Women's Professional Soccer Launches 2010 Ad Campaign

SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Call it the attack of the 50-foot Women's Professional Soccer player. WPS seeks to create a stir for the league's second Kick-Off Week in April with building-side projections featuring star players Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom), Natasha Kai (Sky Blue FC) and Megan Rapinoe (Chicago Red Stars). The large format projections will be seen in Washington D.C., New Jersey and Chicago for three nights leading up to their home openers on April 10, April 11 and April 17, respectively.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100406/SF81721)

The campaign, created by Pereira & O'Dell, includes TV, social media, out of home, online advertising and media planning that engages fans to "Defend Your Turf" – the tagline that will be used within the league's larger "See Extraordinary" brand message throughout the 2010 WPS Season. Following its WPS Kick-Off Week 2010 debut, the campaign will then continue to drive awareness and excitement for the 2010 WPS All-Star Game presented by the U.S. Coast Guard and the WPS Championship, the league's two national events during the season.

"Projections have come a long way with high definition images that are brighter and to scale," said PJ Pereira, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder at Pereira & O'Dell. "The gigantic projections will seem as if the players' warm-up exercises are actually shaking the foundation of the building. And that is what we're looking to do. Shake things up."

The imagery encourages fans to "Defend Your Turf" by texting messages of team support to a number that will transpose those text messages right onto the projections themselves. An auto-reply text will send the fans special ticket offers for their home team.

Additionally, a 30-second TV spot will begin airing on Fox Soccer Channel on April 11 during the first "WPS Sunday on FSC" broadcast.  The highly-charged spot showcases the emotion, determination and world class play of players throughout the league.

"Our 2010 campaign includes more guerilla marketing and grassroots promotions with new media elements to energize hardcore fans and build buzz for the league on a broader scale," said Rachel Epstein, Director of Marketing, Women's Professional Soccer. "These initiatives will not only command attention, but craft team loyalty at both niche and mainstream levels."

Entering its second season of play, WPS has quickly become the world's best soccer league for women with eight teams across the U.S. and 19 countries represented by stars from around the globe. Since launching, the league has been at the forefront of the social media trend with nearly 250,000 Twitter followers, a dedicated Facebook following and other new media integration such as player tweets from the sidelines and the popular WPS Fan Corner – a fan resource section for forums, blogs and chats. The league has also launched its WPS Fantasy Challenge in 2010.

About Women's Professional Soccer (WPS)

Headquartered in San Francisco, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) is the world's premier soccer league for women with eight teams across the United States featuring the best players from around the world. WPS completed its inaugural season in August 2009 as Sky Blue FC of New Jersey became the first-ever WPS Champions. In 2010, eight teams will each play 24-game schedules from April 10-September 12 including six original WPS teams – Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Gold Pride (Bay Area), Saint Louis Athletica, Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY) and Washington Freedom – and two expansion teams Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence. The top four finishers in the regular season will qualify for the 2010 WPS Playoffs scheduled for September 19-26. For more information, visit the WPS official website at www.womensprosoccer.com or follow all the news at www.twitter.com/womensprosoccer.

About Pereira & O'Dell

San Francisco-based Pereira & O'Dell is an advertising agency heavily influenced by the digital culture and focused on creating cross-disciplinary campaigns for progressive marketers. Since Pereira & O'Dell launched in March 2008, the agency has amassed a diverse client roster including Corona, Muscle Milk, popchips, University of Phoenix and LEGO, for whom they won two Gold pencils at the 2009 One Show Awards. Pereira & O'Dell, was named Advertising Age's 2009 Small Agency of the Year, Western Region, based on the company's business performance, impact on clients' businesses as well as industry leadership and innovation. For more information visit the website at: http://www.pereiraodell.com

SOURCE Pereira & O'Dell