Tag Heuer offers J.League tickets via Instagram free kick competition

As a sponsor of the Japan Professional Football League, Tag Heuer is using Instagram to offer match tickets to fans via an interactive manga-themed game.

The premise of ‘Pressure Free Kick’ is simple: players use the slider sticker to take a free kick. Scoring depends on calculating the right amount of force and taking into account factors such as distance, wind speed and direction. If they score, they win tickets to a match. The promotion lasts five days, with participants eligible for one free kick per day.

The idea was developed by UltraSuperNew (USN), a Tokyo-based independent agency that also has an office in Singapore. Why manga? USN says in the 1980s, manga was responsible for popularising football nationwide.

“Epic storylines, tales of underdogs that beat the odds, and out-of-this-world goals, are forever ingrained in the way the Japanese enjoy playing and watching soccer,” the agency said in a statement.

Baseball remains Japan’s most popular sport, but football, which has 18 professional clubs across the country, continues to gain followers.

Tag Heuer’s Instagram promotion follows one last week for Renault by Publicis Italy that also featured a manga aesthetic. To pre-order one of 100 limited edition Tokyo-themed SUVs, participants were invited to interact with a character in a piece of content on Instagram Stories via Facebook Messenger. Publicis said it marked the first time for Renault to sell a vehicle through the messaging platform.