LET’S MAKE IT ICONIC
Briefed to show how fans and players come together to create the biggest show on earth, we found that the World Cup is brimming with legendary moments and players, but fans bring the emotion, joy and celebration to make it truly iconic. ‘Let's make it iconic’ was a rallying cry to both and would support the BBC’s entire World Cup campaign, design, broadcast and editorial output.
THE FILM
Working with BAFTA-winning director Nicos Livesey and acclaimed illustrator Dan Evans; we combined a live action shoot where football 'fanvases' like scarves, drums, nails, pin badges and flags came alive with 2D and stop motion animated footballers past and present. This film served as the BBC’s promo ahead of the tournament and the prestigious titles before each live match.
MAKING OF
The film is a love letter to human craft and the handmade fan culture of the beautiful game. The ‘making of’ outlines how we animated 160 Iniesta and Bergkamp stickers, 78 individually stitched frames of Maradona and Erling Haaland scarf animation, 50 Messi and Kane flags, 33 hand-painted Mbappe nails, 21 McTominay pin badges, 7 World Cup balls from different eras - and 1 Lamine Yamal bobblehead - to get our players feet dancing.
PRINT & OOH
We wrote and created reactive OOH that played on insights like Scotland’s long awaited return to the finals, England’s middle of the night kick offs, the emergence of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane infamously losing his voice and the prospect of Lionel Messi’s last tournament.
ACROSS THE BBC
Working with the brilliant in-house design team we helped shape a design system that focused on how fans look up to footballers as modern day icons and celestial beings. Players were adorned with crowns, halos and starburst shapes that were layered with scanner textures and ink bleeds inspired by fanmade football fanzines. This visual identity was ubiquitous throughout the tournament woven across iPlayer, editorial content, broadcast graphics and out-of-home executions.
SPECIAL GUEST
Our Yamal bobble head even made a couple of guest appearances during Spain’s World Cup games, showing how the campaign got into every nook and cranny of the BBC’s coverage. A lucky mascot that helped win them the tournament… probably.
