Grand Visual's Eye-Catching Work: Where Sports Partnerships and Creative Activation Meet

Sport has always been big business, with advertisers clamouring to have their brand logos associated with football, basketball, tennis, and the like. Recently, however, sport has exploded and brought new fans into the fold. The NFL is no longer a US-only phenomenon; the Women’s World Cup had fans on the edge of their seats this summer, and Formula 1’s ‘Drive to Survive’ Netflix docudrama proved to be an unlikely smash hit for the streamer. Sport never went away but today it’s bigger than ever, and with a more diverse fan population too.

That’s why sports partnerships are a great way for brands to align themselves with specific audiences and to reach new consumers. Grand Visual, the creative arm of Talon, the independent global out of home (OOH) media agency, knows a lot about how to take these partnerships to the next level to attract the most – and the right kind of – eyes to the partnerships. Many brands have chosen to go down the OOH route for their creative activations. This is “just smart”, according to Mariel Hernandez – Grand Visual’s US Client Director – as it gives brands the opportunity to “create memorable and engaging experiences for their target audience while also amplifying visibility of their partnership even further.”

 

In August 2023, Grand Visual was called upon by Lenovo to help the brand showcase how its technology is vital to bringing Formula 1 into people’s homes. “Lenovo specifically wanted to utilise creative, non-traditional OOH,” says Mariel. “With that brief, our team was able to come back with the final concept that was seen around the world - an anamorphic creative that has an F1 car zooming into a living room and doing a 180 degree turn, appearing to throw pillows across the screen. It looks like it’s all spilling out of the screen due to the anamorphic effect. The anamorphic portion doesn’t stop there: the F1 car also appears to come out of the screen before it zooms out leaving the living room intact. This campaign did an excellent job of displaying the relationship between the two conglomerates in a way that is completely unique to them.”

Mariel highlights that Lenovo also chose to run the anamorphic creative on two flat – not the typically curved - screens across the UK. “In most cases anamorphic creative is placed on curved corner screens which work best for the 3D effect, but Lenovo chose to break out of that and display anamorphic in the non-traditional route which came out just as great as the spectacle that is Piccadilly Lights.”

 

Nissan and Dark Horses partnered with Grand Visual this year to celebrate the anticipated final races of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at London’s ExCel Centre. Grand Visual helped the brand to completely transform the iconic 110 Queen’s Walk in London into a giant version of their cherry blossom Nismo helmet. “We mapped the helmet-shaped building to transform the landmark into the brilliant pink race helmet for one night only,” says Georgia. To add even more thrill for spectators, “bespoke animations were incorporated into the projected content to create the effect of speed and movement. This unique stunt showcased how effective a creative concept can be when it so perfectly fits the environment in which it lives. Content captured from the projection was used on the night to promote the teams’ upcoming race and drive excitement for Formula E online,” Georgia adds.

The results didn’t just look stunning, with Grand Visual sharing that the Nissan Helmet Projection reveal post brought in a total organic reach of 90k, over 75k of which was from non-followers of Nissan channels. It was the highest reaching post for Nissan in July versus an average of 17k. In total, the projection received over 173,000 views across multiple platforms.

 

American whiskey brand Tincup also chose to leverage dynamic OOH to amplify its partnership with the Colorado Avalanche hockey team. “The first step was to use dynamic DOOH screens to countdown to the next game and that was then replaced by contextual messaging. The contextual messaging was key to the campaign as it launched a QR code that offered fans a free drink on Tincup at a local bar,” explains Mariel.

“Changing the creative and giving out free drinks based on the result of the game was the real kicker for this campaign. It meant audiences were able to really engage with the brand and their partnership with the Colorado Avalanche.”

Mariel adds: “Taking it even further, if the Avalanche lost or if there were no local games, the creative changed over to a ski report to inspire locals to head over to the mountains and tap into their spirit of adventure. The DOOH displayed a combination of predicted snowfall and temperature for the upcoming weekend that always stayed relevant.” This dual approach showcases the versatility of DOOH and how it can be transformed, in real time, to add value to the environment it’s in when it cannot be directly utilised by the brand.

Mariel sees this as just the start of what’s to come. “Brands will continue to focus on innovative ways to enhance their sports partnerships and engage their audience with creative OOH. First and foremost, the use of evolving technology will take centre stage in amplifying sports partnerships. A perfect example of this is the use of anamorphic creative and immersive interactive elements. What if we can change anamorphic creatives based on the actions and decisions of the audience? Fans using their smartphones to interact with the board can lead to personalised experiences relating to the brand and their partnership.”

Now that the success and the creative possibilities of OOH and DOOH have started to permeate the industry, the scope and the stakes are going to keep growing. Brands will want to capitalise on the show and traffic-stopping visuals while technological developments will further aid creatives in bringing their ideas to life. It’s safe to say that we only need to wait and watch the space around us, anticipating to be astonished.