Tag: Sports

Australia – Following a competitive pitch process, Tennis Australia has appointed BMF as its lead creative and strategic agency of record, with the aim of continuing the growth of tennis in Australia as one of the top participated sports. 

As part of the new partnership, BMF will lead Tennis Australia’s marketing strategy and creative for both key sporting events, including the Australian Open and United Cup, as well as drive participation via Tennis Australia’s key products.

“Tennis is one of the most iconic sports not just across the globe, but particularly in Australia. With a strong presence in both culture and the sporting community, we’re incredibly excited to continue to build tennis participation and connect the brand with audiences both locally and globally,” said Steve McArdle, CEO of BMF.

Meanwhile, Tennis Australia’s Chief Commercial Officer Cedric Cornelis commented, “We are delighted to announce our new partnership with BMF and we look forward to working together to further enhance the appeal of tennis which is ingrained into the Australian way of life.”

He added, “Whether it’s picking up a racquet, buying a ticket to an event or engaging with tennis online, we look forward to building even deeper connections to our audiences in ways that are innovative and memorable.”

Last year, BMF also won the creative mandate of global car-sharing marketplace Turo to handle its creative account for its launch in the Australian market.

Durban, South Africa – Whilst media coverage on sports gives athletes essential exposure, they also become the root of objectifying women due to camera angles that focus on female athletes’ certain body parts.

These tendencies in media encouraged Unilever’s global beauty brand Lux, a brand that aims to support women against everyday sexism, to release a campaign that encourages sports media to do a more responsible coverage by focusing on female athlete’s winning shots and strengths during competitions, instead of highlighting their certain physical attributes.

Done in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson Singapore, the ‘Change The Angle’ campaign is associated with a 66-second ad highlighting the statements of female athletes that encourage audience and media to see their strengths instead of objectifying them. The ad also shows statistics on sexist sports coverage, revealing that there are 2500 pictures that objectify female athletes during 2021 Olympics.

Moreover, Lux has also collaborated with South African Volleyball Association and sports broadcaster SABC to organise a volleyball game where female players wore sports attires with QR codes on it, which are the same areas that are usually shown by sports broadcasters. When the QR codes are scanned, it will be directed to the Change The Angle campaign.

Severine Vauleon, global brand vice president of LUX, said that when they discovered that athletes, especially women, are more likely to be objectified due to the camera angles in sports coverage, they realised that they need to act on it.

“At LUX, we believe that beauty should be a source of strength, and that the focus should be on celebrating the beauty of their strength, skills and achievements in sport,” Vauleon added.

“The ‘Change The Angle’ campaign website offers six simple guidelines to effect change in how female athletes are portrayed – and we hope that everyone who’s keen to see change will spread the word,” Marco Versolato, CCO at Wunderman Thompson Singapore added.

With its commitment to fight sexism, Lux has released DE&I training programme last year which aims to stop bad behaviour in the workplace. A certain course in the programme named ‘LUX Allies Against Workplace Sexism’ is designed to help counter sexism in the workplace.

Singapore – Market measurement firm Nielsen has released new data to list the most influential players on Instagram, with all of the listed players to play at the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been a global superstar for nearly 20 years with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus, again increased his Instagram following in the past year with around 47% follower growth. He leads the list with a media value of US$3,585,218.

Following next is Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi with a media value of US$2,631,388 and Brazilian footballer Neymar with a media value of US$1,152,495. Other high-ranking players include French football player Kylian Mbappé (US$1,173,157 media value) and Brazilian player Vinícius Júnior (US$685,120).

Meanwhile, Spanish footballer Gavi ranks first in the breakthrough players list on Instagram, with an expected media value of US$377,305 and an engagement rate of 29.46%. Following him is Brazilian player Raphinha with a media value of US$22,727 and engagement rate of 3.59% and Brazilian player Antony with media value of US$106,229 and engagement rate of 12.42%. 

Other breakthrough players include Spanish player Pedri (US$255,212 media value and 13.20% engagement rate), Argentinian player Rodrigo De Paul (US$206,983 media value and 13.34% engagement rate), and Brazilian player Rodrygo (US$119,726 media value and 5.42% engagement rate).

