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With the 2018 Fifa World Cup Russia underway, prominent networks in Latin America—including DirecTV, Globo, ESPN and Fox Sports—are using magic, humor, music and pride to position campaigns around the excitement soccer brings, and the networks’ capacity to offer fans the best content anytime, anyplace.
Here, Brief digs into DirecTV’s marketing strategy for the World Cup.
DirecTV Latin America turned to Pep Guardiola, renowned Spanish soccer coach and former player, to be the face of its campaign.
“[Guardiola] was chosen because he is one of the most highly-regarded coaches in European football league and a worldwide reference of the sport, especially in Latin America based on his extraordinary training with several football celebrities from the region,” said José Espinel, assistant vice president, marketing, DirecTV Latin America.
Along this line, the creative concept of “magic” stands at the core of the marketing campaign.
“It reinforces our goal of ensuring viewers get the best experience of the Cup beyond the TV screen, as if they were enjoying it live from Russia, with access to all the details,” says Espinel.
In terms of programming, DirecTV Sports offers more than 1,000 hours of original content. The team of hosts, analysts and correspondents is led by Juan Pablo Varsky and Pablo Giralt.
The network focused on developing an interactive experience, so the user is able to choose how and when to see the FIFA World Cup. With this in mind, the 64 games will be available as virtual reality (VR) via DirecTV’s app Sports VR, allowing users to see the matches at 180-degrees on smartphones.
The channel launched the campaign 100 days before the World Cup, revealing Guardiola as the brand’s representative for the event, and reinforcing the partnership in an exclusive interview with Guardiola by journalist Juan Pablo Varsky.
The campaign includes a spot that presents the World Cup as a massive magic show that hypnotizes millions of viewers and makes entire cities disappear.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my eyes have seen hundreds of tricks on the football field, but let me tell you that what you are going to see now is the greatest magic show in the whole world,” says Guardiola in the piece. “Think of a number,” he says, as a “4K” sign appears on-screen, indicating all matches will be broadcast in HD and 4K Ultra HD.
“With this spot, we wanted to show how football is the greatest magic show in the world and how subscribers can experience that magic through DirecTV,” adds Espinel.
This idea also was underpinned by the tagline, “It’s more than just the FIFA World Cup, on DirecTV it’s magic” (Es más que la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, por DirecTV es Magia).
Version español: DirectTV crea una campaña ‘mágica’ para la Copa Mundial de Fútbol
Tags: directv world cup 2018