The One Show
The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.
Category
Craft / Writing
Annual ID
OS23_OH008G
About the Work
To drive awareness and conversation around Emmy award-winning comedy series Ted Lasso and the TV+ streaming service, TBWA\Media Arts Lab launched a campaign to support the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team as they head to the biggest soccer tournament in the world.
27 personalized, handwritten letters were made for every player on the USMNT, including their head coach. Written in partnership with the show’s writers, each message was chock full of the classic Ted Lasso wit and charm fans know and love. These letters were blown up jumbo-sized and placed on full display in each player’s hometown—on billboards, high schools, and even on side of a 200 year old barn. Even though Ted’s letters went up in out-of-home, his words of encouragement were designed to be read on social platforms, like Twitter and TikTok.
With the official roster announcement, Ted’s messages began appearing all across America. Immediately, the internet began sharing them on social, hunting them down and posting new boards as they were discovered. The team seeded the story to press outlets in each local market with a USMNT player. Local news covered their player’s story, then national news picked up the entire campaign as social conversation continued throughout. Finally, the campaign ended with posts from the @TedLasso and @TheCoachBeard twitter sharing every single message along with a video with talent in character offering one last good luck before the matches start.
The campaign had over 2.2B PR impressions and $20M in earned media. Covered in over 700 articles, Ted’s messages were the most written about tournament activation and the most engaging campaign for US soccer. Ultimately, the real win was Ted Lasso helping the USMNT make it past the group stages proving anything is possible if you just believe.
27 personalized, handwritten letters were made for every player on the USMNT, including their head coach. Written in partnership with the show’s writers, each message was chock full of the classic Ted Lasso wit and charm fans know and love. These letters were blown up jumbo-sized and placed on full display in each player’s hometown—on billboards, high schools, and even on side of a 200 year old barn. Even though Ted’s letters went up in out-of-home, his words of encouragement were designed to be read on social platforms, like Twitter and TikTok.
With the official roster announcement, Ted’s messages began appearing all across America. Immediately, the internet began sharing them on social, hunting them down and posting new boards as they were discovered. The team seeded the story to press outlets in each local market with a USMNT player. Local news covered their player’s story, then national news picked up the entire campaign as social conversation continued throughout. Finally, the campaign ended with posts from the @TedLasso and @TheCoachBeard twitter sharing every single message along with a video with talent in character offering one last good luck before the matches start.
The campaign had over 2.2B PR impressions and $20M in earned media. Covered in over 700 articles, Ted’s messages were the most written about tournament activation and the most engaging campaign for US soccer. Ultimately, the real win was Ted Lasso helping the USMNT make it past the group stages proving anything is possible if you just believe.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 45
Gold Pencil
Credits
Agency
TBWA\Media Arts Lab / Los Angeles
Client / Brand
Apple / Cupertino
Media Distribution Company
OMD
Chief Creative Officer
Brent Anderson
Creative Director
Colin Snow
Rhodney Viray
Executive Creative Director
JD Jurentkuff
Executive Producer
Karen Jean
Account Director
Eneida Elenes
Associate Creative Director
Jon Klein
Luis Aguilera
Senior Art Director
Brian Kim
Senior Copywriter
Daniel Litzow
Chief Communications Officer
Marianne Stefanowicz
Management supervisor
Cameron Brown
Related Awards
