At Bundesliga International we envisioned a never before seen campaign to promote the 2021/2022 season on ESPN+.
My colleague Eduardo Rivoldi had the idea of partnering with Hollywood star David Hasselhoff, whose strong connection and popularity within Germany was perfect to generate excitement for the league. The biggest challenge was having to negotiate with Hasselhoff, his agents and the SAG Aftra Union while having to shoot the spot as we were slowly coming back from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We were coordinating production from New York while filming took place in Los Angeles.
See the below excerpt from The Drum:
This new localized campaign is part of the Deutsche Fußball Liga’s (DFL) internationalization strategy designed to drive awareness and viewership of the Bundesliga regionally. It was driven and co-developed by Bundesliga International New York office and ESPN+, and marks the first time ESPN+ and Bundesliga have collaborated on a creative concept to drive both awareness and subscribers to the platform. It will be broadcast on all of ESPN’s owned channels including digital, social, and TV.
The campaign will run for three months and includes a promo spot, with memes and gifs for use on social media. In it, David Hasselhoff explains that the only thing bigger than him in Germany is the Bundesliga, but just like him has all the same merits – namely the star power, intense action, US talent, and the league’s highest average of goals (hits), more than any other league.
ESPN+ and Bundesliga International have collaborated on several marketing events since the beginning of the partnership, including a series of virtual watch parties for the highly anticipated Der Klassiker match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern München. They have also co-produced short form localized documentaries explaining key rivalries in the league such as the Berlin Derby and Klassiker. The latter was part of a lead promotional campaign on ESPN+ to promote the second Klassiker, which aired on on ABC, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ had a total audience of 732,000 viewers, making it the second most-viewed Bundesliga match of all time in the English language.
Bundesliga International expanded its footprint into the US in 2018, with the opening of its first North American office in New York City. The regional head office allows Bundesliga International to facilitate direct engagement with fans across the Americas by overseeing the league’s media and marketing operations across the region.
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