ESPN.

* ESPN *

* YCN Student Awards 2011/12 *

ESPN Develop a brand affinity campaign to inspire younger audiences to engage with ESPN on any platform

Background Launched in the UK on Monday 3rd August 2009, just six weeks after acquiring rights to the Barclays Premier League, ESPN has acquired multiple live sporting rights covering some of the world’s most popular sports. In its first two years, ESPN has brought fans extensive live sports coverage, with top flight football from England, Scotland and across Europe as well as the FA Cup (including the first ever 3D broadcast of the competition’s final), Aviva Premiership Rugby, Europa League, WRC, NFL, and much more.

In the UK, ESPN now includes a portfolio of television and digital brands including ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN Classic, ESPN America and ESPN America HD, ESPN.co.uk,ESPNCricinfo.com, ESPNSoccernet.com,ESPNScrum. com, ESPNF1.com, ESPN Goals and ESPN Player (broadband).

ESPN, Inc. is the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring a portfolio of over 50 multimedia sports assets. It is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. ESPN International has grown to include ownership — in whole or in part — of 46 television networks outside of the United States, as well as a variety of brand extension businesses, which allow ESPN to reach fans in 200 countries and territories.

The creative challenge With our range of on-air and digital services, ESPN truly understands and serves the younger sports fan.

ESPN’s mission is “to serve sports fans, wherever sports are watched, listened to, discussed, debated, read about or played.” Currently the average ESPN subscriber is an older male aged 45+.

We want this campaign to convince younger (aged under 35) male sports fans to recognise ESPN as the most relevant sports broadcaster in the UK for them. * 1 of 3 *

* ESPN *

* YCN Student Awards 2011/12 *

Target audience We call this target group ‘Young, Loyal and Connected’. These are men aged under 35 who can’t get enough sport. Mainly they love football but they are also passionate about F1, Tennis, Cricket, Rugby, Snooker, Boxing and Golf.

Of all of our target groups, these are most likely to be students and access ESPN through a shared subscription (most likely on Virgin).

Young audiences are actively excited by sport. They engage with it and like all sports fans interact with friends around it.

Even if they no longer play sports at uni, college or clubs, gaming allows them to vicariously enjoy the thrills of sport and to play along with the football and F1 seasons.

If they don’t have access to a subscription, TV coverage is found through pubs, parents and their mates’ houses. Plus now the crucial bits can be found online or on Apps without the subscription.

Stats: 88% of them visit sports websites regularly and 44% visit sports apps/sites on their mobile phones.

Media choices: E4, Sky3, twitter, guardian.co.uk, myspace.com, facebook, YouTube.

Creative considerations If you love sport you simply can’t get enough of it. It’s never far from your mind, you are drawn to it and captivated by it. ESPN shares this emotion.

Our brand proposition is, “ESPN: For the love of sport.”

Our brand components are; expert, entertaining, exciting.

ESPN’s range of on-air, online and mobile services give you everything you need to follow the sports you love: TV (ESPN, ESPN America and ESPN Classic), ESPN Digital (espn.co.uk, espn.com, Soccernet and Cricinfo) and ESPN Goals.

You need to think of the challenge as a brand affinity campaign getting younger audiences to engage with ESPN on any platform.

Creative Requirements Create a campaign that can effectively reach out to the target audience.

Suggest the right media to suit the message in order to make an impact. You can consider all of the following; Poster, Print, Radio, Pre-roll, Online Display, Social, Direct, possibly TV inc. fixtures and Direct Response element.

Ideas should work within low budgets.

Our key ESPN logos can be found in the brief’s project pack. If you require any platform logos eg. Sky, Virgin or league logos eg.

Barclays Premier league, Aviva - please contact YCN: studio@ycnonline.com with the subject line ‘ESPN Logos’.

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* ESPN *

* YCN Student Awards 2011/12 *

Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information For guidance on how to submit your work please adhere to the main deliverables information in the Student Awards section of the YCN website.

Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack on the YCN website – www.ycnonline.com

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