Category: Best fictional program, series or film where a client has successfully created a drama, comedy or miniseries around a product or brand
Advertiser: DIRECTV
Product/Service: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Agency: DEUTSCH
Chief Creative Officer: Greg Dinoto (Deutsch)
Executive Vice President/Group Creative Director: Morgan Carroll (Deutsch)
Executive Vice President/Group Creative Director: George Decker (Deutsch)
Vice President/Associate Creative Director: Judd Counsell (Deutsch)
Art Director: Robert Fraze (Deutsch)
Executive Vice President/Director Of Integrated Production: Joe Calabrese (Deutsch)
Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director: Steve Nesle (Deutsch)
Associate Producer: Nicole Euell (Deutsch)
Senior Designer: Aliza Nordin (Deutsch)
Director: Bryan Buckley (Hungry Man)
Director Of Photography: Scott Henriksen (Hungry Man)
Executive Producer: Cindy Becker (Hungry Man)
Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne (Hungry Man)
Producer: Mino Jarjoura (Hungry Man)
Editor: Tom Scherma (Cosmo Street)
Media placement: Fake TV Show Trailer - Online - June 21, 2011
Campaign Description
In the summer of 2011, the National Football League (the most popular sports league in the United States) was in the middle of labour struggle. Team owners had locked out the players union, which put the entire season in jeopardy.
This posed a problem for DIRECTV. No NFL season meant no NFL Sunday Ticket, an exclusive package of games that was DIRECTV’s biggest subscription driver. This put a $4bn TV rights investment at risk.
DIRECTV already had 2 of the league’s biggest stars, Peyton and Eli Manning, under contract for advertising, but because of the labour issues, the Mannings could not be used in association with any NFL footage or appear in NFL uniforms or gear.
However, DIRECTV still had to promote their product.
Effectiveness
Even though labour issues had put the NFL season at risk, DIRECTV still needed a way to promote their exclusive package of NFL games - NFL Sunday Ticket. The labour problems could be resolved at any time, so DIRECTV needed to keep people aware of DIRECTV as a premier supplier of football content, even during this dark period.
Since fans were already speculating as to what the players were doing during the lockout, we decided to fuel that speculation. What if Peyton and Eli Manning, 2 of the NFL’s biggest stars, weren’t preparing for a football season at all? What if they were planning to star in a television cop drama?
Enter Football Cops, the totally fake, DIRECTV produced show that stars Peyton and Eli Manning as police officers who fight crime with footballs.
The ridiculous premise got everyone talking. We started by ‘leaking’ behind the scenes photos and videos to blogs and the media. We even created a show website with an episode guide. They took the bait. CNN, USA Today, FOX News, ESPN and more, all covered the story. “What did this mean?” “Does this mean there’s not going to be an NFL season?” “Is this for real?”
When we finally released the fully produced trailer, everyone got the joke. Football Cops had taken off: in the process becoming a trending topic on Twitter, receiving tons of YouTube views, and getting loads of free media coverage in print, on TV, and on the web. Ultimately, DIRECTV racked up a record number of subscriptions and achieved their best quarterly sales numbers ever.
Implementation
We provided the media and blogs with 'leaked' behind the scenes photos (from ‘production assistants’). These generated vast interest so that when we finally released the punch line—our fake trailer—fans were chomping at the bit.
Our leaked information appeared on multiple gossip blogs like TMZ and national mainstream news sources. Extensive press coverage fuelled speculation in Football Cops, making it a trending topic on Twitter. People wanted to know more.
When we finally released the trailer on YouTube, hundreds of blogs and news sources reposted it. They embedded our content in their site and it was shared virally with the world.
Outcome
Without spending a penny, DIRECTV and Football Cops received over $27m in media impressions. The story was covered in nearly every major national media vehicle—CNN, ESPN, USA Today, CNBC, FOX News, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Post, The Chicago Times, TMZ, Sports Illustrated, and many, many more.
The trailer received over a million YouTube views and DIRECTV had record setting 1-800 call volume for their best quarterly sales results ever.