Marco Nazzari, managing director of international sport at Nielsen said, “With dozens of the world’s most recognizable athletes competing for football’s ultimate prize, the World Cup will capture the attention of nearly a billion people. This event provides brands unique opportunities to partner with the right footballers to effectively engage their target audiences. Nielsen InfluenceScope evaluates all aspects of a particular player’s influence so that brands can ensure that they receive a proper rate-of-return for the right investment.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – Podcasts continue to grow in popularity amongst digital platforms today. With this in mind, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics (MCI) and the National Movement of Digital Literacy, Siberkreasi, has partnered with Spotify, to persist their highly-received podcast series by presenting a sports-themed podcast class. 

This free podcast-specific upskilling program, which will be held online from 19 March to 3 April 2022 and will feature some prominent names in the space, is the second series of Kelas Podcast Siberkreasi 2022. It will explore the fundamentals of making quality audio podcasts, with specific applications to creating sports-themed podcasts. The classes will not only target the general public but also communities and clubs – including sports clubs that are interested in releasing their own sports-themed podcasts.

The first session of the series is titled ‘Pengantar Podcast untuk Olahraga’, which will be held on 19 March 2022, featuring Tio Utomo, the founder of Box2Box Podcast Network as the keynote speaker, while the second session will be held on 20 March 2022, which will further explore the topic ‘Tips dan Trik Menjadi Podcaster Olahraga’, led by Randy Arbiyantama and Febri Aryadi, hosts of the Retropus podcast.

Furthermore, participants will also be invited to the third session titled ‘Memahami Etika Podcaster di Dunia Olahraga’, which will be held on 26 March 2022, as well as the fourth session on 27 March 2022, called ‘Modal Komentator Olahraga: Boleh Provokatif Asal Tetap Suportif’. And lastly, the fifth and sixth sessions which are titled ‘Promosi Podcast di Media Sosial’ and ‘Sudah Siap Menjadi Podcaster Olahraga’, will be held from 2 to 3 April 2022.

Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, The Ministry’s director general of information and communication technology applications, noted that to help nurture the growth of podcasts, they have identified digital literacy as a key component to ensuring that content creators will have the fundamentals to produce positive digital content in this space.

“We believe that our initiatives will help set a solid foundation for the digital content creation industry in the future,” said Pangerapan.

The registration can be done online through https://s.id/siniarolahraga, while the digital literacy activities held by Siberkreasi can be viewed on info.literasidigital.id.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Regional sports network SPOTV based in South Korea has launched a new mobile app, SPOTV NOW, aimed at bringing popular sporting events closer to sports fans in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

The new mobile app, both live and on-demand, will be streaming world-class events shown on the sports network’s regional pay-TV linear channels, SPOTV and SPOTV2. 

Through this, sports fans in Malaysia can catch top riders like Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia, and Marc Marquez battle it out for victory in the adrenaline-charged MotoGPTM and WorldSBK World Championships, and standout moments of sporting heroes in World Table Tennis events, tennis Grand Slams – Wimbledon and US Open Tennis Championships, as well as The Open Championships (Golf Major), amongst other prestigious events.

Choong Khay Lee, SPOTV’s CEO, shared that they aim to delight their subscribers with the electrifying experience of watching a big game and at the same time, provide an avenue for them to relive some of the exhilarating moments in sports with their on-demand features. 

He further shared that in the months to come, sports fans will get to watch exclusive content that is only available to SPOTV NOW viewers.

“We aim to replicate the success of SPOTV NOW across Asia – by bringing more localised and relevant content to our subscribers in each market, drawing them closer to their unique sports culture, and strengthening the bond among sports fans. In the near future, we will be rolling out SPOTV NOW to Indonesia, followed by Thailand,” added Lee.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As part of Malaysia Airlines’ commitment to supporting the development of homegrown talent in sports, the flag carrier airline and the Malaysian Football League (MFL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to mark their partnership in supporting the country’s football sporting field.

