Proximity London

The Economist
"The Economist World Cup"

Client: The Economist
Product: The Economist
Title: The Economist World Cup
Media: Integrated
Country: United Kingdom
Date Of Campaign: 14/06/2018 - 15/07/2018

Background: The Economist is always at the heart of major global events, but the 2018 World Cup posed a particular challenge. We needed to make ourselves relevant to sports audiences who may never have considered The Economist previously. Competing with billions of passionate online interactions and lacking a reputation for traditional sports coverage or a large budget, it would clearly take a fresh angle to gain any cut-through.

Idea: Any World Cup is a global microcosm but 2018 was a gift. Many participating nations were appearing in headlines for the wrong reasons, including the hosts, making this World Cup the most politically-charged in decades. We seized the opportunity. While others focussed on football, we offered political perspectives on participating countries. We created a series of provocative, nation-specific ads, adjusted for the outcomes of win, lose or draw. After all, The Economist is famous for challenging default thinking.As results came in, we used Sportradar and Flashtalking martech to post the relevant ad, driving interest in stories that ranged from Russia’s dubious use of social media to Nigeria’s huge advances in solar energy. The ads popped up in real time across websites, social media and Fanzone screens. By turning a football score into an eyebrow-raising question or statement about a country’s politics or economics we reflected The Economist and its offering at precisely the moment it would be most relevant. We encouraged fans to think beyond the global sport to underlying global tensions.

Results: We reached 33,000,000 people and inspired 1,400,000 clicks, engaging football fans with editorial from The Economist team. As a result, we achieved an astonishing CTR of 4.24% which far surpassed any previous brand benchmarks for social media activity.

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