ESPN Star Sports invites fans to vote for their favourite teams

The campaign, which includes a desktop widget, twitter, Facebook, Youtube and billboards, was launched at the end of last month. It invites the public to vote for their favourite team, and the voting ends on 31 March.

Grey Group has created a desktop widget clock, called ‘ESPN Football Clock’, which features players from four English clubs, namely Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. The team with the most number of votes will allow fans to bask in a full minute of glory with the clock display.

The ESPN Football Clock features players in their respective teams' soccer jerseys. The time on the clock is shown using each player’s number on his jersey. Visitors can show support for their club by voting on the microsite, in order to maintain their position on the clock display for as long as possible.

The campaign also sees two ESPN Football Clock billboards put up at Scape and along Scotts Road. Fans were able to vote for their favorite team on-site through a mobile app, whereby they can snap a QR code to access the ESPN Football Clock. The live voting enabled fans to witness the results of their voting and show support in real-time on the billboards.

The mobile app is developed by Yolk.

A football enthusiast holding banners of the four football clubs was also spotted running along Orchard Road to rally support for the teams, while a referee “showed” yellow or red cards to passer-bys to create awareness of the campaign. Club supporters were also given club emblems which they could sport proudly on their faces.

The campaign has since received more than 20,000 votes by football fans. Subbarraju Alluri, CEO at Grey Group Singapore, said, “The enthusiastic response we have received is testament that the campaign has been a resounding success and hugely popular with football supporters. We are sure that this campaign will add on to the FA cup hype and give a chance for fans to engage in fun, friendly competition.”

Paras Sharma, VP (Marcom & On-air promotions) of ESPN STAR Sports, noted that it is essential to stay relevant to an ever changing viewership. The broadcast media is able to create a stronger digital presence to engage younger viewers who are connected 24/7 socially through the Football Clock, he added.

“As a network that is equally in love with sports as much as our viewers, it is important to not only provide content but to also fuel the crowd’s passion for sports. The campaign helped to inject a high-octane of excitement to the games.”

Ali Shabaz, chief creative officer at Grey Group Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, meanwhile said, “Football fans are fiercely loyal to the clubs they support. We wanted to provide a digitally innovative and socially fun platform for them to show their loyalty for their favorite teams and passion for the sport. Thus we have put the fans forward while leveraging brand equity.”