| Title | THE LOSERS SYMPHONY |
| Brand | VERDENS GANG |
| Product/Service | SPONSORSHIP |
| Category |
A08. Sports Entertainment |
|
Entrant
|
SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
|
|
Idea Creation
|
SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
|
|
Production
|
MEXIKO MEDIA Oslo, NORWAY
|
Credits
| Alexander Gjersoe |
SMFB |
Creative |
| Hans Magne Ekre |
SMFB |
Creative |
| Hans Martin Ronneseth |
SMFB |
Creative |
| Vibeke Wiedswang |
SMFB |
Account manager |
| Lasse Polmar |
SMFB |
Account director |
| Arnar Halldorsson |
SMFB |
Motion graphics designer |
| Jens Bull |
Mexico |
Director |
| Vjollca Moazzem |
VG |
Client |
| Camilla Grund |
VG |
Client |
| Anja Palmer |
VG |
Client |
| Hanan Jahr |
VG |
Client |
The Campaign
Since it obviously hadn't´t worked to cheer for the team, we decided to threaten them. So we started composing a football song. Not the usual kind that celebrates the team, but a horrible song with lyrics that humiliates the players. We called it The looser´s symphony. If Norway lost their next match, we got permission from the Norwegian football association to have the Looser´s symphony performed on the stadium after full time. An act that would humiliate the team in front of the whole country. But, if they could win the match, we promised to destroy the symphony, and never have it performed ever. In the weeks before the match, the whole population could follow the process of developing this musical punishment.
Creative Execution
As mentioned our client is the leading newspaper in Norway with 2,4 million readers everyday. (Population in Norway is approx.5 million). We used VG´s web-tv platform, their online newspaper and their Facebook page as our main channels. The main content was 3 episodes, the first two featuring the process of developing the Looser´s symphony, while the last one took place on the match day, where the outcome was totally dependent on the match result. All episodes where shot, edited and released on the fly while the campaign was ongoing. The 1st was released on 18th of may, 3 weeks before the match, the last one released on 2nd of june, the day after the match. Most of our resources went into the production since our media coverage was taken care of by the client´s own channels. The only media budget was pushing posts with trailers and outtakes on Facebook.
The campaign had a reach of 832384 (Norway has a population of under 5 million). And a total views of: 4.783.974, both way better than benchmark. Click-rate for videos is a record-breaking 5,36%, with 1,8% being the benchmark. If you take frequency in to consideration, the unique click-rate is moren than 17,34%!
The campaign also got massive media coverage in both Norway and on Iceland, as well as thousands of comments and shares in social media.
Our campaign was about generating enthusiasm and publicity round the unsuccessful national football team in Norway, on behalf of their sponsor. This cannot be achieved through advertising in a usual way. Our solution was to make entertainment that would intertwine with the team´s next match against Iceland.
The general mood in the population towards the team was on a negative range from indifference to anger.And the lousy results were hard facts. So it would be useless to pretend that everything would suddenly be great. But for a sponsor, bitterness wouldn't´t look good either. So in order to be responsive to the hand we´d been dealt, we decided to create something that could pump some life and fun into the next match without ignoring a somewhat dark situation. We wanted to make the Norway vs Iceland match to be about something more, add something to the mix that would make the match more interesting to watch and put the team on the agenda.
Since the client is also Norway´s #1 new paper,we would have plenty of tools to make it happen without huge media budgets,as long as the idea would be really entertaining , and not resemble advertising.