February 19, 2001 – Today Ford launched the first TV style, online sponsorship campaign in the form of full screen, audio-visual sponsorship `bumper ads’. The campaign set up and managed by m digital Europe (MindShare) will be run on the Sportal network. The ‘bumper ads’ will be shown to Sportal visitors before they view the Ford sponsored UEFA Champion’s League content.
Ford’s partnership with Sportal is an integral part of their overall sponsorship activation programme, aimed at bringing to life their long-term association with football in Europe. This campaign going under the campaign headline ‘destinationfootball’, is designed to enable real football fans to get closer to their favourite sport whether via traditional routes or in this case through new media.
The creative theme used for Ford’s broadcast sponsorship idents (broadcast around UEFA Champions League live and highlights TV programming) has been re-purposed by online marketing specialists Tangozebra to produce five, short, sharp, full screen, audio-visual sponsorship Tranzition ads that when pieced together replicates the full broadcast sponsorship story. These Tranzitions play as you enter the UEFA Champions League section on Sportal. The Sponsorship Tranzition ads are also being supported by a number of innovative interactive banners and buttons that are placed on the landing page that show audio-visual clips from the ident movie.
In a special content sponsorship deal brokered by MindShare, Sportal have agreed that visitors will be shown one of the 5 sponsorship Tranzitions each time they activate their UEFA Champions League link before being transported to the content.
Please click here to see a live example.
Rowan Avis European Digital Account Director at MindShare m digital Europe says `In a multi-platform environment it is vital that the sponsorship message is replicated on all mediums being utilized, to strengthen the clarity of the communication. It is fundamental in any sponsorship partnership the consumer gains the same experience from whatever platform they access, replicating Ford’s TV creative online is a perfect way to do this.’
Julie Reid, Corporate Sponsorship Manager at Ford says `We are very excited by the offline/online integrated approach we are developing this year with Ford and the UEFA Champions League sponsorship activity. We believe this cross platform sponsorship concept should be adopted for all sponsorship campaigns that wants to reach a large audience who uses a variety of mediums, Internet, TV, Radio, Press. The Internet now offers us far more than just banners and can be incorporated in to the core proposition of cross medium sponsorship.’
James Booth Director of Tangozebra says ‘Tangozebra has for some time focused on creating better advertising opportunities for its clients through steering its technologies appropriately. The sponsorship Tranzition allows these benefits to reach the host sites as well as the advertiser and contributes to how many see the future of online advertising in general.’
For more information or to receive a preview of the Ford Sponsorship Tranzitions please contact Laura Outhart (laura.Outhart@tangozebra.com) on 020 7290 0566.
For more information on Sportal please contact Mark Thursfield (mark.thursfield@sportal.net )
On 0207 350 4825
For more information on the campaign which was brokered and managed by MindShare please contact Rowan Avis (rowan.avis@mindshareworld.com) on 0207 969 4157