Challenge

As the first time global sponsor of the English Premier League (EPL), Coca-Cola aimed to strengthen its brand love and relevance among the youths, ultimately driving up low sales. Building brand relevance was nothing new, Astro needed to drive Malaysian football fanatics to purchase the product at every point of interaction with the EPL event, leveraging on its end-to-end marketing eco-system to increase sales conversion beyond conventional brand activation via sports marketing. 

Solution

An integrated media campaign named ‘Kickstart Your Football Dreams’ by Coca-Cola was launched in Aug 2019, leveraged on Astro’s key assets to lead consumers through the purchase funnel via various platforms and eventually drive Coke’s sales conversion beyond conventional brand activation.

  • Create an integrated real-time sports eco-system through TV and Digital platforms available on Astro.
  • Conquering all football conversations on-ground and social media while subconsciously inserting the brand into the hearts and minds of football fans. 

1. FIRST ever partnership leverage on Astro Sports passes to drive sales  

Launched the ‘Kickstart Your Football Dreams” campaign with 5,000 free one-month Astro Sports passes given randomly on every purchase of Coca-Cola in both can & bottle. The passes allowed access to all live sporting events including EPL matches on Astro sports channels. The collaboration drove consumers to purchase Coca-Cola packs to get free Astro Sports passes and enter the contest for a grand prize trip to watch their favourite Premier League football team live on the field in United Kingdom.

2. Massive Online Presence: Non-Stop 24/7 Live Football Action

We provided 24/7 instant access to all things football tagged with Coca-Cola’s branding throughout the campaign.

  • During EPL match weeks, we hosted 10-minute Facebook Live streaming pre-match predictions, prior to kick off.
  • We customised over 150 Live goal alerts with Coca-Cola’s brand message in shareable GIFs and featured post match highlights from top teams using Coca-Cola’s thumbnail.
  • We also captured behind the scenes footage of football hosts and pundits sharing a Coke while discussing matches.
  • We ran EPG banners for 1 week across 20 channels on all platforms including NJOI during the campaign launch week. Coca-Cola reached 14.4mil viewers or 92% of Astro viewers in just one week! The campaign also garnered an impressive 248mil digital impressions.

3. Multiple Screen Domination

We orchestrated a sports platform takeover with Coca-Cola’s brand message dominating EPG (Electronic Program Guide) across 20 Astro channels amassing 128 million. We ruled the digital screens too with online MREC, leaderboards and site takeovers on all main websites, particularly Stadium Astro and social media platforms.

4. International Talents: Live Interaction & Engagement

We engaged almost 4,000 fans during the 2-day weekend event with booth activities such as console games at shopping malls, followed by epic experience at night with surprise visits of football legends, ie. Manchester United’s Louis Saha, Mikael Silvestre and Liverpool’s Vladimir Smice. These football legends gave a sudden appearance during the fan’s meet and greet sessions at on-ground events and match viewing parties where 1,000 hard core fans showed up!

5. Turning Fans’ Football Dreams to Reality

Finally, we sent one lucky winner for the ultimate fan experience trip to UK to watch their favourite Premier League team play live. The entire experience was filmed into a 3 webisode series and Vlogs that showcased Coca-Cola’s role in fulfilling fans’ football dreams to life!

Results 

The campaign emerged as the best performing national consumer promo in Coca-Cola Malaysia’s history!