RaboDirect, Kellogg’s Krave, Volkswagen, Aviva and RBS are the shortlisted brands in the Social Media sponsorship category for the 2013 ESA Excellence Awards to be decided this month.
The ESA Awards, organised by the European Sponsorship Association, recognise excellence within the sponsorship industry across Europe.
The Social Media nominees were entered for the following sponsorship projects: RaboDirect’s social media activation of its PRO12 title sponsorship, Kellogg’s Krave’s Twitter and YouTube campaigns, Volkswagen’s WRC engagement campaign, RBS’s use of social media as part of its 6 Nations sponsorship and Aviva’s CSR activation with Norwich City FC and Twitter.
The winners of the 2013 ESA Excellence Awards, of which Sports Sponsorship Insider is a partner, will be announced at the Awards Ceremony and Dinner to be held in London on January 29, 2014.
Below, in the seventh of a series of sponsorship profiles across ten award categories, Sports Sponsorship Insider summarises the five Social Media category contenders.
Project: @RaboInsider by RaboDirect
Rights holder: Celtic Rugby Ltd
Agency: brandRapport
In 2011, RaboDirect, an online savings bank which launched in Ireland in 2005, became title sponsors of the RaboDirect PRO12 – the domestic club rugby competition for teams from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. With one in three Irish rugby fans being active on Twitter, RaboDirect recognised that social media was a powerful channel to connect rugby fans with the brand.
The slogan, ‘Rugby Just Got More Direct,’ was developed to communicate RaboDirect’s desire to put rugby fans closer to the rugby sponsorship. RaboDirect utilised all of their contractual assets, paid-for and owned platforms to maximise the social experience around the PRO12.
Project: Kellogg’s Krave #TWUE Challenges
Rights holder: Channel Flip, YouTube
Agency: Carat Sponsorship
Breakfast cereal brand Kellogg’s Krave worked with fourteen YouTube “superusers” to create a summer of content that would entertain and engage teens, while leveraging the influence of the superusers upon their large fanbases to encourage participation in “#TWUE” – Twitter-generated content that asked teens to “Tweet When You Eat”.
This social media strategy on @KraveUnleashed allowed followers to take part in regular challenges to win prizes involving “The Smiler”, Alton Towers Resort’s new ride for 2013, by tweeting whenever they ate the cereal. The campaign delivered over 6m global views of the content and grew Krave’s Twitter community by nearly seven times.
Project: Volkswagen Motorsports
Rights holder: FIA World Rally Championship
Agency: Greenkern International GmbH | Aperto Group
To gain awareness for the entry of Volkswagen Motorsport team into the FIA World Rally Championship in 2013, a mockumentary format was created telling a fictious story of the team’s legendary ‘helmet holder’. At the end of the story, fans were encouraged to become the team’s new team helmet holder by submitting a picture in which they demonstrated their skills.
The winning application received a VIP ticket to the Monte Carlo stage of the WRC. The teaser campaign took place on all common social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as on Volkswagen Motorsport’s website.
Project: Aviva #1every5
Rights holder: Norwich City FC
Agency: Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Aviva sponsorship of English Premier League club Norwich City FC, and its CSR partnership with Railway Children, a charity for children who run away from home, was brought together in a social media campaign backed by celebrity fans.
The Railway Children charity’s logo was present on the team’s shirts during a Premier League game and integrated with a Twitter campaign. For every tweet or retweet including #1every5 (one child runs away every five minutes), Aviva pledged to donate £1 to the charity up to an £18,000 target. Such was the response, Aviva matched the total number of tweets, donating £97,774
Project: RBS 6 Nations (Social Media Activation)
Rights holder 6 Nations Rugby Ltd
Agency: Synergy
Inspired by sports’ fans dramatic consumption of social content, RBS set out to ‘socially supercharge’ their 6 Nations sponsorship. Despite often being considered as a ‘traditional’ sponsorship property, RBS 6 Nations offered a range of assets that were ripe for rich-content social activation.
The RBS 6 Nations Facebook page and Twitter feed are both created and owned by RBS – perfect ‘social detonation’ communities in which to seed content for fans to consume and share. The challenge was to bring together these exclusive social assets and owned social communities in social activation that would deliver cost-effective reach and engagement for RBS.