When online ticket marketplace StubHub created an event marketing plan to support its new “Let Your Fan Out” campaign, the brand went with an unusual format: a live game show.
The brand selected seven finalists from a video contest and invited them to participate in a competition on November 12 at L.A. Live’s Microsoft Square. Challenges included touchdown dances and creative cheers, in front of a crowd and celebrity judges including Alan Thicke, Pia Toscano, and the L.A. Galaxy’s Omar Gonzalez—all prior to the start of the Los Angeles Kings game nearby. In addition to the title of “L.A.’s biggest fan” and bragging rights, the winner received a $5,000 StubHub gift certificate.
With ideation, management, and execution from experiential agency Mosaic, the StubHub team transformed Microsoft Square into a stadium-style competition layout, complete with bleachers for a throng of fans, driven to the area by the Kings game, plus activities and giveaways.
“The whole idea around the campaign is how easy StubHub and our various apps and tools make it easy for you as a fan to let your fan out, whatever you’re into. So from an event perspective, we thought there isn’t much better a way to let your fan out than to do it in a public way,” said StubHub's head of event marketing, Justin Finn. “There isn’t a better way to drive social, and viral chatter around the brand and around the new campaign, while also creating this physical spectacle, in a major city before a major event.”
In between contestant activities, StubHub offered fans in attendance giveaways, including T-shirts bearing campaign messaging launched from a T-shirt canon like ones used at major sporting events. There were also giant inflatable jumpers and a basketball hoop, plus face painting for kids, freebies like signed jerseys, and StubHub gift cards.
All of the activities were family friendly. “We knew were going to have a endemic crowd because of the Kings game across the street,” Finn said. “And one of the main reasons people go to sporting events is to involve their children.”
To promote the event, StubHub used the first wave of the social campaign to encourage people to submit 15-second videos for consideration. Then, when the event date moved closer, messaging switched to drive interest and awareness to the live spectacle.
Finn said the brand tapped its “great relationships” with the various related entities—for instance L.A. Galaxy team personnel—to help with co-promotion across their various social channels. “They were as excited as we were,” he said.
In all, the campaign, aimed squarely at the Los Angeles metro area, garnered 2.8 million impressions across digital media. There were 980,000 organic impressions from mentions online.
Finn said it was the first time StubHub had done this style of event, but the Los Angeles game show format would likely spark future similar programs. “This would be something we could do across multiple genres in multiple cities for a more extended period of time,” Finn said. “We would love to do it again because we are a fan-focused brand, and this idea of getting fans out there—[it’s] a lot of fun, great for the crowd, and in our minds, it was a huge success.”
