Ford sponsors football online
Ford has launched what it bills as the Web’s “first TV-style, online sponsorship”.
It takes the form of a full screen, audio-visual sponsorship “bumper ad”. The campaign, created and managed by M Digital Europe (a division of MindShare), will be run on the Sportal network, a leading online sports information provider.
The “bumper ads” will be shown to Sportal visitors before they view the Ford-sponsored UEFA Champion’s League content.
Ford says its partnership with Sportal is an integral part of the company’s overall “sponsorship activation” programme, aimed at bringing to life its long-term association with European football.
The campaign, headlined “destinationfootball”, is designed to enable “real football fans” to get closer to their favourite sport.
The creative theme used for Ford’s broadcast sponsorship idents (broadcast around UEFA Champions League live and highlights TV programming) has been remodelled by online marketing specialists Tangozebra to produce five short, sharp, full screen, audio-visual “Tranzition” ads.
When pieced together, they attempt to replicate the full broadcast sponsorship story. Tranzitions play when users enter the UEFA Champions League section on Sportal. The Sponsorship Tranzition ads are also being supported by a number of interactive banners and buttons that are placed on the Sportal home page.
Julie Reid, corporate sponsorship manager at Ford, says: “The importance of this lies in the offline/online integrated approach we are developing.”
Examples of the Ford sponsorship online ads can be found at: http://demos.tangozebra.com/~edward/tzsite/testpage.html.
