McCann

Client: BT Group
Product: BT Sport
Title: Unscripted
Media: Data/Social/Digital/Influencer/Print/OOH
Country: United Kingdom
Date Of Campaign: 30/07/2019

Background: BT Sport wanted to position themselves at the centre of football culture ahead of the 19/20 Premier League season. But there were no big budgets. If BT Sport wanted to genuinely engage the fans, it had to be on their turf, on their terms.Social media was the new pub, where fans, players and pundits came together to debate the beautiful game. And, with the introduction of VAR, technology was the trending topic.

Idea: From the embers of the most remarkable Champions League season ever, a truth emerged. You just can’t write this stuff. So we brought together the biggest brains in data - Google Cloud, Opta and Squawka - to do the unthinkable. Use artificial intelligence and big data to script the entire 19/20 season. Every team’s fate decided, before a ball had even been kicked.An impressive 60-page dossier was leaked to pundits, players, influencers and journalists, and then, to the world. The conversation erupted, turning a national campaign into a global debate in 44 countries. The biggest names in world football even took to their own channels to publicly destroy the script in ever inventive ways.Then, the reveal. The true jeopardy of football brought to life in an iconic ATL campaign, proving you can’t script it, but you can watch it live on BT Sport.This was supported with national press, OOH, social, innovative pre-roll and experiential. Flooding high profile locations across the country and major transport hubs, where we also gave away thousands of hard copies of the script.

Results: Over the campaign’s official 10-day run time, Unscripted trended higher as a search term than Boris, Brexit and Fantasy Football. What started as a national campaign went global, with the debate raging on across on-and-offline channels in 44 countries.We achieved 30% more BT Sport subscriptions than 2018, with just 26% of the budget.Unscripted redefined the way BT Sport tackle creative. From making ads to creating conversations. With a perfect blend of data, insight and creativity the campaign doubled the paid media budget through earned media – maximising impact and efficiency.