GAME ON

Bronze Spike
TitleGAME ON
BrandKIA MOTORS AUSTRALIA
Product / ServiceAUSTRALIAN TENNIS OPEN SPONSORSHIP
CategoryA08. Original Game or use of Gaming
EntrantINNOCEAN WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Contributing Company INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency INITIATIVE Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production Company CHIEF ENTERTAINMENT Syndney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Scott Lambert Innocean Australia Creative Director
Tim Brothers/Scott Lambert Innocean Australia Copywriters
Lyndal Kearney/Scott Lambert Innocean Australia Art Directors
Rick Whaite Innocean Australia Group Business Director
Jo Gilbert Innocean Australia Head Of Events
Luke Tucker Innocean Australia Business Director Events
Daniel Vega Innocean Australia Media Director
Alan Wigg Innocean Australia Designer
Tania Templeton Innocean Australia Head Of Broadcast
Stuart Mcfayden Chief Entertainment Director
Mark Tesoireo Chief Entertainment Executive Producer
Martyn Shaw Initiative Media Digital Director
Matt Quinn Initiative Media Digital Prodcuer
Simon Flaxman Initiative Media Commercial Director
Sean Richardson Initiative Media Communications Strategist
Linda Rocak Initiative Media Business Director
Daniella Rochi Initiative Media Business Manager
Team Mnet Mnet Mobile App Development

The Campaign

The free-to-air networks in Australia consider a show "a hit" if it pulls over a million viewers an hour. The Australian Open has massive pull, peaking this year at 3.1 Million viewers - an unprecedented level of engagement for us and the networks. With a few notable exceptions, most of the Branded Entertainment to date in Australia has been web based content or straight up product placement – not entertainment developed around a brand strategy. Our challenge was to harness the huge reach of free to air television and improve on that using the deep engagement of gaming and the web. Australians have always been early technology adopters. The fractured media landscape and the challenges of pitching brand-funded shows to the networks has pushed advertisers to the internet as a viable cost per eyeball way to measure return on investment for branded entertainment.

Results

CHALLENGE As the major sponsor of the Australian Open, Kia has been bringing live tennis action to living rooms for 12 years. But as technology continues to fly at breakneck speed, and with multi-screening becoming the norm, the challenge to engage with the fans and keep their attention is becoming more and more difficult. OBJECTIVE Drive Brand awareness and consideration by engaging with tennis fans like never before. STRATEGY The Australian Open is amongst the nation’s biggest sporting events and is Kia’s single most important platform. However, the long-standing partnership needed refreshing in order to reignite stalled buyer consideration. In order to increase openness to the brand we needed to connect with new car buyers on a deeper level. Our ambition was for tennis fans to willingly spend more time with the brand. This would require viewers being as excited about the ad breaks as they were about the tennis. In order to give fans the chance to feel firsthand what it’s like to be on court against a pro we had to transform the tennis viewing experience, shifting passive viewing to active engagement. To give viewers a real insight into the full force pros possess we put them directly in the firing line against the world’s fastest server. EXECUTION This year, Kia took the tennis television broadcast experience to a whole new level, by developing a World first App that allowed fans to return serves from live Television Broadcast, using their smart phone as a racquet. The App, called GAME ON used Audio watermarking technology, handset timer, Giro, and accelerometer to measure how well players timed their return, how hard they hit it, and then calculated their score immediately. The App was supported by online banners, social media, on ground activations and a series of six TVC’s.

Using online banners, social media, on ground activations and a series of six TVC’s, we invited fans to download our Kia GAME ON App and return tennis serves from live television broadcast for a chance to win an all new Kia Cerato Koup Turbo. Once downloaded fans could practice returning one of 6 different serves from a dedicated website, or return serves live from their TV during the two week national broadcast. They were also encouraged to return the serves at Australia’s biggest shopping centers, and at Kia activation sites in and around the Australian Open.

The GAME ON App became a smash hit. Over a three week period we achieved over 193,000 downloads and 320,000 entries, exceeding Kia’s best previous promotion by over 300%. Amazingly, on average, fans spent 15 minutes playing the game and engaging with the brand, and without any international media spend, GAME ON went global, and was played in over 110 countries. In the first week, the App became the No.1 free App on iTunes, and in turn became Australia’s most successful automotive App ever. But most importantly, Kia had their best January and February sales on record.