The Brief for Facebook
Facebook’s team in Asia needed us to create a campaign that demonstrated the different ways their various platforms could be used during the Olympic Games to speak to audiences. Their aim was to engage their audience through a B2B marketing campaign, that would provide insight and data on the best communication methods.
Facebook wanted to ensure that our campaign could show their different platforms in action. The resulting content needed to work well on Instagram, Stories, Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as the traditional video formats that are popular on Facebook.
Our Approach
The critical factor was that the sports talent featured must be of Olympic standard without actually competing at the upcoming Olympics. The talent needed to compete in as diverse a range of sports as possible and to represent the diversity of people that compete at a typical Olympic Games.This posed a unique challenge as filming had to take place over the course of three sequential nights, in one location.
The focus of the campaign was on the word ‘Preparation’. We wanted to draw a parallel between the preparation that athletes take when it comes to getting ready for the games, with the work that marketeers should be doing. Research and preparation for the marketing department is the critical component to success and Facebook are there to help as much as possible.
Our production team set about creating a long list of sporting talent. Within a week we had tracked down 50 Olympic standard athletes and were able to offer the client a choice of talent across a huge range of disciplines.
With our performers locked down we then had to find a location that could accommodate the six different sporting disciplines, and the technical requirements of Olympians in training. With the Olympics so close almost every sporting facility was booked up, which made this even more challenging.
Furthermore, our athletes, who were from all over the world, needed to be able to make it to our location. Without our incredible in-house production and camera team working tirelessly together, it would never have been possible to deliver the scale of the locations on time and on budget.
Three, twelve hour night shoots later, and we’d captured some of the most stunning, cinematic sports training footage ever put to film.
The campaign was featured by every major advertising and marketing trade magazine. This helped drive traffic to Facebook IQ.
Facebook hosted the Olympics 2020 campaign on it’s microsite.
And whilst we don’t know this for sure, we’re fairly certain it’s the greatest sports campaign that Facebook have ever run.
