Lydia Ko took out her fourth professional win yesterday, making the 17-year-old golfing phenom the youngest ever player to make it to US$1 million in prize money. ANZ sponsors Ko (and the ANZ Golf Show) and it’s celebrating her win with a simple social game via WhybinTBWA that offers Facebookers a chance to win $2000 if they can guess where she’s hit her tee shot.
Humans generally don’t need an incentive to play games online. And often they’ll pay to do it, with sales of virtual goods within Facebook alone resulting in $1 billion in revenue in 2009 (that was expected to grow to $4 billion by 2013). So offering some cash should enhance participation (no numbers were available, but ANZ has 59,000 likes on Facebook and the post about the competition, which is like a slightly less interesting but potentially more lucrative version of The New York Times’ Spot the Ball project for the World Cup, has had around 1,400 likes).
UPDATE: Here’s the release
In celebration of Lydia Ko’s recent triumph at the Marathon Classic in Ohio and her world number two ranking, proud sponsor ANZ is giving fans the chance to win with help from Ko herself in an online golfing game.
Developed by WhybinTBWA New Zealand, the ANZ Lydia Ko Golf Challenge is a combination of video content and gaming. The game element is set in a virtual recreation of the 17th hole of her hometown golf course – Pupuke Golf Club.
Players are introduced to the game with a video of Lydia on the golf course where she sets up the shot and provides commentary on factors including green conditions, her club choice and wind speed. From there, players are encouraged to use the golfing champion’s tips to guess where the ball will land on the virtual green’s grid.
At the conclusion of the competition (5.00pm Monday 28th July) the person who selected the correct position on the green (or closest to) will win $2,000.
WhybinTBWA Digital Creative Director Nathan Cooper says “ANZ wanted to celebrate their relationship with Lydia in a way that all New Zealanders could participate in. The platform is, we believe, a strong example of how content, digital and design work can come together to create a memorable user experience.”
WhybinTBWA Chief Creative Officer Dave King adds that this type of content is what companies are increasingly looking for to add to their communications mix.
“When you’re connecting with customers it’s all about creating content that will live on, positively, in their minds. We believe the game achieves that,” says King.
Susan McGregor Head of Sponsorship and Corporate Marketing at ANZ says that the company is excited to be able to provide a platform that celebrates one of New Zealand’s brightest sporting talents.
“The partnership between ANZ and Lydia is about supporting New Zealanders to achieve. Lydia is already showing the world that with commitment and the right support you can achieve excellence”.
ANZ has been busy on the sponsorship front of late and is currently putting most of its efforts into the upcoming Commonwealth Games with a nice campaign that features a number of mini-documentaries focused on the competing athletes’ supporters. It’s also giving away 1,000 tickets to the games for those supporters.
Credits:
WHYBINTBWA
Todd McLeay – CEO
Nathan Cooper – Digital Director
Tim Huse – Creative Director
Julian Andrews – Creative Director
Johannes Gertz – Digital Producer
Jake Fitter – Senior Digital Creative
Alex Waskiewicz – Digital Design Lead
Amber Zhou – Creative Strategist
Nick Bulmer – Group Account Director
Victoria Meo – Account Director
Amanda Green – Account Director
John Maloyd – Senior Digital Account Manager
Propeller Productions – Video Production
Fracture – Development Partner
TouchPoint – Platform Partner
ANZ
Susan McGregor – Head of Sponsorship & Corporate Marketing
Matt Pickering – Head of Brand, Retail and Business Banking Marketing
Erin Dudding – Senior Marketing Manager
Evan Rummins – Senior Sponsorship Manager
Andrea Piggott – Marketing Manager
