Visa is hoping to give soccer fans a place where they can vent their excitement, while containing it on a branded online hub – a premium YouTube channel called Visa Go Fans developed by TBWAToronto, in collaboration with the global team.
Launched late last week, the Visa Goooal! microsite asks consumers to submit videos of themselves shouting a goal call while supporting their favorite national team. About 200 videos were submitted within just two days from Germany to the US, proving the success of the initiative that Erika Maginn, account leadership at TBWAToronto, says is the perfect example of unconventional advertising.
‘It’s just one of those great new media [initiatives] that comes together from across all different parts of the world,’ Maginn tells MiC. ‘And it comes together way quicker than the old the way advertising would have five or ten years ago. It was a quick, crazy, unconventional way to go about it,’ she says, of the Toronto teams’ role which was to create parts of Visa’s ad, and a video of a Rube Goldberg machine – a complex contraption built to accomplish simple tasks.
‘We built this contraption out of everyday regular items, to have soccer balls weaving their way through a complicated mousetrap-like machine,’ explains Maginn, which in the end spells out ‘Goal.’ A video of the machine at work will live exclusively on the site, since it was (reluctantly) dismantled at the agency’s offices after filming, says Maginn.
The Goooal! scream was made famous by Argentinean sportscaster Andres Cantor, known for the length of his shout, and now used passionately by fans and sportscasters during soccer matches. The YouTube channel will be promoted in international markets through street teams and events, but in Canada the initiative is exclusively online, limited to WOM and social media viral components, says Maginn. Visitors to the site have to keep watching the channel to spot certain ‘Golden Videos’ that give them a chance to win tickets to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
‘The intention with Visa as a global sponsor is to give FIFA fans and soccer fans one place that they can go for all of their information and to celebrate and participate together; to connect the fans and give them an outlet to express their creativity and fandom for the game,’ says Maginn.
