Yahoo! Penalty Shootout
Best Use of Event Marketing (More Than Five Venues)
Best Use of Games, Contests and Sweepstakes
Agency: Yahoo!
Campaign: Yahoo! Penalty Shootout
Client: Yahoo!
Yahoo! wanted to run a global World Cup campaign targeting consumers 18-44 that would make Yahoo! the No. 1 World Cup site without having the legal rights to use the FIFA name, logo or trademarks.
They realized that no one was laying claim to the penalty shootout, and created the Yahoo! Penalty Shootout that matched fans from around the world to compete with each other for a chance to win the Yahoo! Sports Pass: tickets to any four sports events in the world each year for the next four years.
Players from around the globe were able to play multiple games against their friends or random players in real time, kicking and defending penalty shots in a live action video game. Each player earned virtual points at the end of each matchup. In addition, for every goal scored on June 11, World Cup opening day, Yahoo! donated $1 to the Global Fund (recipient of RED funds) to help eradicate AIDS in Africa.
On July 10th, the top two players were flown to Brazil to compete for the most goals scored against goalie David Seaman. The winner took home the Yahoo! Sports Pass. Local and international press attended the event, along with local youth football teams who conducted their own penalty kicks prior to the event. Twenty-five influential bloggers in eight key markets were invited with the promise of meeting football legends and garnering one-on-one interviews.
To drive awareness, world-class goalkeepers held impromptu penalty shootouts with fans in 11 cities; London, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Toronto and Jakarta. More than 12,000 fans lined up to kick against goalkeeper legends and have their photo taken which could then be downloaded at home that night.
A “World Interviews David Beckham” event, hosted by sports journalist Gabby Logan and streamed live to 19 countries, was held in London. Beckham answered 30 questions from users across Yahoo! Answers, Twitter and Facebook.
The site achieved No. 1 World Cup site status in the U.S. with 27.1 million unique visitors and No. 2 worldwide with 17.8 million (according to comScore). Participants spent a total of 11.6 million minutes in the game, and 2.1 million games were played. There were 440,000 users and 16 million social media impressions.
