Sports Archives - Page 2 of 3

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.

Australia – It’s that time again to review what has been – the good, the bad, and the exciting – in the year that’s past. What people are searching on the internet has always been a top indicator of the issues and trends that are currently keeping them on their toes, and in the case of vibrant and diverse Aussies, pandemic remains to be the top tenant of their mindspace.

How to get a vaccination certificate and how to make a DIY face mask emerged as some of the leading searches in the ‘How to’ category, showing how the pandemic not seeing its definitive end this year continues to keep Aussies busy on making the best of the health crisis.

Aside from the pandemic, Google found four more emerging themes in the searches of Australians over 2021 such as sports, DIY projects, world events, and home cooking.

Sports-loving Aussies can’t help to relish this interest with the top seven queries overall relating to basketball, footy, cricket, tennis, and the Olympics. Meanwhile, more time indoors made Aussies more comfortable exploring DIY projects where top ‘How to’ and DIY searches relate to curiosity in playing with candles, playdough, and paper boats. The pandemic dampening opportunities to meet people in person have made it up to themselves to break monotony day-to-day, showing keenness to explore classes in dance, pottery, piano, and even glass blowing.

This year, Aussies were boggled with both local and world events, trying to be up to speed with the earthquake in Melbourne and the crisis in Afghanistan. The top searches also showed Aussies had been very interested in learning more about worldly concepts with search for terms emancipated, insurrection, and gaslighting leading the list.

On a lighter note, the domination of home cooking during the lockdown-heavy period didn’t leave Aussies behind. Aussies’ palate showed cravings for guacamole and tzatziki recipes with curried sausages coming up as an unexpected trend. Searches also demonstrated that Aussies returned to classic comfort food, craving gnocchi, lamb shanks, and minestrone soup, squeezing in their love for sweets with searches pointing to Anzac biscuits and rocky road.

Overall, the top five searches by Aussies in 2021 were NBA, AFL, Australia vs India, NRL, and Euro 2021.

Grouped per category by Google, here is the full list of the top searches in Australia for 2021:

Overall searches

NBA
AFL
Australia vs India
NRL
Euro 2021
Wimbledon
Olympic medal tally
COVID NSW
Coinspot
Prince Philip

News events

COVID NSW
Cleo Smith
QLD COVID update
Alec Baldwin
Coronavirus Victoria
William Tyrrell
Bert Newton
Christian Porter
Afghanistan
Melbourne earthquake

News events

COVID NSW
Cleo Smith
QLD COVID update
Alec Baldwin
Coronavirus Victoria
William Tyrrell
Bert Newton
Christian Porter
Afghanistan
Melbourne earthquake

Global figures

Alec Baldwin
Rita Ora
Travis Scott
Kyle Rittenhouse
Adele
Naomi Osaka
Pete Davidson
Simone Biles
Tiger Woods
Emma Raducanu

Loss

Prince Philip
Gabby Petito
Bert Newton
Brian Laundrie
Sean Lock
Michael Gudinski
Sarah Everard
Carla Zampatti
Helen McCrory
Larry King

Sport

NBA
AFL
Australia vs India
NRL
Euro 2021
Wimbledon
Olympics
Australian Open
EPL
French Open

Recipe(s)

Gnocchi recipes
Guacamole recipe
Curried sausages recipe
Anzac biscuits recipe
Negroni recipe
Lamb shank recipe
Brussels sprouts recipes
Minestrone soup recipe
Rocky road recipe
Tzatziki recipe

‘How to…?’

