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3 April 2009
Standard Bank launches Forever Proteas campaign
Standard Bank has launched an integrated marketing campaign - Forever Proteas - to leverage its long term association with South African cricket, and its exclusive sponsorship of the One Day International (ODI) and International Pro20 teams.
The Forever Proteas campaign was launched to coincide with the current limited overs series against Australia.
Interest in cricket is at unprecedented levels in South Africa – after a successful Proteas tour of Australia, South Africa?s number one ODI ranking, and the recent announcements that the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the ICC Champions Trophy are to be staged locally.
Forever Proteas intends to maintain Standard Bank's high cricket sponsorship awareness in South Africa and drive the association of its long term sponsorship by linking the brand to the Proteas.
The campaign aims to engage with cricket fans by capturing the shared passion and pride of South African cricket, and convey the emotional connection of supporting the Standard Bank ODI team. Its creative development highlights the determination, commitment and heroism displayed by the ODI team in their many international encounters.
The campaign is both emotive and personal - linking recognisable every day fans with Proteas captain Graeme Smith and bowler Makhaya Ntini. The television and cinema commercial expresses the emotion and fervour of fans sharing in the preparations of the Proteas before they emerge for battle on the international cricket stage.
"Fans relate to the emotion and drama of limited overs cricket, and we have all related to and celebrated the depth of the team's character, their guts and their leadership. The Standard Bank ODI team have regularly shown South Africans that with courage and confidence, anything is possible, and we wanted a campaign that clearly and succinctly demonstrated that," said Clement Motale, Standard Bank Director Group Sponsorships.
"We identify that fans are integral to supporting cricket and the ODI team, forever. And that no matter what happens in a game – win or lose – we are all forever fans. As sponsors of the team, we are forever behind both the team and the fan."
TBWA Creative Director, Damon Stapleton comments: "The simple concept behind the campaign was that it takes much more than just eleven players to make the Proteas. The fans, the rituals and the passion create the game, and in a sense the connection between the team and every South African. This is what Standard Bank wanted to celebrate."
The integration of Forever Proteas across various platforms delivers prominent brand association as well as personalised and interactive communication with fans.
The above–the–line campaign includes a 45 second television and cinema commercial; billboards; print advertising; and "moving billboard" in a purpose-designed and branded Forever Proteas team bus.
Two billboard executions have been used nationally to extend the Forever Proteas theme to outdoor, stretching the concept of fans side by side – forever – with the team. The outdoor campaign uses cricketers Graeme Smith and Makhaya Ntini, alongside every day fans. The outdoor mix includes a massive building wrap at Cape Town International Airport.
Forever Proteas is supported by key mobile and social platforms that feed the newly launched www.standardbankcricket.com website, the standardbank.mobi site and the Standard Bank Mxit contact.
Facebook, YouTube and Flickr are three of the exciting platforms that allow cricket fans to interact with the brand and Forever Proteas campaign by allowing up-loads of consumer generated content that features on the key website.
Standard Bank also offers live scoring on both www.standardbankcricket.com and standardbank.mobi. Committed live bloggers at every game, continue the Forever Proteas theme by updating the blog content on www.standardbankcricket.com. Followers on social media platform Twitter are also kept up to date with the on and off-field action.
The campaign was developed by agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris, with additional specialist leverage provided by online agencies Tequila, Aqua Online, Brandsh, and event activation agency Maverick. Specialist media agency, OMD, developed the media strategy.
Standard Bank has been a sponsor of limited-overs cricket in South Africa since 1997 and is the official sponsor of the International limited overs team (ODI and International Pro20).
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