To coincide with this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, Yahoo! launched its #Special 1’s competition with footballers from around the world encouraged to upload 10s videos showcasing their best football tricks and skills to the competition Tumblr page. The creators of the 10 best videos, as chosen by Yahoo!’s Global Football Ambassador Jose Mourinho, would win the ultimate footballing prize; an all expenses paid trip to London and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a training session with ’the Special One’ himself.
The team at Pitch were tasked with not only the promotion of this unbelievable prize, but also turning it into a reality – which meant bringing together all that comes with promoting and organising a global competition.
Everything from flying people in, curating content, driving conversation to ensuring winners from all over the world had an amazing time at the training session in London. After two months and thousands of entries, the 10 lucky winners from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France and the UK arrived in London on 4th September for their much deserved prize, with Pitch staff on hand to chaperone them to their hotel and greet them with welcome packs containing everything they would need for their stay, including travelcards, guide books, portable phone chargers and much more!
Skills, thrills and London Eye capsules
Having settled in, the winners and their guests were treated to a special welcome event by Yahoo, enjoying their own private capsule on the London Eye before an early night in preparation for the Special 1’s training session the next day.
On the morning of the training session while the winners and their guests were given a guided tour around Stamford Bridge stadium, Pitch staff took to turning the training venue into a Yahoo! pitch worthy of the Special 1s; the highlight for the winners easily being their personalised Yahoo Special 1’s football kit.
What question would you ask Jose Mourinho?
Before heading out on to the training pitch, the 10 Special 1’s winners were given the opportunity to meet the man himself and ask him any burning questions. What to ask the world’s most famous football manager? Questions for Mourinho covered everything from the secrets to his success as a coach to the topic of women in football and most importantly his thoughts on the winners’ videos!
After the team photos had been taken it was down to business. Drills, exercises, training tips that Mourinho uses with his Chelsea players on a day-to-day basis; it was all in there. There was also one last opportunity for the competition winners to showcase their prize winning skills and tricks in front of Mourinho and his coaching staff before heading back for some post-session interviews.
After weeks of planning and organisation, a tumblr Blog bulging with content, some very happy competition winners, a satisfied client and an intense as ever Jose Mourinho in the flesh. Not a bad day at the office…
