The first Stadium Astro campaign debuted last year on the back of Astro's exclusive partnership with the World Cup. Using 3D graphics, the TVC depicted a giant spaceship descending over a football field with the proposition, 'the best seat in the house'.
According to Y&R regional CD for Astro, Veeno Chornalingam, feedback for the campaign was "overwhelming" and garnered a 97 per cent recall rate in the first two weeks. This year, the challenge was "to up last year's campaign and make it even better," she said. "We needed to portray Stadium Astro as a portal to a universe of all sports, not just football."
Drawing upon the same proposition and use of 3D graphics, the agency created different 'Sports Sapiens' titans dropping out of a spaceship that transformed into omnipotent sports players such as an F1 driver, an EPL player and a tennis pro. The Sports Sapiens were featured in TVCs, outdoor and print advertising.
Upcoming spin-offs of the creative strategy will focus on individual Sports Sapiens. The TVCs were again filmed by local director Al Issac of Superwonderful Films.
"We're very proud of this campaign," said Chornalingam. "Everyone thinks we did this overseas, but all the talent was local."
In Malaysia, sports broadcasting is hotly contested between Astro, Celcom and Maxis. Stadium Astro offers three major channels: Astro SuperSport, ESPN and Star Sports.
Meanwhile, Astro recently inked a RM 579 million (US$13.5 million) deal with Sun TV in India to launch a subscription-based, satellite TV service and is negotiating for a similar deal in Indonesia.
