
The campaign, which was developed in harness with creative agency McCann New York, was spearheaded by a hero 60-second spot featuring Verizon engineer Eric Nagy explains the NFL partnership and how it relates to stadiums and consumers.
This is supported with a 30-second national TV commercial cut down
and a 15-second social version.
Verizon says that its 5G stadiums will enable fans in stadium to access higher capacity, faster download speeds and lower latency while using 5G-enabled devices Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband service and the service will also be available in immediate areas around the stadiums.
Indeed, in some of these cities, the stadium will be the only place with Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband service, offering fans a unique 5G experience they can’t get anywhere else in their local area.
Amongst the first 13 NFL stadiums included in the 5G kickoff are Denver’s Empower Field at Mile High, Chicago’s Soldier Field, New York’s MetLife Stadium, Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts where the champion Patriots play and these are promoted through additional, supporting home team player ambassador led online video.
Thus, defending champion New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski gets a chance to show off his speed in a spot for Verizon that pits him running a 40-yard dash against a Patriots fan downloading an episode of Hard Knocks on Verizon 5G.
Needless to say, 5G is faster than the ex-tight end.
This activation strand also includes a call for consumer-created videos to involve fans themselves and to spread the campaign socially through a contest incentivised through the lure of winning Super Bowl LIV tickets.
.@RobGronkowski tried beating Verizon 5G. Think you can? Post your best @NFL team fandom video of < 5 seconds and you could win Super Bowl LIV tickets. Tag @Verizon and include #OM5G and #Contest to enter. Rules: https://t.co/2gcFmRD0JG pic.twitter.com/DN6ku38mF3
— Verizon (@verizon) September 5, 2019
Other spots in this supporting, local team, player-led social series include Minnesota Vikings legend Randy Moss,
and the New York Jets icon Keyshawn Johnson.
“Today’s announcement is a key moment in our partnership with the NFL. We’re proud to work with such an iconic organization to bring Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband service to fans across the country,” said Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg.
“5G is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and play, and we expect the impact on the sports entertainment industry to be massive – it promises to revolutionize the entire game-day experience for fans,”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell added: “As we celebrate the NFL’s 100th season we look forward to the day when Verizon will have their 5G Ultra Wideband service in the stadiums for all 32 NFL clubs. Having this cutting-edge technology in our stadiums will greatly enhance the game-day experience and bring a multitude of benefits to our fans and clubs in a number of different ways.”
Comment:
The NFL new season service launch campaign follows on from Verizon’s initial national 5G awareness driving, pre-launch campaign which aimed to drive buzz around the offering through the theme of ‘speed’.
It was back in December 2017 that Verizon and the NFL unveiled a new and enhanced five-year partnership deal worth nearly $2.5bn (around twice the annual price of Verizon’s previous deal with the league).
This tie-up saw Verizon move from being just a mobile carrier to also being a video content company (after it bought AOL in 2015 and Yahoo!) and enabled it to stream live in-market NFL games on its mobiles and on any one of its websites – primarily on Yahoo!.
To monetize the deal, Verizon also had ad inventory within the games it streams.
Links:
Verizon
https://www.verizonwireless.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/verizon
https://www.facebook.com/verizon
https://www.instagram.com/verizon/
McCann New York
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