Title	WORLD CUP - HISTORY WILL BE MADE
Brand	BBC ONE
Product/Service	WORLD CUP
Entrant	BBC CREATIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	BBC CREATIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	BLINKINK London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Laurent Simon	BBC Creative	ECD
Aidan McClure	BBC Creative	ECD
Mike Lean	BBC Creative	Head of Planning
James Cross	BBC Creative	Creative Head
Tim Jones	BBC Creative	Creative Head
Xander Hart	BBC Creative	Creative Art Director
Edward Usher	BBC Creative	Creative Copywriter
Liz Dolan	BBC Creative	Producer
Loretta Ramkissoon	BBC Creative	Project Manager
Emma Hamilton	BBC Creative	Production Coordinator
Laurence Honderick	BBC Creative	Creative Head - Design
Nicos Livesy	Blinkink	Director
Alex Halley	Blinkink	Producer
Bart Yates	Blinkink	Executive Producer
The Line	The Line	2D Animation
LES	LES	Embroidery
James Parry	BBC	BBC Sport, Portfolio Head of Marketing

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

The campaign consisted of many different executions around the central idea of History Will Be Made, which included a launch film, digital, radio, social, print, outdoor and even a 7 metre long embroidered tapestry that now hangs in the National Football Museum museum.

Background

The World Cup is a defining moment in any year. We had the opportunity to bring the nation together around unforgettable moments. And so our brief was simple. To bring as many people to the our World Cup coverage and to demonstrate how the our channels are where people come together to witness big event TV. We aimed to make the 2018 FIFA World Cup an experience that couldn’t be missed.

Describe the creative idea

There’s not much more important than the FIFA World Cup. Throughout history, tapestries have been used to record events of great importance - Russia being no exception. The country’s tapestries are some of the most intricate in the world. So to promote our coverage of the upcoming tournament, we revived and modernised the ancient technique of tapestry embroidery. We created an animated film in which every frame was itself embroidered, a feat never before achieved at this scale and level of detail. We paid our respects to a time-honoured tradition, and pushed the boundaries of animation (and embroidery) in the process. We also created a 7 metre long tapestry depicting famous World Cup moments throughout history, which currently hangs in the National Football Museum, which has been visited by thousands of football fans in both England and Russia.

Describe the strategy

Our audience insight told us that while the football lovers would always come to the World Cup, we needed to appeal to an audience who don’t care so much about football - they care about events that they can’t bear to miss out on. So our creative audience became these ‘Main Eventers’. And our strategy was to show that the World Cup is the biggest cultural event of the year. Its significance can’t be underestimated. Countries hold their collective breath and wallcharts become the wallpaper of the summer. Because the moments of a World Cup are moments of history. Seared into the cultural consciousness, iconic moments of hope, despair, brilliance and glory stay in the public imagination for decades to come. The World Cup means the world.

Describe the execution

The campaign launched with a 60 second spot that literally showed history being made, as an ancient machine wove an intricate tapestry. This launch spot was followed by a design-led campaign that wove the campaign idea through digital and social. As goals went in, and history was made, we responded with ‘embroidered’ tweets. We advertised each round of games in similar fashion, with short TV spots in same embroidered style. Concurrently, a 7-metre long real tapestry featuring iconic World Cup moments was hung in the National Football Museum in Manchester. After the tournament ended, we went back to the tapestry and extended it, adding the best moments from the Russian tournament, creating a lasting historical record of the tournament some are describing as the best ever.

List the results

Our campaign generated thousands of online articles, as well as many more in print. Our launch film gained over a million views online in the first few days, as well as reaching an audience of around 9 million on air. The launch film trended on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter. We received and granted a request to loan the tapestry from the National Museum in Moscow. Over the course our campaign, a total of 44.5 million people tuned in to the our television coverage. Additionally, there was a record 66.8 million match requests to our website and online player. The campaign also helped us achieve our highest online-viewed live programme in history, with 3.8 million tuning in to watch England’s quarter final against Sweden. Meanwhile, our website brought in a record 49.2 million unique UK browsers for the tournament, an increase of 16.9 million from the 2014 competition.