FCB New York and Michelob Ultra have capped a week of wins for McEnroe vs McEnroe with a Sports Emmy.
The campaign led the awards at The One Show with 10 Gold Pencils, the most of any work entered this year – three in Branded Entertainment, two each in Creative Use of Data and Interactive, Online & Mobile, and one each in Experiential & Immersive, Integrated, and Out of Home. It also won best of Discipline in Experiential Design at the ADC Awards.
Across the year, it has won Ad Age’s Tech Innovation of the Year, five Cannes Lions, 15 Clios, 13 ADC awards and 24 awards at The One Show.
McEnroe vs McEnroe, which launched as a prime-time special, won the 2023 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Digital Innovation by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The campaign used a combination of AI, Unreal Engine MetaHuman technology, body tracking, and a pair of perfectly synchronised robotic arms, to become the first tennis match in history in which a legend of the sport was able to take on younger versions of himself in real time. The final result was so impressive that ESPN decided to air it, free of charge to the brand, as an hour-long special in prime time across 52 countries. With over 10 million views, McEnroe vs McEnroe also became one of the most-watched sports events of the year, besting the 2021 NBA Finals.
To date, McEnroe vs McEnroe has earned more than 120 media placements, with Sports Illustrated saying it “could be the future of sports” and Yahoo! praising it for “reinventing sports entertainment.” Since the launch of the program, organic searches for “Michelob ULTRA” have grown by 95%.
FCB New York and Michelob ULTRA and FCB New York have pushed other boundaries of technology in novel ways to enhance the enjoyment of sports. In 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions made it impossible for fans to attend games in person, they launched Courtside, a platform that allowed fans to attend virtually, which included seeing their faces in the stands and chatting with people in their “section”, by scanning a Michelob ULTRA bottle.
“An idea as ambitious as McEnroe vs McEnroe can only happen when you have that perfect storm of relentless creatives, visionary clients and dedicated partners — all with a Never Finished spirit and a shared belief in the power of creativity as an economic multiplier,” stated Michael Aimette, chief creative officer of FCB New York.
“We simply can’t thank our clients at Michelob ULTRA enough for locking arms with us to bring this idea to life, and for always proving that ‘it’s only worth it if you enjoy it,’” added Emma Armstrong, FCB New York chief executive officer.
FCB New York is currently the #1 agency in the world according to the recently released One Club Global Rankings, as well as the #1 Creative Agency for Effectiveness as named in the WARC Effective 100 list. It was awarded Agency of the Year by the Clios, as well as Campaign’s Experiential and B2B Agency of the Year, and was named to the Contagious Pioneers list of best and bravest agencies in the world.
