January saw US sports apparel giant Wilson Sporting Goods create a mobile pop-up museum, called ‘The Wilson Experience’, that demonstrates how the company handcrafts leather footballs.
Following its initial tour launch at the College Football Playoff in Atlanta, ‘The Wilson Experience’ will tour across the USA through 2018: making key stops at the NFL Draft, the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame Weekend and at major pro and college football, basketball and volleyball events across the country.
The brand’s experiential tour was developed in a tie-up with experiential outfit and Chicago-based agency OutCold.
The experience is based around a refurbished and branded, 16-foot Airstream Bambi trailer that aims to illustrate and showcase Wilson’s heritage in American football.
It focuses on customisation and craftsmanship and helps fans understand just how Wilson’s leather footballs are handcrafted, turned and sewn together as it walks them through the key steps in making a Wilson ball (using the same materials as all Wilson balls – including pebbled white laces and brown leather from Horween Leather Company).
It also offers visitors a chance to customise their very own football by laser etching the logo of their own favourite college team, and/or their name or a favourite phrase on the leather game ball of their choice.
“The Wilson Experience offers fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how our craftsmen and craftswomen in Ada, Ohio, hand-make nearly 700,000 leather game footballs every year,” explained Wilson’s global marketing director Amanda Lamb.
“We wanted to find a clever and engaging way to bring our football factory to life at marquee football events so that fans could better understand how footballs are made and take a special piece of that experience home with them.”
“There is nothing more American than Wilson footballs and the game day experience. Our challenge was to create an attention-grabbing experience that celebrates the brand’s amazing history while enticing consumers to engage with the brand in a unique and memorable way,” said Liam Boyle, CMO of OutCold.
Comment:
Bringing a manufactured product to the fans thorugh this type of roving experience to show how it is created and to offer personalised, customised versions ought to help sports fans realise the skill involved in the product and the values of the brand – rather than just take its product functionality at face value.
Wilson has been developing football in America since the 1920s and the company has been a key part of the game’s development and growth since then – working alongside partners such as the NFL and with many of college football’s top coaches and players.
Wilson’s skills have helped develop football technology and enhanced player performance and audience entertainment.
Since 1955, every Wilson college leather football has been handmade at the company’s football factory in Ada, Ohio,
while, Wilson has supplied official game footballs to the NFL since 1941.
Links:
Wilson
https://twitter.com/wilson_football
https://www.youtube.com/user/WilsonFootballUSA
https://www.facebook.com/WilsonFootball/
https://www.instagram.com/wilson_football/
OutCold