How to get vaccination certificate
How to tie a tie
How to deliver uber eats
How to buy dogecoin
How to watch olympics australia
How to book COVID vaccine
How to watch euro 2021 in australia
How to link medicare to mygov
How to book pfizer vaccine
Million dollar vax how to enter

‘How to make…?’ DIY queries

How to make a face mask
How to make candles
How to make playdough
How to make a paper plane
How to make a chatterbox
How to make a website
How to make slime without glue
How to make a paper boat
How to make fake blood
How to make oxygen

Classes and lessons

Dance classes near me
Swimming lessons near me
Driving lessons
Pottery classes
Swimming classes for kids near me
Art classes near me
Guitar lessons near me
Piano lessons near me
Zumba classes near me
Glass blowing classes

Meanings and definitions

Emancipated meaning
Insurrection meaning
Gaslighting meaning
NAIDOC meaning
NFT meaning
Omicron meaning
Frigid meaning
Narcissist meaning
ROC meaning
Sedition meaning

Singapore – World Table Tennis (WTT), the global table tennis competition, is launching with a new brand identity spearheaded by brand agency Superunion. The new identity aims to capture new audiences, attract new partners, and inspire sports fans and consumers to play and enjoy the game.

WTT, created by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has seen that table tennis was only taken seriously as a competitive and commercial sport in a few countries, hence, wants to change this.

With a fresh gradient visual creative, Superunion said it developed the new brand in a way that would change the way the world sees table tennis, to position WTT in the center stage, and bring its elite athletes, thrilling events, and exhilarating entertainment to the global audience.

Inspired by WTT’s vision to show table tennis in a different light, Superunion’s creative strategy was to reverse the audience’s viewpoint by showing the game from the ball’s eye view, capturing the energy and skill of the game and allowing the audience to see table tennis from a new, unique perspective – literally.

The identity design mirrors sports photography, capturing how each player focuses on the ball in motion. It follows the movements of the spinning ball at a break-neck speed, playing out the drama, precision, skill, passion, and mental agility that the players bring to the table. The whole new look speaks of ‘uncompromising confidence’ – whether that’s the new iconic black table or the redesigned theatre of play.

The World Table Tennis Cup Finals will be held in Singapore from 4 December to 7 December.

Last June, Superunion was also the agency behind the official branding of TMBThanachart Bank, the recently merged banking institution in Thailand.

New Zealand – Global group fitness brand Les Mills has just released its global study on fitness consumers’ attitudes and perceptions post-pandemic, and interestingly, it found that even if social restrictions are gradually being lifted, exercisers won’t be dropping their home workouts anytime soon, where majority, or 59%, favoring a 60:40 ratio between doing gym and home workouts.

If there is one major shift in consumer behavior during countries’ lockdowns, it’s that everyone maximized their creativity to continue their daily activities within the corners of their abodes. The household trend has now become a phenomenon, and in the fitness world, enthusiasts and professionals alike leveraged today’s digital-heavy lifestyle to continue fulfilling their regimens with fitness brands pivoting to providing services virtually.

In the 2021 global report by Les Mills which examined the insights of over 12,000 consumers across five continents, it was found that majority has seen the benefits of home workouts and are planning to stick with it, where 80% of those that are gym members plan to continue using digital workouts post-pandemic.

The report now refers to ‘Omnichannel Fitness’, which is a blend of in-gym and digital home workouts. The said type of fitness engagement is tipped to gain traction as we emerge from the pandemic, notes the report.

Of those that are raring to go back to in-person fitness classes, the reputation of instructors has been identified to be the top-most important factor for gymgoers when choosing a live class with 28% favoring it, followed by quality of music (24%) and type of class (21%).

“Quality instructors are cited as a key component of the ‘live revival’, meeting strong consumer demand for added motivation and deeper connection in their workouts,” the report noted.

Les Mills Founder and Executive Director Phillip Mills, said, “After months of being stuck at home, people can’t wait to get back to fitness facilities and enjoy their favorite workouts with familiar faces.”

According to the report, gyms worldwide are making strong recoveries since reopening, with class occupancy at 120% of pre-Covid levels in markets where capacity restrictions have lifted.

After a year of enforced home workouts, appetite for live fitness experiences in groups is soaring, with 85% of gymgoers interested in trying live classes in their facility.

Amid inspiring accounts of fitness enthusiasts adapting to the current socially constrained situation, the lockdown has also given birth to a new group of fitness consumers, the ‘beginners’.

