O2 Launches England Rugby Viral Ad

Mobile brand O2 is leveraging its sponsorship of the England rugby union team
ahead of the upcoming Rugby World Cup with a new viral online ad building on its
overall ‘Never Surrender’ campaign.

The viral, created by marketing agency archibald ingall stretton, is the
first commercial game to use a webcam and challenges the public to a stare-out
competition with three of England’s top stars.

The state-of-the-art viral execution features Josh Lewsey, Mike Tindall and
Tom Rees with  recipients of the viral invited to take each player on in a
stare-out competition, via their webcams.

The contest requires participants to line up their eyes with their computers’
web cams, which then monitor the eyes for any sign of blinking. 

During the clash the contestants are confronted by the player of their
choice, face-on, with the star straining to avoid blinking and occasionally
trying to put the competitor off with a little gamesmanship.  Recipients without
webcams can also play an adapted version of the game.

The viral will be seeded on rugby sites as well as general viral sites while
a microsite at www.02stareout.com will
also host the game.