The missing letter H

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When ticket sales for Australia’s upcoming football match with Ghana were lower than expected, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) took the rather unusual step of promoting the opposition instead of the home side.

The target for the campaign was not die-hard football fans, but those who liked to watch the ‘big ticket’ events. Believing low ticket sales to be the result of an apathetic attitude to Ghana, the FFA looked for unconventional and amusing ways of educating and exciting Australians about the African country.

It formed a fake Ghanaian supporters group. Each member of the group had a letter of their beloved national side spelt out on their chests – the joke being that, as there were only four Ghanaians in Australia, they had no letter H. The group went out to public places and interacted with people to try and convince them to come and be the letter H at the game. 

Starting as a piece of ambient media, interest snowballed and saw the campaign channeled into other forms of media, such as blogs and live television. For only $15,000, the AFF generated $250,000 of media value. In real terms, this translated into a 50% increase in ticket sales.

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