The process commenced with an extensive consultancy phase with both, Bitget and Lionel Messi’s team, to conceptualise a narrative that reflected the worlds of both Crypto trading, and elite-level football to deliver the hero brand video.

As part of the consultancy, WePlay undertook a series of strategic workshops to uncover a set of insights that would help us to define our creative direction.

Using these insights we developed a range of low to high-fidelity storyboards whilst sculpting the script to complement the tonality of the video.

WePlay then defined the visual aesthetics for the video which were based upon high impact, quick transitions, stylised lighting and bold typography, stripping back any background noise and placing Messi as the focal point of the campaign.

The shoot was meticulously planned, with every minute accounted for. The shoot encompassed a wide array of production executions, including two photography shoots, behind-the-scenes footage, short form stills and video, and signed merchandise.

These key elements were enhanced through the post-production phase where bespoke music, sound design, grading, and rota-scoping were all used to deliver a world-class final product.

WePlay worked very closely with Messi and his team, to deliver a range of additional content to be used throughout the follow-on campaign.

We began by filling out the picture of the UFC’s international audience using platform, panel-based and partner insights.

The goal was to identify territories with a strong UFC and mixed martial arts (MMA) fanbase. However, we wanted to prioritise markets with low barriers to entry for a dedicated SVOD product – such as an absence of local TV deals – and where UFC Fight Pass would be produced in local languages and carry coverage of MMA events from regional partners.

We then overlaid a consolidated list of target markets with those where core biddable platforms from companies like Meta and Google were in heavy use. We also planned campaigns that would reach those markets at moments of peak interest in UFC Fight Pass, such as in the build-up to major fight nights or locally relevant promotions such as UFC London.

Creative assets were adapted to foreground regional stars like Israel Adesanya in Australia or Paddy Pimblett in the UK, while social content was also translated into the languages that UFC Fight Pass was available in locally.

We then optimised campaigns to enable more effective retargeting, prioritising social and search platforms that had historically delivered better conversion rates. We developed video content at three different lengths for the first half of 2022 – at 15 seconds, 30 seconds and 60 seconds – and used watch times to sort tagged viewers by levels of engagement.

We then retargeted those viewers with paid social campaigns and programmatic videos to turn the strongest prospects into subscribers.

Our strategy was initiated by a comprehensive marketing plan that focused on 

• Building awareness of the brand amongst the core UFC fanbase
• Expediting social growth by reaching relevant audiences with captivating creative
• Driving engaged Howler Head fans to purchase with direct messaging
• Identifying and connecting with audiences outside of UFC fans
• Amplifying reach and engagement of competitions and organic content to build the brand

Additional activity focused on activation around live events, pay-per-views, and dialing up the engagement with core UFC and fight fans.

To extend the reach further, we partnered with a variety of in-market influencers whose followers connected with the core Howler Head demographic, as well as UFC athletes and UFC President, Dana White. We worked closely with the influencers to produce content that drove engagement, social growth, and, importantly, bottle sales.

For the historic return of UFC to the world’s most famous combat sports arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City for UFC 281, WePlay created an awareness campaign to maximise exposure of the UFC partnership.

Our creative team produced bespoke UFC 281 assets for the big screens in and around the arena, as well as producing content for UFC 281 to engage our target audiences across paid and organic media, podcasts, social channels and digital out-of-home displays. 

We implemented a compelling digital strategy to meet content objectives, increase reach through owned, earned and media tactics, and helped FIFA build a closer relationship with its fans.

During the research phase, we uncovered actionable insights to guide creative processes and ensure content outputs met various goals.

Our define-and-refine strategy included activities such as:

• a channel audit to comprehensively understand FIFA’s audience and content performance
• setting clear KPIs and content measurement criteria to assess the performance

Audience insights identified key moments in fans’ lives, and across the football and cultural calendars, to boost content performance across platforms.

Meanwhile, we devised five-core workstreams that would position the governing body as the No1 social destination for global football fans:

• social audience intelligence, to inform and improve content development and output
• content strategy and planning, to maximise value and impact across FIFA content modes and moments
• drive innovation and maximise content by working closer and smarter with platform partners
• owned, earned and paid media tactics to increase reach
• strengthening FIFA’s relationship with fans via a community management strategy

Each workstream was an integral component of our ‘surface strategy’, which shifted thinking away from platform-led objectives to align with how modern football fans consume content at a surface level.

We executed this across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch and Spotify, and delivered content that engaged fans globally.

We analysed Utah Jazz’s digital data points across social, web and CRM to collate audience learnings, and identify crossovers, gaps and opportunities. This helped us understand:

• Deterministic data – purchase behaviour, subscription history, log-in/survey data
• Third-party data – browsing behaviour, search patterns, content consumption
• Demographic data – age and gender, location, profession/education

We know that engaged fans drive increased response so we defined the pathway to purchase and identified high-value audiences – including local, national and global fans.

Social growth focuses primarily on Facebook and TikTok. We run a ‘glocal’ campaign strategy to engage non-English speaking markets, using translated copy and localised assets.

To boost ticket sales, we target rich data segments with paid social and search campaigns to drive ‘fear of missing out’ by showcasing epic scenes fans can only experience in-person. This involves eye-popping creative in various ad formats, with conversion through response-optimised creative assets.

To boost merchandise sales, data-led planning and use of best-in-class biddable tech platforms optimises and serves ads in real-time to key audiences.

Paid media drives awareness and enquiries of summer camps, with data-led content and messaging that spans the full conversion funnel.

Our campaign for the PGA American Express Tour employed a data-driven approach, using client-owned data to gain insight into previous buyers’ behaviour and engagement on digital channels. We also considered event specifics such as location, entertainment, and key athletes to inform our strategy.

To target previous buyers, we created personalised messaging and offers. For prospecting audiences, we A/B tested new content to determine the most effective approach. These audiences were divided into two groups: those who had previously engaged with the AMEX PGA website or social content (Connected with Audience) and those who had not (Cold prospects).

To measure the success of our campaign, we tracked key metrics such as Click-Through Rate, Video Views, and % of videos watched. This allowed us to make strategic decisions and serve tailored messaging to different audience segments. As a result, we were able to drive ticket sales and increase engagement with the PGA American Express Tour.