Interview with ESPN's Seth Ader on World Cup campaign with U2 (Part 1 of 2)

Image courtesy ESPN

Seth Ader, the Senior Director of Sports Marketing at ESPN, spoke with me at length about the making of ESPN’s campaign for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. He is passionate about getting the importance of the World Cup across to American and international audiences and worked with U2 to create the message. Since 2005, Ader has been responsible for all ESPN soccer properties including European Championship, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Major League Soccer and USA Soccer, and also Major League Baseball, "This is Sports Center," and others. Prior to 2005, he was the director of marketing for the NBA and NFL, managed ESPN the Magazine, and launched ESPN Desportes and ESPN HD networks.

Ader oversees ESPN’s World Cup promotions and production from concept to design, to creation, to presentation worldwide. His attention to detail within the big picture is amazing, his conviction in the importance of this work is strong. After successfully working with Bono and U2 for 2006 World Cup Germany, Ader approached them again and they agreed to partner in the 2010 message. U2 believe in the World Cup as much as ESPN believes in their music.

Ader made the powerful World Cup spots with Wieden and Kennedy, NY. Two of the promotional pieces have already been released – "Robben Island" and "United," and three more are scheduled for release in the coming weeks. One is called “The Power of 10,” another is called “Passion” and the third is called “Glory.” The Director of Photography is cinematographer Lance Acord, who is the DP of award-winning films, including Lost in Translation and Where the Wild Things Are.

“We wanted to have someone with a vision like his capture these scenes from all over the world for this campaign,” said Ader of Acord.

One of the cornerstones of ESPN’s U.S. campaign is a philosophy of “respectful education,” which is simultaneously directed at two separate demographic groups. One group is the casual American sports fan without much background in soccer and the other is the hardcore fan with a wealth of knowledge who still can learn about the importance of the game itself and the World Cup.

I spoke with Seth for a long time about the actual creation of the media spots. His passionate attention to detail at all levels without losing sight of bigger objectives is fascinating and shines in these productions, both released and yet to come. There were so many questions and so many details. What was it like to make the key conceptual decisions? How did he accomplish the voice, the images, and music to create the message? What was U2’s involvement in the campaign? What are the stories behind the television spots? How is ESPN is covering the US Men’s National Team and other national teams? Where does ESPN plan to go with soccer after the World Cup?

In this two-part interview excerpted from our conversation, we talk about how he translates the power and beauty of the World Cup through the power of film into spots that will be watched by hundreds of millions around the world, daily, from early spring till the final on July 11, 2010.

LE: How did you begin to develop ESPN's World Cup campaign?

Ader: We did a lot of research over the last 18 months or so to really try to understand who is the opportunity for consumption of the World Cup for us in this country. There is the obvious group, who are just soccer fans, but then there’s the general sports fan who kind of comes in and out of sports events based on the drama and the bigness associated with them. We felt like the World Cup stacked up to all the other great big events that we air and that other networks air because of the inherent drama and the high stakes and the fact that you’ve got countries of a billion people and three hundred million people carrying the hopes and dreams of their team’s success with them for a 30-day tournament. It’s an event that’s the biggest in the world by far. There are many people in this country who don’t know that. They think the Super Bowl is. I say, ‘What’s the biggest event in the world?’ and they say, ‘The Super Bowl.’ It is not, it’s the World Cup.

So, what we wanted to do is communicate to general sports fans in this country that the World Cup is the greatest event in sports - that it has inherent drama that other events just don’t have. At the same time, we have this core soccer audience who believes in the event and believes in the sport. What we wanted to do with them is let them know that we respect their passion and their knowledge for the World Cup and our job is just to enhance the experience and maybe just tell them something that they didn’t already know. And that’s where the concept of respectful education comes in.  

Image courtesy ESPN

LE: Will the U.S. spots be shown internationally as well?

Ader: ESPN has the rights to the World Cup in Brazil and India and in parts of the Middle East in addition to the U.S. and yes, they will air internationally [and in translation].

LE: In those other countries, will there also be different spots than those shown here? Does U2 work with those spots as well?

Ader: They have additional spots, yes, and we highlight their local talent, as of course, we will here. U2 will be in some of those territories, yes.

LE: How did you decide to make the video at the prison on Robben Island?

Ader: The Robben Island one had an interesting background. In doing the research with real soccer fans, people who were already excited for the World Cup a year and a half ago, we wanted to get into the role of the host country South Africa in the context of promotion. Is it important? Is it not important? We had a lot of really healthy debates about that fact. I was of the opinion that it was very important, but we didn’t quite know how to handle that. We had to really find the perfect pitch for inclusion of South Africa and the people of South Africa and apartheid and things like that. As we started to talk to people they told us that we are ESPN and that if we’re going to tell the story of South Africa and its history and apartheid it has to be done through the prism of soccer. We’re not the History Channel and we’re not National Geographic and we’re not CNN. They don’t turn on ESPN because they want a history lesson, they turn on ESPN because they want stories told through the lens of sport.

