Title	ROAR-O-MATIC
Brand	VG
Product/Service	SPONSORSHIP
Category	C05. Co-creation & User Generated Content
Entrant	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement	CARAT Oslo, NORWAY
Production	STIR Oslo, NORWAY

Name	Company	Position
Hans Magne Ekre	SMFB	Creative
alexander gjersoe	SMFB	Creative
Torstein Drogseth	SMFB	account director
Vibeke Wiedswang	SMFB	account manager
Vjollca Moazzem	VG	marketing director
Ine Anett Rasen	SMFB	designer
Mikkel Alex Såghus	SMFB	Motion designer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

We created a social activity designed to encourage the newspaper VG`s readers, to contribute or collaborate with our brand initiative, through a clear call to action. We created an online service where people could contribute, and in return they got their contribution performed LIVE in an Arena, on Snapchat, and even on Television.

Background

Handball is a huge sport in Norway, but very few has the opportunity to actually travel to the European Championship in Croatia. That´s why we created the ”ROAR-O-MATIC”. A new and innovative way in using mixed media to support the team. On the newspaper VG.no people could write their chants, which was then sent directly to Norwegian supporters in Croatia, who cried them out loud LIVE during Norway`s matches.

Describe the creative idea

While watching Norway`s games in the handball tournament on TV, people could make their own cheers, hymns, chants, roars and send them directly to VG´s own crowd of supporters that had "uniforms" and very good seats in the arena, almost always visible and audible in the TV-broadcast (Their placement and actions were pre approved with the company running the broadcast, and also the International Handball Association). As the leader of the crowd received a "roar" on a tailor made live interface, he would start conducting the performance of these roars live, so the TV-audience could see and hear, and of course the main objective was to make a substantial contribution to the overall atmosphere, that could actually effect the Norwegian team´s performance in the game.

Describe the strategy

The sound of the crowd cheering for their team is an important element in most sports, and it impacts the players performance. In Norway, the European championship in handball is a major event. Each game in Croatia had up to 1 million Norwegian viewers on TV (1/5 of the population). However, most people have to watch the game on TV in their home. We know people go bananas at home during the games, shouting, jumping in their couches, tweeting, swearing at the TV etc. So we wanted to channel some of the frenzy through pour platform, and directly into Norway's game, using the crowd as sort of an interactive human megaphone.

Describe the execution

We created a service, the Roar-O-Matic, on VG´s own page where you could write your hymns, chants and roars. The Roar-O-Matic was launched right before the championship started. The page had a countdown to every match, and as soon as Norway`s next match started, you could start contributing. At the same time you pushed "send", the group of supporters would scream it out loud in the arena. The group of supporters at the arena aired everything LIVE on Snapchat, so you could see and hear your own chants in social media, as well as on the broadcast on Television. A selection of the chants we received, was used as advertising before Norway`s next match, inspiring even more people to join!

List the results

Among a target group of 700.000 people (between 15-25), we managed to drive more than 100.000 visits to the site, which generated thousands of roars. Since our own supporter group in the arena was uniformed, and very visible and audible during the TV-broadcast, we also reached a substantial part of the Norwegian population that weren´t in the core target group.