The new generation of fitness fans may be attributed to how the bandwagon of home workouts made it friendlier for those that aren’t into fitness before to take the first step to a workout regimen. According to the report, 27% of regular exercisers in this period describe themselves as ‘absolute beginners’.

The report finds that 82% of consumers now regularly exercise or soon plan to, while 75% of this group do gym-type activities, making fitness the world’s biggest sport. With the type of class, HIIT is the most popular favored by 32%, closely followed by indoor cycling (30%) and dance classes (29%).

“Much like bars, restaurants, and sports events, fitness is experiencing a real ‘live revival’, as people make up for lost time with a renewed appreciation for real-world social settings,” said Mills.

Singapore – To celebrate its 53rd anniversary and Global Week of Inclusion in July, Special Olympics Asia Pacific (SOAP), the non-profit sports organization that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), has launched a new campaign called ‘#WalkforInclusion’ – a virtual activation to promote inclusion and raise awareness and support for children across APAC.

Special Olympics provides health screenings to people with ID and supports more than 2.4 million athletes across 35 countries. It also promotes a life of inclusion, dignity, and respect for persons with intellectual disabilities.

The ‘#WalkforInclusion’ campaign, which will run until 31 December 2021, aims to encourage the public to share videos of themselves, family members, or friends walking across social media platforms, where creative expressions of the walking motion are encouraged.

Every video tagged with ‘#WalkforInclusion’ will add 10 steps to a universal digital counter that will be hosted on the campaign microsite. Besides the standard motion of walking, users are also encouraged to share fun videos that capture and interpret the act of walking in creative and innovative ways.

Furthermore, the microsite will be pulling together stories of resilience and grit from athletes, families, and coaches across the region, alongside a digital counter – where every ‘walk’ video uploaded, page load, and steps taken across physical walks and runs documented in support of #WalkforInclusion will be added to the total step count. The public is also encouraged to also play the ‘#WalkforInclusion’ AR Filter game – available on the SOAP’s official Facebook and Instagram pages – and to donate as well towards the cause.

The campaign also highlights the ‘Special Olympics Young Athletes’ program, which is an early intervention initiative for children with and without ID between the ages of two and seven.

Dipak Natali, Special Olympics’ regional president and managing director for APAC, shared that the movement reaches out to more than 360,000 children with ID across the region, and it helps in ringing home the message that in the global debate of diversity and inclusion, a large population is still marginalized from the mainstream consciousness and discussion.

“The aim of the ‘Special Olympics Young Athletes’ program is to give these children an early head start in life, to improve their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. It leverages the power of sports in furthering a child’s intellectual development by working their motor skills and fostering in them a sense of belonging to the community at large through effective teamwork. The program creates an environment of inclusivity and gives families of children with ID hope for a child’s future,” said Natali.

Besides the digital activation campaign, every dollar donated to SOAP will help an athlete get access to the right support in order to give them a better shot at a brighter future. Monetary contributions will also go towards supporting the work across the region including providing better healthcare through screenings and access for athletes, with the hope of early intervention and thus prevention in times of health needs.

China – The Olympics has become more than just an event for sports fans – simply by being part of the current generation alone instills the excitement and eagerness to witness this massive and seasonal coming-together, that brings all nations and people of all races to celebrate the human strength and talent.

AliExpress, Alibaba Group’s e-commerce, is taking an extra step to celebrate the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. After the event has been halted for a year, people around the globe will finally see it to fruition, with just a few days left before its opening on 23 July 2021.

In the new campaign by AliExpress, everyone will be able to experience the camaraderie and oneness only such global event could bring, at least digitally. Called ‘ONE FLAG’, the campaign is a global one that forefronts a digital flag that absolutely anyone, from any part of the world, can be a “part of.”

The digital ‘ONE FLAG’ is simply made of strings woven together that bear the trademark non-black colors of the Olympics – Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. It’s a flag with no fuss until you learn what the strings are “made of.”

The global retail online marketplace has curated an exclusive website made especially for the campaign for people to join. In it, you would only need to upload a photo of yourself, where without any further ado, you’ll see yourself transform into a ‘thread,’ and now interlaced to form the digital flag.

