Winners & Shortlists

FRONT ROW

TitleFRONT ROW
BrandGOOGLE
Product/ServiceGOOGLE+
Category A03. USE OF OUTDOOR IN A MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Entrant Company ADAM&EVEDDB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency ADAM&EVEDDB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production Company GRAND VISUAL London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Ben Priest ADAMANDEVEDDB Executive Creative Director
Ben Tollett ADAMANDEVEDDB Executive Creative Director
Emer Stamp ADAMANDEVEDDB Executive Creative Director
Aidan Mcclure ADAMANDEVEDDB Creative Director
Laurent Simon ADAMANDEVEDDB Creative Director
Darren O'beirne ADAMANDEVEDDB Art Director
Neil Mcguirk ADAMANDEVEDDB Copywriter
Harriet Jones ADAMANDEVEDDB Business Director
Sam Brown ADAMANDEVEDDB Account Director
Matt Dankis ADAMANDEVEDDB Account Executive
Rory O'connell ADAMANDEVEDDB Agency Producer
Imogen Hesp ADAMANDEVEDDB Digital Producer
Dan Dawson Grand Visual Creative Technology Director
Scott Brock Grand Visual Producer
Michael Farrance Grand Visual Technologist
Robin Wilding Grand Visual Lead Developer
Cristian Cussen Google Head Of Google/Marketing For Emea
Kev Maguire Google Product Marketing Manager
James White Manchester United Senior Media Commercial Manager
Henry Frimpong Manchester United Marketing Operations Executive

Results and Effectiveness

The project reached a huge audience, with over 100 million fans watching the fans appear on the pitchside hoardings during Manchester vs Liverpool on March 16th. A huge amount of buzz was created, with #MUFrontRow the top trending topic on Google worldwide, and over 350 press and blog articles written on what was happening. Manchester United saw a 250% increase in the growth rate of their Google+ page, making it fastest growing page on the platform.

Creative Execution

The pitchside hoardings at major football stadiums are often just used to communicate brand messages, a one-way broadcast channel - even though, regularly viewed by over 100m people at a time, they’re one of the world’s biggest media properties. In a world tech first, we turned Old Trafford’s pitchside hoardings into a virtual front row for Manchester United vs Liverpool on March 16th. Fans all over the world could be seen, live, supporting their team at the pitchside, via Google+ Hangout. We recruited superfans across the globe via a social campaign on Google+, promoted with a series of :90, :60 and :20 films and online advertising. Once we had our fans, we also created a film telling their story, and what it meant to be involved in Front Row.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Google+ offers people the chance to get closer to the things they love. We wanted to show football fans how the platform could help them connect to their favourite club, and we began with the world’s most supported football club - Manchester United. United has 650m fans worldwide, who are devoted to supporting the club - but less than 1% live in the UK, so very few get the chance to visit Old Trafford and show their support at the pitchside. We used the technology of Google+ Hangouts to bring the digital pitchside hoardings at Old Trafford to life with fans around the world, showing their support, live. The project transformed what it means to be a global sports fan, whilst raising awareness of Google+ and Manchester United’s profile on the platform.