With the new partnership, Malaysia Airlines will be the official airline partner for MFL, providing safe and seamless air travel for the delegates competing in domestic professional tournaments under MFL, including Liga Super, Liga Premier, and Piala Malaysia, as well as Piala FA, and Piala Sumbangsih. The airline will also team up with MFL to support its activities, including local and international conferences, and football clinics.

Moreover, the partnership entails leveraging the extensive organisational network of the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines. It will also see joint campaigns, branding, and events with Firefly, MASwings, MHholidays, and Enrich.

Izham Ismail, MAG’s group chief executive officer, commented that he is certain that this symbiotic relationship between Malaysia Airlines and MFL will be a boon to football enthusiasts across the nation, uniting fans with their favourite teams, especially supporters from East Malaysia, who can now enjoy more matches held in the peninsular, and vice versa, through our seamless connectivity and increased flight frequency.

“As the official airline for MFL and its celebrated professional competitions, Malaysia Airlines commits to providing seamless connectivity and safe travels for members of the MFL and football fans alike,” said Ismail.

Meanwhile, Stuart Ramalingam, MFL’s chief executive officer, believes that the partnership with Malaysia Airlines symbolises two brands – the national carrier and the nation’s biggest football association – coming together to elevate the standard of the Malaysian football scene to greater heights, in line with the national agenda.

“We are delighted to welcome our national carrier to Liga Malaysia. With the new season and fixtures scheduled for the year, members of the Malaysian football fraternity and fans who seek to travel across the country can take advantage of Malaysia Airlines’ increased frequencies, especially from Sabah and Sarawak,” said Ramalingam.

Just recently, Malaysia Airlines has also inked an MoU with Johor Darul Ta’zim Football Club (JDTFC) to mark their partnership which will be committed to elevating the local football scene ‘to the highest level’.

Auckland, New Zealand – When we say something about sports, majority of us just think of the gameplays and tournaments that happen. However, there is much more about sports, ranging from making history and milestones to being a part of our modern culture. This is the message that Spark Sport, the on-demand sports streaming service of New Zealand telco Spark, shows in its newest brand campaign.

Conceptualised alongside creative agency Colenso BBDO, the new campaign shows the broadcaster positioning themselves as the entertainment provider that ‘sees sport differently’. Where in-match moments affect more than just the game, they change culture.

Moreover, the campaign’s 30-second TVC shows users how they can watch the cause and effect sport has on the identity of a single family, lived primarily through the eyes of its youngest son.

Speaking about the campaign, Chae Blewitt, marketing lead at Spark Sport, remarked that sports fandom and consumption is constantly evolving and as a broadcaster, it’s their responsibility to evolve with it.

“‘See Sport Differently’ represents our commitment to all New Zealand sports fans, to provide a platform to see sport on their terms. We’re really excited to continue to build on this brand position during a huge year of sport in 2022,” Blewitt said.

Meanwhile, James Tucker, strategy director at Colenso BBDO, commented, “Sport is so much bigger than just what happens on the field or during the game. Its influence on identity, connection and culture is undeniable. It’s exciting to see Spark Sport capture this and bring it to life.”

Spark Sport’s campaign launched 16 January on TV and rolls out across social, digital and online channels, where viewers can ask themselves how they see sports.

Sydney, Australia – As basketball grew exponentially worldwide, only the professional players got the chance to have their own signature logo. With this in mind, House of Hoops, the basketball brand of sportswear and footwear retailer Foot Locker, has launched its interactive player logo tool, aimed at allowing fans to design and generate their logo just like the pros.

Developed in collaboration with dentsu’s BWM Isobar and Merkle, the ‘House of Hoops Mark of Greatness’ campaign is a mobile-first, interactive design tool that lets basketball fans create their own, personalised ‘player logo’ in a few simple steps. This also gives them a chance to score their own player edition shoe.

According to House of Hoops, the new tool, which is spread not only in Australia and New Zealand, but all around the world, has already been featured on some of the world’s most popular basketball news sites, including NBA.com. It simply requires users to enter their initials to have a monogram automatically created to form a symbol. From there, the tool integrates hundreds of font, colourway, icon, and shape iterations to let fans personalise their logos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRqjDudUu0

Brendan Graham, Foot Locker’s senior director of marketing for APAC, shared that the impact of the pandemic accelerated their need to bring the innovative experience House of Hoops is known for at a physical retail level, into digital touchpoints. 