A screencap from the campaign’s official website

Any photo can be uploaded but AliExpress encourages that it be one showing that you are supporting or cheering for the Olympics. To make things official, and make the experience personalized for the participant, he or she will be informed of the specific count of his or her thread in the entirety of the flag, such as for example, being the 9000th thread. On the website, a certificate can be also downloaded as proof that you are one strand to the flag, something that you can share and boast about on social media.

“At AliExpress, we’re committed to connecting people through innovative digital experiences, and we are honored to partner with the [International Olympic Committee] to create an engaging and interactive experience that brings people together,” said Christina Lu, the head of marketing at AliExpress.

She adds, “In many ways, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be a completely new experience for athletes and fans due to the pandemic. With fans unable to cheer from the sidelines during these unprecedented times, our ONE FLAG initiative fosters togetherness among millions of people who will be watching the Olympic Games at home this year to show support to the Olympic Games and athletes.”

Yuto Horigome, a Japanese skateboarder who is currently ranked 2nd on the World Skateboarding Rankings, will be among the first athletes to participate in the ONE FLAG initiative to call for worldwide support for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and athletes.

In January 2017, Alibaba Group and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced their long-term partnership that would see them collaborating until 2028. As part of the Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship program, Alibaba has been tapped as its official ‘Cloud Services’ and ‘E-Commerce Platform Services’ Partner.

Prior to the current campaign, AliExpress has also launched an Olympic-themed campaign for the pre-pandemic Winter Youth Olympics which was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, the home of the IOC, in January 2020. Through the Lausanne 2020 campaign, AliExpress promoted winter sports and encouraged fan engagement, mainly connecting consumers from around the world with thousands of featured winter sports products.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The prolonged postponement of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 is finally coming to an end as the regional football event is now scheduled to happen from 5 December 2021 to 1 January 2022, and with this, football fans in the SEA region can now reignite their passion for the sport once again.

With the football competition coming to fruition, OPPO has been announced as the official smartphone partner of the cup. This was brokered by SPORTFIVE, the global sports and entertainment partnerships agency, marking OPPO’s debut in the sporting arena in the region.

OPPO said that the partnership goes in line with its strategy to leverage sports to connect with consumers and enhance its brand influence across the region. Through this sponsorship, OPPO aims to use its technology and innovation to inspire people to enjoy football wherever they are and to ‘play with heart’ whether on the field or in life.

The AFF Suzuki Cup is a biennial football competition, contested by the men’s national teams of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and accredited by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) – the international governing body of football association. The cup for 2020 was postponed twice due to the pandemic with the first one announced in July last year, and was eventually rescheduled a few months after that, which now leads to the said final dates.

The partnership with OPPO will also see it amplifying its brand through brand activations across the tournament’s multiple platforms including naming and presenting rights to the ‘OPPO Man of the Match’. OPPO will also be the title sponsor of this year’s ‘Decibel Challenge’, which was previously rolled out in 2018, rewarding the loudest fan groups among all the SEA nations during the tournament.

Jimmy Yi, OPPO’s president for APAC, shared that they hope to bring the smartphone technology to each and every football fan in SEA, giving them the opportunity to closely interact with the OPPO brand and experience the products, while they enjoy the matches and cherish the special moments created.

“As the official sponsor for many events around the world, OPPO is no stranger to the spirit of sporting enthusiasts. The AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 will be instrumental to us in connecting with the millions of football fans of the event, as well as underpin our name as a strong supporter of the game,” said Yi.

Meanwhile, Echo Li, the managing director of Greater China and SVP of Global Partnerships at SPORTFIVE, commented that they are proud to welcome OPPO to the AFF Suzuki Cup family, and they fully support the brand to develop passionate and meaningful partnerships with football fans across the region.

“OPPO is a quintessential example of a fast-growing Chinese brand going global via the power of sports. We strive to support OPPO in creating unforgettable fan experiences at the tournament while setting a benchmark for other brands with global aspirations,” said Li.