UnionPay scored the official payment partnership with the AFF Suzuki Cup, a biennial football tournament in 2018, hosted by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). They have decided to activate the target audience for interaction and engagement, 3 months prior to the tournament to create awareness of the partnership and leveraging the exposure to audience across six SEA markets — Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

To speak to the football enthusiasts of 18-35 years old who favors active lifestyle, and experiential events, we wanted to emulate an online gaming experience where they can play off each other.

The starting point was to conceptualise a central digital gaming hub which is a robust microsite that could cater for localisation of content through different markets. Mini games and mechanics were created and seeded strategically towards the grand tournament day. A digital marketing plan was worked out and executed with strategic use of channel mix, creatives and content, and it was closely monitored and optimised through the campaign period.

All targets set up for the campaign were met with more than 70k visits to the microsite and more than 140k engagements.

We also see combined impressions of 2M+ and over 3k engagements through all display, search and social marketing. Overall, it was a very healthy exposure for UnionPay for 3-month prior, during and 1-month after the tournament.