Powerade engages footy fans across the country with dedicated State of Origin Twitter campaign.

The Holden State of Origin is an annual event for the National Rugby League (NRL), regularly pulling the number one spot on free-to-air television. The series of 3 games between Queensland (the Maroons) and New South Wales (the Blues) unites sports fans across the country. Coca-Cola’s Powerade brand is a partner of the NRL, and wanted to leverage the relationship to connect with footy fans.

The strategy

Powerade was keen to tap into recent innovations in Twitter technology to provide die-hard NRL supporters with exclusive access to the State of Origin heroes. Using Conversational Video Ads, footy fans could declare their allegiance and share a tailored support video with the hashtags #uptheblues or #QLDER. Popular State of Origin players, Aaron Woods (@aaronwoods11) and Sam Thaiday (@samthaiday) personally answered fans’ questions using the Twitter Q&A app. Twitter Australia’s Blue Room was converted into the Maroon Room to host Powerade brand ambassador Billy Slater (@billyslater) on Twitter using SnappyTV. The brand extended the reach of some video answers using Promoted Video. @Poweradeau used event targeting to reach users interested in the State of Origin event, and keyword targeting to reach NRL fans.

Collaborate closely with key players

Powerade worked closely with Twitter and its marketing agency to coordinate every Q&A session. This empowered the team to pivot smoothly between Twitter tools. Conversational Video Ads helped the brand capitalise on the passion and rivalry in and around the matches, weaving them into the Q&A dialogue.

Harness Twitter’s real-time potential

Powerade knew that Twitter’s real-time engagement would be one of its strongest assets in this campaign. The brand used SnappyTV and the Q&A app to create video content and immediately broadcast it. Fans who missed the action weren’t left out as they can view the Q&A videos in a single canvas, compiled using Twitter Moments.

Create authentic perspectives with brand ambassadors

Australian audiences react well to authentic and relatable people, and it’s hard to get more relatable than Aussie football players. An atmosphere of banter and behind the scenes exclusive content kept fans interested and engaged during Q&A sessions.

The Success

• 3.45 million impressions
• 347,000 video views
• 41.6,000 engagements

Powerade was thrilled with the results of the campaign. The brand test-drove some of Twitter’s latest solutions. The Conversational Video Ads earned 915 user Tweets which sent out using the #uptheblues and #QLDER hashtag buttons. Brand ambassadors answered 70 user-submitted questions, generating 171,000 impressions. Promoted Videos gained an average engagement rate of over 33%. The brand credits its success to using several Twitter tools that supported various video creatives and worked seamlessly together to boost the impact of the whole campaign.

“Powerade was able to leverage the Twitter platform and assets to engage with sports fans around one of Australia’s biggest sporting events. It allowed us to use highly engaging video creatives to talk to this audience on both a one-to-many and one-to-one basis,” – Sarah Illy (@saraheilly), Brand Activations Manager, Coca-Cola South Pacific