Winners & Shortlists

THE LEGENDARY JOURNEY

TitleTHE LEGENDARY JOURNEY
BrandAKBANK
Product/ServiceAKBANK DIREKT CARD
Category A08. SPONSORSHIP
Entrant Company 41?29! Istanbul, TURKEY
Advertising Agency 41?29! Istanbul, TURKEY
Media Agency MEDIACOM Instanbul, TURKEY
PR Agency IMAGE Istanbul, TURKEY
Production Company 2012 PRODUCTION Istanbul, TURKEY
Credits
Name Company Position
Gokay Dede Akbank Akbank Direkt Sales And Marketing Director
Alemsah Ozturk 41? 29! Head Of Agency
Seren Koroglu 41? 29! Creative Director
Ilyas Eralp/Elif Kavalci 41? 29! Creative Group Heads
Alperen Altinoz/Ahmet Terzioglu 41? 29! Creative Group
Ufuk Cetincan/Emir Anarat/Ercan Nailoglu/Nilay Oguz/Esra Bayramoglu 41? 29! Art Directors
Alen Dursun/Gunay Sert/Enis Kilic 41? 29! Development Team
Asli Nur Erguzel 41? 29! Project Manager
Ela Meric 41? 29! Agency Producer
Serhat Arapoglu 41? 29! Brand Manager
Hidayet Bayraktar 41? 29! Technical Director
Onur Cengiz 41? 29! Digital Communications Strategist
Duygu Holat/Erhan Cirak 41? 29! Digital Communications Managers
2012 Produksiyon 2012 Produksiyon Video Production
Ozer Feyzioglu Director
Rahman Altin Film Music
Zeynep Bozok 41? 29! Music And Sound Design
Furkan Birgun Illustrator
Telesine Telesine Post Production
Dogus Aslan Case Study Video Production

The Campaign

Turkey didn’t qualify for the World Cup in Brazil. The last time the World Cup was held in Brazil 64 years ago. Turkey couldn’t go either, not because they didn’t qualify….but because the whole country ran out of money… In 2014, Akbank, Turkey’s biggest bank, decided to step in. Using a promotional campaign they wanted to give everyone in turkey the chance to realize their dreams. And give the winners the chance to join the last 2 surviving members of that legendary team of 1950, as we finally took them to the World Cup in Brazil. We invited the football fans to join the campaign with a recreation of the Turkey – Syria match which secured our golden ticket to “Brazil 1950”…and restored national pride in a time of hardship. We produced a series of short documentaries to introduce the 2 surviving players. To bring the story to a new generation we built an online museum website. We made headlines on blogs and newspapers. Our heroes appeared on Turkey’s most popular talk show. As it made it’s cultural impact, they became a worldwide trending topic. The film of the game was watched 6 million times. Campaign website reached 273.000 people. Credit card applications increased by 18 percent. And the lucky winners of the campaign had the chance to join our heroes as they finally fulfilled their dream of going to Brazil.

The Brief

Akbank, Turkey’s biggest bank, wanted to give Turkish people some much needed joy in a time like this. Could we turn this failure of our national football into success?

Results

While our video had a viewcount of 2.224.117 on Youtube, it was watched almost 6 million times in total, in only 6 weeks. On the website for our campaign,www.efsaneyolculuk.com, our unique visitor count was 272.811. During the 8 March 2014 broadcast with Bülent Eken and Erol Keskin as guests for Beyaz Show which is the most popular talkshow in Turkey, "Bülent Eken" helped the project to be talked about by being both in Turkey Trends and WorldWide Trends on Twitter. During the campaign our Facebook contents were seen by 34.296.184 users, and people who clicked or viewed the content was 289.370.123 users in total. Akbank Direkt Card applications covered 18% of all credit card sales.

Execution

We invited the football fans to join the campaign with a recreation of the Turkey – Syria match which secured our golden ticket to “Brazil 1950”…and restored national pride in a time of hardship. We produced a series of short documentaries to introduce the 2 surviving players. To bring the story to a new generation we built an online museum website. Surviving members of the legendary 1950 team appeared on Turkey’s most popular TV talkshow.

The Situation

Turkish people are famous for their love of football. But Turkey didn’t qualify for the World Cup in Brazil. This was a major turn down for Turkish people.

The Strategy

We decided to turn Turkey’s absence in Brazil into a matter of national pride. The last time the World Cup was held in Brazil 64 years ago. Turkey couldn’t go either, not because they didn’t qualify... but because the whole country ran out of money. We reached out to the last 2 surviving members of that legendary team of 1950 to finally take them to the World Cup in Brazil, along with the lucky winners of the campaign. So, as our heroes finally fulfilled their dreams of going to Brazil, the whole nation had the chance to watch the World Cup in Brazil with them.