FOX presents USMNT marketing campaign for the World Cup
FOX Sports has provided an interesting behind-the-scenes look at its USMNT World Cup marketing campaign. Filming took place in Austin, Texas in June. The preview gave the crew the opportunity to take photos and videos of the United States Men’s National Team together.
Many team members play in different countries around the world. In fact, only eight of the 25 players recently called up to the USMNT are plying their trade in Major League Soccer.
The opportunity in Austin came at a time when the team was together. In fact, that followed a 5-0 Nations League win over Grenada on June 10.
Although FOX Sports was lucky enough to get the entire crew together, the extensive filming still took three days. Rod Chiabai, senior vice president of off-air marketing at FOX Sports, explained how rigorous the event had to be.
FOX presents USMNT marketing campaign for Qatar 2022
“It’s an immense amount of planning,” Chiabai said. “You have to cover your bases and capture everything you might need, and sometimes you don’t know what you’ll need until the fact.”
“So you want these guys to be in all positions and poses, looking at the camera or looking away from the camera. You don’t want to be two weeks later and say ‘oh, I wish I had that picture.’
Mark Ruberg, Producer for FOX Sports Marketing, explained the purpose of these campaigns.
“As a huge football fan and someone whose family revolves around him, we want to see the sport grow and this is kind of our chance to bring the stories of these players to the country, to connect with them and maybe a kid there will see Weston McKennie or Gio Reyna and hear their story and say, ‘I want to be like him one day. I want to be on the national team. That’s my dream too. And that’s why we do it,” Ruberg said.
Ruberg has been working on these marketing campaigns with the USMNT for years now. He was previously in charge of filming the team’s 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup race video. In a similar behind-the-camera look, the producer said his goal was to get people to stop switching channels and focus on the work he helped create.
