After winning in a number of categories at PromaxBDA Africa, Johannesburg-based agency Admit One found themselves nominated for three prizes in the PromaxBDA Global Excellence Awards, held in New York on 16 June.
Admit One’s two recent rugby campaigns for SuperSport were nominated in three categories. The Rugby World Cup promo was nominated in the Best Sports Programme Spot or Campaign and Best Clip-based Sports Programme Spot categories, while the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ rugby theme piece was nominated for Best Art Direction and Design in a Sports Programme Spot.
Executive creative director Henre Pretorius sums up the two campaigns: “The World Cup campaign was based around the Springboks and how they represent us as a nation, and the long heritage of national pride they embody, dating from the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The theme piece is based around the idea that the rugby field is like a jungle and the players embody various animal qualities in their struggles for victory.”
While Pretorius and executive producer Ruette Steyn say they did not have a chance to see many of the campaigns their work was up against, their trip to New York offered some great, out-of-the-box ideas when it comes to conceptualising sports promo campaigns. Pretorius singles out Fox Networks’ long-running (about a year) promotion drive for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, held in Canada in 2015.
“Fox literally threw the entire network at all their territories to push the tournament,” Pretorius says. “Instead of only working with sport clips and directly related content, they mobilised all the content from across all their channels. It was a massive, sustained cross-promotion campaign that ranged from appearances by team members on Idols to giant billboards. Clearly it worked, because 35 million viewers ended up watching the tournament.”
The Fox campaign opted for a heavily patriotic tone, promoting both the national team and the event itself. Admit One took a similar approach with its Rugby World Cup campaign but on a far smaller scale. “This is where we as South African creatives and broadcasters could do well by thinking a little bigger,” Pretorius says. “We seldom make good use of opportunities for cross-promotion and to really mobilise the nation to get behind the team and support it. Sport in the US is huge, of course, and it was great to see what can be done with a sports campaign if you are more ambitious.”
Steyn adds: “From a marketing perspective, it’s very difficult to make a promo that stands out from the clutter. FX offers an inspiring example in this regard. Their approach is very simple: whatever idea seems the riskiest, that’s the one they go with.”
Admit One’s most recent project was the campaign to promote SuperSport’s Olympic Games coverage.
