Ever heard of SAP? One of Manchester City’s biggest sponsors? Neither had the fans.

SAP are Manchester City’s technology partner – they provide real-time analytics to coaches and players, transforming performances on the pitch, and give fans the juicy football stats they crave.

We needed to create a campaign that engaged with City fans, helping them understand the value SAP bring to their team, and how they’re responsible for fuelling fans’ stat passion.

Objectives:

-Drive brand awareness by reaching 10M+ Manchester City fans globally

-Get City fans talking about SAP 50% more compared to 2017

-Ensure over 0.5M City fans can recall the SAP brand

Ever heard of SAP? One of Manchester City’s biggest sponsors? Neither had the fans.

So we created a social media film series to help them understand the value SAP bring to their team, and how they’re responsible for fuelling fans’ stat passion.

SAP are City’s technology partner; providing real-time analytics to the team, and giving fans the football stats they crave.

We put this love of stats to the ultimate test, by giving the usual star-studded sports campaigns a unique and surprising twist; taking 4 City superstars… and hiding them in full-body morphsuits. The only clue to their identities was their stats. Fans were challenged to guess ‘Who’s the Blue?’ for the chance to win big.

By driving competition between fans, and providing daily entertainment and conversation, we created a solution that would guarantee engagement and shareability among supporters, all while increasing their understanding of SAP’s partnership with Manchester City.

With a modest £10k media budget, our analysis showed that social media would be the most cost-effective channel to engage with a global audience, thanks to our ability to tap into Manchester City’s worldwide fan-base.

We first had to understand the fans’ needs, to help them better understand the SAP brand and the value they bring to City, leading us to focus on 3 key areas:

Reach

-Targeting a global fan audience through City’s social platforms, using authentic, football-focused content to increase shareability. Getting SAP in front of an audience who didn’t understand their relevance.

Engagement

-Creating content that reflects fans’ obsession with stats and puts that knowledge to the test, ensuring genuine interaction with the campaign and building a stronger connection between fan and club.

Sentiment

-Using players to drive positive sentiment, humanise the SAP brand, and connect with fans; through memorable, humour-led content that truly captivates the audience.

‘Who’s the Blue?’ lived across SAP Sports’ and Manchester City’s global social channels – including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, plus City’s Miaopai and Weibo accounts in China. In total, we delivered 11 different videos over 7 days, across every channel; a full week of fan interaction with the SAP brand.

Teaser videos built fan intrigue and encouraged returning every day to find new content.

Player videos were then released each morning, encouraging competition entry. Fans competed to prove their knowledge by debating the player’s identity in the comments, based on the stats in the video. Word of mouth spread quickly, by fans inviting their mates to get involved.

Daily videos at 5pm revealed the players’ identities, with paid media ensuring fans viewed in chronological order.

Finally, a behind the scenes video gave fans, hungry for authentic player footage, a chance to see the stars fooling around and having a laugh.

-SAP’s most successful sports campaign ever, with over 11x the Reach of any previous campaign

-Among the highest Engagement figures Manchester City had ever seen for a partner-led campaign

-Reached 45.3M fans, well above 10M target

-Reach and Engagements increased every day, as fans became aware of the campaign

Player #1 videos: Reach=3.9M & Engagements=327K

Player #4 videos: Reach=7.4M & Engagements=435K

-City fans talked about SAP 71% more than 2017, above the 50% target

-1.2M fans now likely to recall the SAP brand, more than double the 0.5M objective

-All with just a £10k media spend, showing the campaign’s huge organic growth

Other results:

-57.5M Impressions

-11.6M Total Video Views

-2M Engagements

-91% Positive Sentiment

-1M PR Exposure

We increased awareness of SAP in millions of supporters worldwide, by showing how SAP’s stats empower their team and give fans the knowledge they desire; creating a real affinity for the brand.