So, we discovered this Makana football club that was developed by the prisoners on Robben Island and decided to tell that story as our way of positioning the host country and what soccer means to them in the context of the World Cup.

LE: The dark colors and the pacing of that video were incredibly powerful, it starts so slowly and cuts off so quickly, like a blink. You feel like you missed something and want to see it again. How did you achieve all that and how did you get the colors?

Ader: We woke up at 4 AM in Cape Town and we hired a private ferry to ferry our cast and crew over to the island. We got set up before sunrise. A lot of the color came from the sun rising and the Cape Town Bay going from complete darkness to light. It was very hot and we shot all day. We set up our cameras on a dirt field where we could see the players playing. The original goals that were used by the prisoners were still up and in fact, when we arrived one of the goals had broken so we had to fix that right away. Some incredible things happened throughout the day as well. The ocean, the bay that surrounds the island got very bad, very rocky throughout the day. It was a picture-perfect 85 degree sunny day, blue skies, but the ocean was very rocky and very dangerous and we were told we wouldn’t be allowed to board a ferry to go home if we stayed because the ocean water was deteriorating throughout the day. So, our choices were to leave the island at once, to stay and risk having to stay overnight in the prison, or to find a way to try to get out by helicopter. In the end we found helicopters to take us back to the mainland at the end of the day. I wrote a little blog about it.

[Seth was kind enough to share his blog with me and below are some excerpts.]

. . . By an incredible coincidence we were on our way to shoot Robben Island 20 years to the day that Nelson Mandela was released. We couldn't have scripted it better if we tried . . .

. . .Soon thereafter Nick informs us that "ocean conditions have deteriorated" to a level they had not seen in years. Five foot swells were gaining strength in the waters around Robben Island and Cape Town. The captain would allow no more ferries to come or go for fear of the safety of the passengers. There would be no tourists on Robben Island today. Just us. All "non-essential" personnel were forced to leave the island at once. Only the bare minimum crew remained. Nick reminded me of his bad dream from last night, and cited an old Russian superstition about bad dreams on Wednesday nights being clairvoyant. I guess so . . .

. . . We then learned that today was Parliament day in Cape Town, triggering an automatic shut down of all air space until 6 pm. Rules of the harbor prohibit helicopters from operating past sunset (7:30 pm), so we were facing a 90 minute window in which to get the whole cast and crew into choppers and off the island. We would immediately begin the process of obtaining all the necessary permits.

. . .The EMT on the set, a former South African special forces operative who has served with General Petraeus in Iraq, told us to expect large helicopters that could hold 12-15 people at a time. If we could get 2 of those we could get most of the group back to Cape Town while some would have to stay overnight. We had images of the last helicopter lifting off the island in a fit of dust just as the sun set while Casey held onto the landing bar with one hand, Schwarzenegger style. . . - Seth Ader

LE: How many people did you bring to Robben Island for the filming and who are the people playing soccer?

Ader: About 100, maybe 120, and those were extras and actors that were found in Cape Town that we cast.

LE: How did Bono and U2 incorporate their music into the World Cup campaign?

Ader: We approached the band back in the fall of 2009. We had a very successful run with them in 2006 and we used a bunch of their music both in promotion and production of the World Cup. We just believe in their message, not only their music, but their message. It just feels like the most global and far-reaching sound and voice for any global event, so we went to them again, said we’d like to do another deal. The wrinkle that I proposed was that we would add in the Soweto Gospel Choir into the U2 music so that it gave the music more of an African flavor. The band believed in that as well, and in promotion you’ll hear the Soweto Gospel Choir in the Robben Island spot, but that’s it for promotion. The rest of the Gospel Choir elements will happen during production, so there are a series of production elements that you’ll start to see once the games begin in June where the band is mixed with the choir.

LE: Was that mixed in a studio or did they actually work together?

Ader: Studio.

LE: Did U2 have editorial input into the content?

Ader: Yes, of course. Visually, there weren’t many changes. They believed in these stories and of course they had seen the scripts before we went out and shot, so we were pretty good there and they were very agreeable and trusting of us to capture the World Cup in these spots. Their main feedback had to do with their music, which of course they’re entitled to and have huge stakes in. It was a combination of their music and Bono’s voice and the mixing of the choir in with their music. But they have been nothing but the utmost professionals and great to work with.

LE: How many times will these spots be aired?

Ader: We don’t have that level of specificity, but it’s safe to say they’re going to air every day, multiple times a day in every day part on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN U, ESPN Classic, ABC Sports – all of the ESPN/ABC Disney-owned media networks.

LE: What will the pacing be for releasing the other spots?

Ader: We’ll have the next one released [this] week, we’ll have the fourth one released the week after that, and the spot I mentioned called Glory is specifically about the U.S.-England game on Saturday, June 12. That one will start the first week of June and run for a week leading up to that June 12 date. That spot does not involve U2 music.

End of Part I

Click here to read Part II of this interview with ESPN's Seth Ader on creating the World Cup campaign with U2.