Ziggo Sport Makes Dutch Football Fan’s Hearts Beat Faster with UEFA European Football Campaign

With exclusive broadcasting rights secured, Ziggo Sport offers football fans the opportunity to fully indulge their passion for European football. Under the banner 'Experience the Love for Football Together', the telecom company launches a major awareness and PR campaign. To generate attention for Ziggo's offering, a mix of on- and offline channels will be deployed, including TVC, radio, print, digital, and OOH.

The awareness campaign 'Feel The Love For Football', developed by Ogilvy, brings the Netherlands together to celebrate the love of football with Ziggo. The PR campaign 'Support the Supporter' by Glasnost brings European football closer to senior citizens through specially organised viewing evenings.

Awareness Campaign: Feel The Love For Football

Sport is synonymous with love, and legendary Dutch singer André Hazes sings about its intensity like no other. The classic song 'Wat is dan liefde’ (What is love) about joy and agony of love and forms the core of the new campaign 'Feel The Love For Football'. Football fans recognise those emotions: whether their club wins or loses, the love for the sport and the club always remains. That feeling of togetherness brings them together at Ziggo.

"Love is more than just happiness and success," says Tolga Büyükdoganay, chief creative officer at Ogilvy. "It's about intense emotions that André Hazes perfectly captured with the song 'Wat is dan liefde’. From despair to euphoria. It was a unique opportunity to incorporate that same intensity into our campaign for Ziggo, resulting in a message that makes the hearts of football fans beat faster. The result gives you goosebumps, exactly as we envisioned. This project shows how powerful the combination of music and marketing can be."

PR Campaign: Support the Supporter

Based on the insight that 1.8 million senior citizens experience a degree of loneliness and that watching sports and entertainment together has a social function, the strategic framework for 'Support the Supporter' was created. National research commissioned by Ziggo showed that 63% indicated that watching football together is more enjoyable, and as many as 50% actually become happier from it. However, watching football together is not self-evident for everyone. People aged 65 and over, in particular, watch alone more often than others (50%).

A focus survey conducted by the Ouderenfonds, focusing on the needs of senior citizens regarding activities that can combat loneliness, revealed that sharing sports and undertaking local activities were the most effective. That is why Ziggo is organising 'Support the Supporter' in the coming months, special UEFA European Football viewing evenings for senior citizens at local football clubs. Football clubs and seniors can register on the matching platform and will be matched with each other based on their postal code area.

On August 11th, Support the Supporter was officially launched in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. Press and fifty senior citizens were invited to enjoy the first competition match of Ajax together with Ronald de Boer and Sjaak Swart.

Stijn Zwinkels, head of Glasnost, said, "The love for football is best shared with each other, in the stadium but also in front of the television. With Support the Supporter, we demonstrate through brand doing how Ziggo lends a helping hand to a group of people who would otherwise be watching alone. Football clubs are opening their clubhouses to senior citizens so that they can enjoy football and each other's company in an accessible way."

The telecom company is organizing special evenings to watch European football together at over one hundred local football clubs and associations across the country. The viewing evenings will take place from mid-September to January.