ESS responsible for FA Cup heist

ESS    MEDIA   SPORTS MARKETING

Asia Pacific - ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has confessed that the stolen FA Cup viral campaign launched a week ago is a trade campaign aimed to promote a competition for brands to win broadcast sponsor rights for the 2009/2010 FA Cup.

The Mega Cup Promotion, a competition open to the media industry, challenges planners and advertisers to submit a proposal on how they would use an FA Cup broadcast sponsorship to further their brand or a client's brand.

The best entry stands a chance to win the grand prize of a million-dollar regional broadcast sponsorship of the FA Cup 2009/2010 on ESPN Star Sports. Information about the competition can be found here. 

To be eligible for the competition, agencies and brands must commit to spending US$50,000 with any ESS channel - ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket, StarHub's Football Channel or its digital and mobile offerings espnstar.com and mobileESPN.

Charles Less (pictured), senior vice president of advertising sales at ESS, said the contest is a unique way of reaching out to the industry and giving marketers an opportunity to "design’ their own campaigns".

He added that with close to 47 million viewers across Asia tuning in to the FA Cup competition each season, ESS was offering brands a "serious piece of inventory."

"I suppose it will give us an idea of what the value of the FA Cup in the market is. We know it is one of our hottest properties in the market as far as ratings are concerned. The FA Cup has been in the top 10 performers for us every year since we have had it. Overall, I am hoping that this will draw in a few FMCG clients. I also would like to see it spark some more local interest in Singapore and Malaysia."

Less added that the idea for the viral campaign was to be a more creative than a traditional DM exercise.

"We all thought it was much more interesting than sending out another DM piece that would more than likely end up in the bin or stuffed in a corner someplace," he said.

"This gives an advertiser the opportunity to leverage this audience, which is why we are looking to see who can leverage this audience the most creatively.

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