2014 Gold Best Integrated Campaign

Client The Sun (News UK)

How did the campaign make a difference? This season, The Sun's fantasy football game Dream Team underwent a mammoth change and included a free two-month trial of Sun+, a perfect accompaniment for any footy fan.

But how do you get 600,000+ fans to give their credit card details for what was previously a FREE fantasy football game?

By (nicely) calling out fans for their footballing infidelity, The Sun successfully retained existing players and attracted new ones to Dream Team and drove trials of Sun+ and Sun Goals.

The campaign delivered outstanding, over-target results with Sun Goals usage up 678% and an 8:1 ROI.

Strategy The killer insight of this year's Dream Team campaign was that fans are closet cheats. Give them the excuse and they'll jump at the chance to pick rival players. Last year 69% of Man United fans chose a Man City player – a taboo on the terraces, but an unspoken truth.

Within a strong integrated campaign, each channel played a different role to ensure the right message at the right time.

Press ads created awareness and urgency; emails reminded, educated and incentivised; digital display retargeted and took on hard acquisition; social channels engaged via the hashtag #DTconfessions; whilst in-app messaging reminded and acquired.

Given the short timeframe it was necessary to track sign-ups by the hour, identify lulls and respond with media bursts – with additional activity at critical moments such as the Community Shield.

Together these channels provided a successful customer journey united by a distinctive tone of voice.

Creativity The campaign line 'It's not cheating when it's your dream team' became a celebration of a footballing truth – honest, cheeky and telling a simple story. It was a line that got football fans across the UK talking, debating and even confessing – whilst the confident, controversial, bantering tone made it easier to ask for credit card details at sign-up without negativity.

The creative was brought to life using likely protagonists in comic, mock-dramatic scenarios and staggering-but-true statistics of fan infidelity. These were developed into a range of creative assets to tell a story across all media. The imagery was striking but the idea also worked typographically in small-space media.

On social sites the simple reporting of real-time statistics was successful in bringing immediacy and greater engagement to any interaction. This creative route got fans really excited about the upcoming season and about their own Dream Team.

Results Social media response to the campaign was immediate and positive – thousands of fans shared their #DTconfessions and grassed up mates for 'cheating'. It was good-humoured, self-aware fun. And it worked…like a dream.

Positive sentiment outweighed negative by 20:1 in the first week, #DTconfessions trended UK-wide for three consecutive days and the campaign delivered a social reach of 17 million, plus 72,000 engagements, in just 16 days.

The campaign led to 637,000 Dream Team sign-ups – up 6% versus target – including 29% new users and 38% more paying users than targeted, with a potential net worth of £3.3m and a potential annualised net worth of £40m.

Overall, this Dream Team campaign gave an impressive 8:1 ROMI and, most importantly, increased Sun Goals usage by a huge 678%.