2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Facebook: - Over 50,568 multi-layered interactions - Fans 22 countries - Averaged 32,000 daily post views - Over 900,000 wall impressions. - People downloaded debate videos and posted their own cuts.   During the World Cup, Postpaid mobile package subscribers increased 69%. Number of broadband subscribers increased 16%. Customer base of BlackBerry subscribers increased 16%.   Media followed the debate the game booth and splashed the campaign nationally, generating free media publicity worth over USD 125,000.   For Bahrain’s football fans, Batelco became the very face of the World Cup. And there was no debating that.

Creative Execution

We created ‘Debate the Game’ - the platform for fans to discuss, analyse and argue about the game. Promoted via print and outdoor, our Debate the Game booth with the Batelco backdrop, two mikes and two chairs travelled to where fans were, and we invited them to debate the game with us. Debates were streamed live on Batelco’s website before the game, at halftime and after the game. Debate videos were uploaded daily on Batelco Facebook and Youtube, leading to thousands of more debates, comments, tags, uploads, downloads and multi-layered interactions.   Distributing our World Cup offers at debate venues, we enabled people to carry on the debate on other telecommunication platforms. Fans followed our booth daily via a schedule on the Debate the Game microsite. At Bahrain’s cinemas which screened live matches, we streamed live debates before the game, halftime and after the game. On Radio, we hosted live debates.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

During the Football World Cup, the advertising scene is cluttered with typical promotions by official sponsors and every other brand alike. Our challenge was to make Bahrain’s leading telecommunications company Batelco, the face of the World Cup in Bahrain and to be perceived as an official sponsor. Our insight was that in football, for every moment worth celebrating, come moments worth debating. So we did what a telecom company does best - getting people to talk.