The Campaign

How do you get sports-obsessed Aussies to follow a game they have no personal connection to? Luckily the answer had been hiding in their blood all along. 80% of Australians have British heritage, so what if we gave them the connection to an English Premier League team they’ve always needed? Using the power of Ancestry.com.au we gave sports fans the chance to trace their bloodline back to England and specifically the COUNTY that is home to a premier league team. Now a ‘casual sports fan’ knows that his people come from Manchester and it's highly likely that his great great grandfather went for Man U. We created a connection between the two by using the strongest bond one experiences - family connection. They were rewarded for reconnecting, with history lessons, slogans, team songs, star player stats and of course, a free trial to watch their team live on OptusSports.

The Brief

OVERALL BUDGET $204,285 Scope - $18,440 Prototype - $10,000 Design - $40,142 Image purchase - $7,060 Development - $43,736 QA - $9,690 Hosting* & Maintenance for 12months - $75,217 Paid Media - N/A *Hosting traffic assumptions: - Covers 570,000 hits during peak (for first 3 months) - Covers 95,000 hits during off-peak (remaining 3 months) - Website infrastructure set up: - Using ElasticSearch instance (for surname lookup) - Using ElasticBeanstalk application with live and staging environments - Using Compose (for data collection)

Creative Execution

Posters, EDMs and POS encouraged Aussies to visit the Fancestry site. All we needed was a surname. The Fancestry algorithm searched tens of millions of Ancestry records. We scoured births, deaths, military records and every census from the 1800s. And precise mapping gave you the team you never knew you supported. Along with their history, colours, famous players and, of course, a free trial to watch them play on Optus Sport. 63% of website visitors did just that. And a Pay TV network for a sport played in the middle of the night gained 40,000 new subscribers.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Optus saw a 60% increase in the uptake of the free trial. That’s an increase of 40,00 people since the launch of the Optus EPL last year. Turns out all Aussies needed to know was that Football was truly in their blood.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Optus Sport, the new broadcaster of the English Premier League in Australia, needed to get local sports fans to watch the game in order to grow subscriptions. But how do you get sports-obsessed Aussies to follow a game they have no personal connection with? In partnership with Ancestry, ‘Fancestry’ was born; an interactive digital platform that creates a genuine connection between Aussies and the EPL; one that runs deep in their bloodline. Through robust data, sports fans can discover the EPL team they were born to support, and can now experience the game with real passion. Go Man U!

Attracting true EPL fans to the platform would be easy. But it wouldn’t be enough. Sizing the market proved that in order to sufficiently grow Optus’ customer base we needed to grow the fan base of the EPL in Australia. Starting with the lowest hanging fruit, multi-sport fans who casually switch on the game, would generously double our audience. We needed to convert them into die hardcore EPL fans. Our insight unlocked a truth to sport fandom. A truth our audience know all too well. In order to feel invested in a sport, to fall in love with it, to enjoy every minute of it, you need to feel truly connected to it; it’s history, it’s players, it’s people. This meant we had to find a meaningful & genuine way to help people find their team. Fancestry 100% helped us do that.