We made the World Cup Ayoba.
Leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa there was a lot of negative press about South Africa locally and internationally. This narrative about our lack of preparedness and other issues were being raised to discredit the first World Cup to be held on African soil and they were demoralising South Africans.
Complication
We needed to mobilize South Africans first in order to get them to be positive ambassadors for South Africa. We needed to get them excited in order to excite the rest of the world.
Solution
We created a campaign based off the colloquial phrase ‘Ayoba’. One word that would galvanize a nation and educate those who didn’t know what could be and couldn’t be considered to be ‘Ayoba’. One simple word that transcended race, culture, nationality to become the official rallying call of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Impact of the workpiece
MTN obtained the highest spontaneous awareness of all FIFA sponsors in the host country beating global giants like Coca-Cola and Adidas.