Tiger airs emotional spot to build passion

Mike Savage, Media Asia, Friday, 03 December 2004, 12:00am,

SOUTHEAST ASIA: Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) has mirrored changes designed to heighten the drama of this year's Tiger Cup, the regional football tournament sponsored by its Tiger beer brand, with an emotionally-charged campaign focusing on key moments that could alter the course of a game.

The 'Anything can happen' campaign, which is running on free-to-air TV and outdoor sites across Southeast Asia, highlights how the margin between victory and defeat can sometimes be no more than a few millimetres or a fraction of a second.

One poster shows a goalkeeper stretching to reach a ball speeding towards the edge of its target with the line: "12mm - the difference between idolised and victimised".

Another shows a goalkeeper scrambling for a ball at the goalmouth with the message:"0.2 seconds - the difference between winning and losing".

The 2004 tournament has been designed to lessen home advantage, with preliminary games played in one of two host countries - Malaysia and Vietnam - and semi-finals and finals played in home and away legs.

"The key idea behind the campaign is to play up and further build on the tension and excitement surrounding the new format of the tournament - where top-seeded teams play off against the underdogs, often leading to an 'anything can happen situation'," explained Lucinda Thaw, planning director of the agency behind the campaign, Leo Burnett Singapore.

"Crowds are likely to witness huge upsets as the winning team becomes anyone's guess - adding to the overall thrill of the game."

Leo Burnett also designed a website as part of an integrated push, which may also extend to print.

The Tiger Cup campaign will run in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Indochina markets.

Tiger Beer extended its backing of the event this year by becoming shirt sponsor of Timor, which will be competing in the tournament for the first time since it first began 10 years ago. It also has its name on the kit of the Singapore side and holds national broadcasting rights with various TV stations around the region.

The beer brand also started sponsoring regional broadcasts of the English Premier League on ESPN three years ago in a bid to strengthen its ties with the game at an international level to complementing existing local and regional tie-ups.

The new Tiger Cup campaign broke at the end of November, to whet appetites for the start of the tournament which kicks off on December 7. The final will be held on January 15.

This article was first published on Media Asia