Ooredoo Qatar COO Waleed al-Sayed (left) and PSG deputy CEO Frederic Longuepee (centre) at the PSG campaign launch event.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
In what is yet another innovative initiative from Ooredoo, the telecommunications giant yesterday announced the launch of a new global communication campaign with Paris Saint-Germain, one of the top football clubs in the world.
Ooredoo said through its new programme ‘Fans Do Wonders’, which will be the largest ever international advertising campaign by a partner of PSG, the objective is to capitalise on the appeal of football and inspire younger generations.
In this campaign, the five most famous players of Paris Saint-Germain — Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Blaise Matuidi and Lucas Moura — will connect with young fans around the world from the team’s Parc des Princes stadium, using mobile high-speed networks and power of the Internet.
Fans can participate in this interactive campaign by visiting the website www.fansdowonders.com, where they can send messages directly to players through the site or via Twitter with the hashtag #fansdowonders.
Fans who send messages will get a chance to win a trip to Paris to watch one of PSG’s matches and a practice session with the players. As a bonus, the best messages will also be displayed for several matches on the panels of the stadium. A 360-degree campaign, coupled with a strong presence on social media and networks will be deployed to publicise the initiative to a global audience.
At the launch, Dr Nasser Marafih, Group CEO of Ooredoo, said: “This campaign is one of our most important global initiatives to date, as we reach out to young fans around the world. Paris Saint-Germain are one of the top teams at the moment and working with them offers Ooredoo the opportunity to share our message to enrich people’s lives through technology. We are working to support our customer’s digital lifestyles across out footprint, and this campaign is an excellent platform to showcase our bigger, faster networks.”
Nasser al-Khelaifi, the President of Paris Saint-Germain, which is wholly owned by Qatar Sports Investments, could not make it to the launch due to a prior commitment. However, he extended his gratitude to Ooredoo through a message.
“The ambition and quality of this campaign perfectly illustrate the goals shared by Paris Saint-Germain and Ooredoo and we expect it will be very well received by our fans and Ooredoo’s customers around the world. On the eve of a very important game for us, this campaign expresses the talent of our players and the enthusiasm of our fans and the closeness that exists between the two which we are very proud of. This campaign is proof of a strong commitment of our partnership with Ooredoo for almost two years,” al-Khelaifi said.
Frederic Longuepee, the deputy CEO of PSG, was present on the occasion, and said its relationship with Ooredoo is a very strong and successful collaboration and this will continue in the coming years.
“Ooredoo is key partner that helps us in promoting the PSG brand around the world, especially in key markets such as middle east, north Africa and Indonesia. It also helps, thanks to PSG academies, to reach out to new markets such as Myanmar and Kuwait. This campaign completely illustrates the strong commitment between the two brands. And we will deliver great success to our fans and Ooredoo customers around the world,” Longuepee said.
He also indicated that PSG, which trains in Doha during the winter break will soon come to Doha to play some matches. “We have been coming to Doha for three-four years now during winter. The last time we came to Doha was in 2013, we were in Morocco in 2014 and we will look forward to coming to Qatar very soon.”
PSG play tonight’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Barcelona and Longuepee said the team was buoyant after strong domestic performances last week having beaten bitter Ligue 1 rivals Olympique de Marseille 3-2, thrashed St Etienne 4-1 in the French Cup semi-finals, and won the League Cup final 4-0 against Bastia on Saturday. “PSG is the only European club still competing in four tournaments,” he said.
Ooredoo began this collaboration with PSG in September 2013. The two organisations have collaborated on the project “Paris Saint-Germain Academy brought to you by Ooredoo” which organises football camps for youngsters in Qatar, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait and will soon be in Algeria.