2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The passion of football can never be questioned. Football fans want to be connected, be heard and to be part of the team – wherever they are. But the barrier of distance does make it difficult for them to do so – no matter how committed they may be. So we came up with the idea of making their voices heard, their love felt by putting the power of their tweeted messages of support into the hands of the players themselves. As well as sharing the love for the team with fans in the stadium. We connected fans with players and with each other. Which fit in nicely with Ooredoo’s marketing and communication objectives of breaking the barrier of distance and connecting with people through technology.

The Campaign

When Ooredoo formed their partnership with French football club Paris Saint-Germain, they saw it as more than just a football sponsorship. But an opportunity to show people that they don’t just buy data – but something much more powerful. Football is a great passion that unites people for all over the world. But there lies the problem of distances. We saw the opportunity for technology and it’s various channels to break down those distance barriers. With social channels such as Facebook and Twitter, online videos and live stadium messaging - means by which the fans can be a part of the action. Our idea was to give football followers a direct and personalised experience with their PSG idols. And demonstrate that a tweet is not just 140 characters but a powerful tool to simply do wonders – through an interaction with the stars that would not normally be possible.

Creative Execution

Through an integrated campaign that included TV, print, a microsite, social media, #FansDoWonders connected the worldwide fans to the PSG team, by enabling them to tweet messages of support to the players. Combined with real-time video playback, the mobile-friendly microsite generated unique videos, enabling each fan to watch his own message being read by a PSG player. Thousands of messages were brought to life in one rallying cry: #FansDoWonders. The winning cheers were then displayed in the stadium during matches. Fans adopted the hash tag, and lit up the stadium with the team’s spirit in one universal voice. Some were also rewarded with a once-in-a-lifetime meeting with PSG players themselves where we flew winners from the various countries to Doha for the meeting and a training session.

Ooredoo showed the world that distance can’t break down barriers through the love of football and brought every fan, voice and cheer to the Parc des Princes. All those voices made a difference: In 2014, PSG became the first team in French football history to win the four national titles. This campaign included a microsite, social media, online banners, print and TV. Ooredoo showed that fans, really do wonders: Results included: • 8,098 cheers sent. • 24,535 Twitter mentions • A 21% increase of new followers - reaching 110 million. • 13,261,135 YouTube views. • 115,424,742 Facebook reach. • 130,000 new fans – increase of 58%. • Total Facebook reach: From 4.8m to 118m - organic reach: From 223k to 867k. • Engagement levels increased 1000-fold, with some posts reaching 7.6m. • 1,081,977 website sessions. • #FansDoWonders became a sign-off for worldwide cheers.