In our Content Production and Distribution role for Welsh Government, Orchard managed the global marketing campaign around Wales’ first appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 64 years.

We brought in Welsh A-listers to show their support for the team, sent over 1,000 fan packs around the world, created a huge bucket hat that became a gluepot for the world’s media, and showcased what modern Wales is all about to a watching audience of five billion people.

We needed to create an integrated, multi-channel communications campaign to use Cymru’s appearance at the FIFA World Cup to raise awareness of the country, our Nation brand and our values to a huge global audience – particularly those territories relevant to tourism and business, such as the USA, Germany, France and Spain.

We were tasked with introducing Wales to a whole new audience; challenging perceptions of Cymru, engaging our global diaspora, and inspiring our people. We wanted to showcase Wales as an open, progressive nation and a top business and tourism destination, whilst also creating a lasting legacy.

Solution:

We created Content including a range of hero films and quirky music videos. We created a programme for S4C on the ‘Wales and the World’ gala event in Times Square, New York, featuring A-Listers Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney; and filmed a variety of associated content featuring the likes of FAW Chief Executive, Noel Mooney.

Our Communications team led an international PR campaign, specifically in the UK, USA, France, Spain, India, China, Canada and of course Qatar, and we let Wales know all about a campaign that used real people from our communities to tell their story. We welcomed foodie influencers from the USA to Wales to show them a good time. We helped promote the G?yl Cymru cultural programme, worked with National Geographic to drive awareness and consideration for travel, ?and set up and ran a legacy Visit Wales Expedia Media Partnership.

Our Activations team put a distinctive Welsh event dome on the Observation Point of London’s South Bank, and an oversized Cymru bucket hat in Qatar. We produced the star-studded Times Square event; and to really engage fans across the world we created and sent over 1,000 gift packs containing branded shirts, bucket hats, scarves and more to VIPs screaming ‘C’mon Cymru’ at their tellies.

We used our Creative skills throughout the campaign on a range of collateral material for numerous applications, including gift packs.

Result:

+90M Impressions achieved- 175% above forecast

+17.9BN Opportunities to see media coverage during the course of the tournament, including coverage of Laura McAllister's Rainbow Bucket Hat incident

+1,080% increase in combined Digital channel & market final figures versus initial forecast (677,999 overall clicks). 

+2% increase in Wales’ global share of voice (among UK nations) since the last Halo Report (pre-campaign). ?

+66 interviews managed with global media outlets such as Reuters, Al Jazeera, France24, AFP and BBC World?.

+4.2 million impressions, 5.5K engagements and 8.4K clicks through to the promoted content via The National Geographic campaign.