Client: Manchester United’s Soccer School
Brief: ‘Let’s make a viral film’
Collaborator: Mi – CGI, Games and Animation Studio
Year: 2012
What does it take to be the next Wayne Rooney?
Back in 2012, having worked with Manchester United’s Soccer School for 5 years, we were approached by their marketing team with a proactive idea:
“Let’s make a viral film”
At the time, ‘viral’ was the trending buzzword. But we didn’t just chase the trend, we rooted our concept in strategy. Amplifying the Soccer School’s message that your kid could become the next great, if they learn the ‘United way.’
Our idea was “The next Wayne Rooney?”.
We created an intentionally low-fi video – something that looked like it was shot by a parent on their phone during practice. The kind of clip you’d mindlessly watch on your social feed and be blown away by (we hope you watched to the end!).
The video showed a Rooney lookalike casually belting the ball from 100 yards, smashing it straight into the goal, and then calmly walking off, completely unfazed by his own brilliance.
Parents were in awe that they’d just witnessed the next Great.
Manchester United’s Soccer School loved the idea! So we went down the road to our friends at Mi – CGI, Games and Animation Studio. After an hour’s worth of grovelling, the team agreed to help with very little budget as they truly believed in the idea.
We popped down to a coaching session in the summer school holidays with a few bits of kit and our ENV ball (a little mirror ball to capture the environment) and spent the afternoon filming. We even found a couple of little film stars to play the main roles.
The magic of this idea lies in its simplicity and a fine-tuned edit and treatment to maintain the illusion.
In a nutshell:
⚡️ A proactive idea
⚡️ 30,000 YouTube views
⚡️ £0 paid media budget
Momentum continued to build organically over the following months, thanks to a well-produced film optimised for social media and a smart tagging strategy. The video gained traction, not just within their network but globally.
A decade later, does the magic still hit the mark? Did you do a double take?