“This idea embraced the culture of the modern game and gave our customers a truly engaging House of Hoops brand experience online and on mobile,” said Graham.

House of Hoops said that upon the launch of the new tool, the promo film hit almost one million views on YouTube. Over 32,000 fans experimented with designs, with the very best winners’ designs featured on out-of-home media across the country.

The overall winner was given the full pro athlete treatment. Powerful stills of the winner pulling iconic basketball poses were captured and plastered everywhere on high impact billboards and large format digital OOH – just like the NBA superstars.

Manila, Philippines – Despite the ongoing pandemic, sports is still making a mainstream comeback, and now more than ever, being amplified across social media platforms such as Twitter. In the Philippines, sports still dominates the online discussions among Filipinos with basketball echoing its popularity on Twitter.

According to the latest statistics released by the platform, discussions about basketball in the Philippines generated over 6.2 million tweets, a jump of 6.90% versus 2020. In particular, most of the basketball-related Tweets were due to the excitement brought by the NBA All-Star and NBA Playoffs in 2021. The hashtag #nbaallstar was also often used, while Lebron James (@kingjames) and Stephen Curry (@stephencurry30) were some of the top players Filipinos Tweeted about in 2021.

Meanwhile, online discussion about the Tokyo 2020 Olympics also prevailed among Filipinos’ sport discussion, with weightlifting athlete Hidilyn Diaz being the first ever Filipino athlete to win gold in the Olympics, and Filipino skater Margielyn Didal who captured people’s hearts with her cheerful nature on and off the skating rink.

There has been a notable uptick in discussion as well in the realm of esports, when Blacklist International, the esports team under Tier One, emerged as champions in the M3 World Grand Finals last December 2021. Other esports discussions include #GenshinImpact being the most-tweeted about hashtag in gaming, while interactive games such as Valorant and Mobile Legends were on the rise as well in 2021.

For Maurizio Barbieri, head of sports and gaming partnerships for SEA and Greater China at Twitter, Twitter and sports will always have a special and tight relationship, adding that as events faced postponements and cancellations last year, sport fans on Twitter kept the passion and fervour alive by cheering, encouraging, and celebrating the wins together wherever they were.

“As competitions resumed this year, the built-up anticipation resulted in a global frenzy that transcended borders, with Twitter connecting the like-minded community to give them front row seats to all the action and a valuable avenue to participate in the excitement,” Barbieri said.

Australia – CSM, the global integrated marketing and brand experience firm for sports and entertainment, has acquired its long-time digital marketing and communications agency partner, Greenroom Digital, to bolster its digital offering in the sports marketing landscape.

For three years, CSM and Greenroom Digital have been working together to deliver digital and data strategies for a range of clients globally, including HSBC, AIA, and Alpine F1, among others.

The acquisition includes all Greenroom Digital operating markets, with the exclusion of business operations in Australia and New Zealand. This will continue to be headed up by Greenroom Digital’s co-founder, Nick Biggin. 

Biggin commented that the acquisition is an exciting step between the relationship of Greenroom Digital and CSM, and he looks forward to focusing on the continued growth and expansion of their businesses in APAC.

“It enables us to leverage the scale and strengths of the CSM business internationally while maintaining independence and flexibility in the developing Australia and New Zealand markets,” he said.

Meanwhile, Matt Vandrau, CSM’s group CEO, shared that CSM’s digital offering is a key differentiator for them in the marketplace and they are proud to deliver exponential commercial growth for their clients through their performance marketing platform. 

“We are committed to continued investment in our digital offering to provide the very best results for our clients,” said Vandrau.

Greenroom Digital’s Co-Founder, Tom Huggins, who will also become the group digital and data director, commented that he sees this enhanced relationship accelerating Greenroom Digital’s growth in the coming months and beyond. 

“This acquisition is the culmination of years of hard work and delivering results for clients in partnership with CSM and we are delighted to formalize our relationship,” said Huggins.