Dubai: The cabin crew march smartly onto the football field and instruct fans to wave their scarves to give players more oxygen. A few seconds later they demonstrate their ball skills with keepie-uppies, backsies and shots at goal.
The second of Emirates airlines’ ‘football safety’ videos, filmed at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion, Germany, before Hamburger SV’s home fans, has achieved 1.3 million views and 23,500 shares on Facebook since Emirates uploaded it on March 3. It’s picked up another 200,000 views on YouTube.
The first video in the airline’s football series — filmed at Benfica football club’s Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal — has had 3.6 million views on Facebook and more than 2.25 million YouTube views since Emirates uploaded it on October 27.
Emirates sponsors both clubs among its portfolio of international football sponsorship deals, which also include AC Milan (Italy), Arsenal (UK), Paris Saint-Germain (France) and Real Madrid (Spain). It has also sponsored the Asian Football Conference since 2002.
“We were pleased that both our Benfica and HSV sponsorship activation videos were watched by millions of people around the world, but we were not doing this just for view counts,” Roger Duthie, Emirates’ sponsorships manager, said in an email interview.
“Our aim was to showcase our involvement and support for sports in a way that football and non-football fans alike would find exciting and entertaining, generate discussion, and ultimately share and spread that shared passion.
“We believe sponsorships are one of the best ways to connect with our passengers. They allow us to share and support their interests and to build a closer relationship with them, and we know that this is key to Emirates becoming viewed as a lifestyle brand in the coming years.”
Dubai-based brand analyst and stand-up comedian Omar Ismail said the videos’ appeal lay in adherence to basic principles.
“One key element of comedy is subverting expectations, so here we have two things that are well known, but in the wrong context,” he said.
“Everyone knows the flight attendant routine, and seeing it being applied in a place you don’t expect is where the comedy comes from. It’s the surprise.
“Brand wise, it’s even more straightforward. Nobody has more brand loyalty than football club fans. Emirates is trying to transfer some of that loyalty to themselves by associating [it’s brand] with the teams. There are obviously two teams playing in each game, but I suspect in both cases it was the home team they were associating themselves with.
“If those supporters make the connection with Emirates and their team, that would be a big win for this campaign.”
Despite speculation on social media that Emirates has hired women footballers and dressed them in cabin crew uniforms, Duthie said six of the eight women displaying their skills are serving Emirates crew who play football in their spare time. The other two are members of Hamburger SV’s management team.
Both videos were developed by Emirates with independent Portuguese creative agency O Escritorio, working on a project basis.
Duthie was coy when asked for details of target audience and viewer demographics.
“We wanted to talk to a global audience and connect with football and non-football fans alike through an engaging piece of content to showcase our passion for football and add a smile to people’s faces.”
And asked whether there would be any more videos in the series, he said: “You will just have to wait and see!”
