Results and Effectiveness

The campaign was well-received. Viewership of World Cup matches on Astro with live commentary in Chinese went up by an overwhelming 368%* during the advertising campaign period (*figures supplied by AC Nielsen).

Creative Execution

Instead of the usual announcement ad in Chinese newspapers, we came up with a creative media solution which allowed us to put words into the mouths of famous football personalities. In this execution, Bastian Schweinsteiger, the German striker appeared to say, “That’s fantastic!” in Chinese. The copy beneath the blurb revealed that Schweinsteiger was actually referring to Astro’s first-time ever telecast of the 2010 World Cup with live commentary in Chinese. A list of the upcoming matches that would be aired was also included in this cleverly disguised ad. We supplied 10 different blurbs written in Chinese ranging from “Are You Joking?” to “How Is This Possible?” to the sport editors at Malaysia’s most popular Chinese newspapers. The editors placed the appropriate blurbs next to famous football personalities featured in their World Cup articles – so the ads came across looking like genuine commentary from football stars.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Astro telecasted the 2010 World Cup matches with a difference – for the first time ever, Malaysian viewers had a choice to watch the matches with live commentary in Chinese. The Target Audience is Chinese-literate football fans who got their daily dose of the World Cup fixtures, results and updates from Chinese newspapers. They would much rather watch the World Cup with live commentary in Chinese.