Vodacom’s TV commercial pays tribute to soccer fans

By paying homage to the passion and energy of South Africa’s soccer fans, Vodacom’s newest television commercial clearly demonstrates that the cellular service provider has the interests of the game and its fans at heart.

Developed by a crack creative team at Draftfcb Johannesburg under the guidance of the agency’s executive creative director Grant Jacobsen, the ad launched this month (June) to celebrate Vodacom’s continued sponsorship of SAFA and Bafana Bafana during the FIFA Confederations Cup.

It highlights that – when it comes to inspiring a team – nothing works as well as a jubilant home crowd. This is achieved by showing how other techniques and methods – from the serious, such as visualisation and motivational exercises, to the ridiculous, fail.

Explains Vodacom’s Managing Marketing Executive, Enzo Scarcella: “As any football player from any part of the world will attest, there is no better feeling than standing in the middle of your home ground pitch just before kickoff with your supporters in the stand or on the sidelines. As a player, you truly feel empowered by the home ground advantage these supporters give you.

“Equally daunting is standing on another team’s pitch knowing that, aside from a small band of travelling supporters, the stands will be filled with foreign shouting, singing, screaming hoards whose sole purpose is to remind you that you are in their backyard.

Vodacom wants to encourage South African soccer supporters to remind the visiting teams that play against Bafana Bafana that they are in our backyard. It acknowledges that the game of soccer is nothing without its legions of supporters.”

The 60 second tongue-in-cheek commercial opens with a foreign coach explaining to the camera that he has several tricks up his sleeve when it comes to creating a team with the will and ability to win. In the background is a samba beat and on the field are sequined Brazilian samba dancers. With that, the ad cuts to the sidelines where the players are taking turns jumping over a small fire. As the coach exhorts the team to ‘jump the fire’, one of the player’s boots catch fire. In another scene, players jog on the pitch with sacks over their heads and one, wandering off, nearly collides with the lawn mowers as the coach extols: ‘visualise, visualise, visualise.’

After a few more inspiration mishaps – including several dozen chickens and a lion pacing down the access tunnel past petrified players to shouts of ‘face your fear, face your fear’ – the ad cuts to match day inside a packed and noisy stadium. We see that it is Bafana Bafana on the pitch as Teko receives the ball, calmly looks around and takes just a second to send off a cracker of a shot right from the half way line. The noise quietens as everyone follows the path of the ball and, as it drops through the goal mouth, the stadium erupts with pure soccer joy. It is then that the coach shares the one fact that all South African soccer lovers know, and foreign visitors will learn: ‘In Africa, the power comes from the fans’.

Adds Draftfcb Johannesburg executive creative director, Grant Jacobsen: “Instead of briefing us to develop an ad that focussed solely on the brand and drawing attention to how much it has invested in soccer, Vodacom has used this ad to remind the supporter of the very critical role he or she plays in the team’s success.

“The message is clear: the fans make the game great, so show your support and love of the game at every possible opportunity.”