Xfinity 'Real Deal' Campaign with Team Whistle | 6th Hashtag Sports Awards

Xfinity "Real Deal" Campaign with Team Whistle

Team Whistle, Xfinity

The 6th Annual Awards

Nominee ✨
  • Best Branded Content

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

Comcast’s Xfinity High Speed Internet partnered with Spark Foundry and Team Whistle around the 2024 Super Bowl. The campaign objective was to establish that things that appear to be the same, are in reality not the same. To bring this concept to life Comcast teamed up with Christian McCaffrey, the all-pro running back for the San Francisco 49ers....and Christian McCaffrey, a restaurant manager from Illinois with the same name. The teams produced one “hero” commercial asset that ran during the Super Bowl. Three supporting social assets were also created around key Xfinity product attributes in speed, reliability and power. The spots featured “the real CMC” providing commentary and flashes of his athletic prowess, while “the other CMC” struggled to keep up. The ads delivered 100MM+ online video views, equal to 80% of the Super Bowl audience, at a fraction of the cost of an ad in the Super Bowl.

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How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

The spot afforded an actual longtime superfan fan of Christian McCaffrey, who has the same name as the football player, to try his hand at the same drills around key Xfinity product attributes in speed, reliability and power. He has been watching him ever since he was at Stanford and then the Panthers. McCaffrey didn’t get to meet the other McCaffrey during production of the commercial, but he did receive a personal message from the speedy back. This ran across social to reach a Gen Z and millennial chord cutting audience, as well as broadcast TV local markets.

Objective

The high-speed internet market is increasingly competitive with a lot of players claiming the best product at lower prices. But not all internet providers are the same. To take the game to the turf, Comcast’s Xfinity High Speed Internet found a fun, clever way to ‘sack’ the competition around the 2024 Super Bowl. In collaboration with Spark Foundry and Team Whistle, a DAZN owned company, Comcast launched a lighthearted campaign spotlighting that just because something may appear to be the same, doesn’t mean that it has the same game.

Strategy & Execution

To bring this concept to life Comcast teamed up with Christian McCaffrey (CMC), the all-pro running back for the San Francisco 49ers...and Christian McCaffrey, a restaurant manager from Illinois with the same name. The teams produced one “hero” social-first piece of branded content that also ran on linear TV in local markets during the Super Bowl. Three shorter supporting content pieces were also created around key Xfinity product attributes in speed, reliability and power, and distributed via social channels.

The spots featured “the real CMC” providing commentary and flashes of his athletic prowess, while “the other CMC” struggled to keep up in training activities fit for an NFL star. The spot and the short form iterations each showcased Xfinity as “the real deal” in internet service, relative to “the other guys” who may promise (but fall short) of the same things.

Organizations

  • Team Whistle
  • Xfinity
  • Comcast
  • Spark Foundry

Featured

  • Christian McCaffrey

Credits

Dustin Fleischman
EVP of Revenue & Brand Strategy
Team Whistle

Eric Goncalves
Vice President, Integrated Marketing at Team Whistle
Team Whistle

Corey Radel
Vice President of Brand Partnerships
Team Whistle

Eric Wallach
SVP Content Director
Spark Foundry

Mahesh Krishna
EVP of Strategy
Spark Foundry

Randy Levine
SVP, Digital Investment & Branded Content
Spark Foundry

Lisa Pickles
Executive Director, Media at Comcast
Comcast

Julie Montgomery
Sr. Manager Media Strategy & Planning at Comcast
Comcast

camillia Travia
Senior Marketing Specialist at Comcast
Comcast

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Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.

 

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